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Place dossier plate
SheetMD-TOWSON-MD · Towson, MD 57,683 pop · income 78th pct · 219 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Towson
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Towson on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Decatur · lowest
59,831
Decatur · lowest
59,831 median HH income
42.2% of the leader · rank #1
Cabana Colony · near
100,469
Cabana Colony · near
100,469 median HH income
70.8% of the leader · rank #2
Towson · this city
100,481
Towson · this city
100,481 median HH income
70.8% of the leader · rank #3
South Ilion · near
100,481
South Ilion · near
100,481 median HH income
70.8% of the leader · rank #4
Saratoga Spri… · near
100,485
Saratoga Spri… · near
100,485 median HH income
70.8% of the leader · rank #5
Symerton · near
100,500
Symerton · near
100,500 median HH income
70.9% of the leader · rank #6
Bowie · highest
141,831
Bowie · highest
141,831 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Towson on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 57,683.
Nationally, Towson sits in the 78th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
78th
percentile, household income
81st
percentile, home value
84th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Towson, MD
57,683 people live in Towson, Maryland - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Towson brings in $100,481 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.5%. Home values in Towson run a median of $445,100, and the median resident age is 33.2 years. About 68.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 10 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Maryland carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 105.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,657 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Maryland's average monthly utility costs around $255 (state average). Workers in Towson report an average commute of 20.4 minutes, with 64.9% driving alone and 20.8% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 60.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Towson's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households to within-city variation to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Towson, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Towson?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 64.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.4 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Towson?
Within Maryland, the closest population matches are Bel Air South (57,702 residents, $120,721 income); Bowie (57,771 residents, $141,831 income); Severn (58,041 residents, $130,627 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lancaster, PA (57,683 residents); Decatur, AL (57,760 residents); Casa Grande, AZ (57,590 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
The NCES join finds 10 public schools within the city match. 68.1% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 219 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Towson?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$100,481
Home value
$445,100
Value / income
4.4×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share A+
68.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$100,481
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
105.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Towson profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 96/100 (A+) · 68.1%
Household income: 77/100 (B+) · $100,481
Poverty rate: 69/100 (B-) · 4.5%
Cost of living: 21/100 (F) · 105.0 index
How does Towson compare to other US cities?
Here's how Towson stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income78% higher than other cities
Home value81% pricier than other cities
Median rent84% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Towson against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Maryland only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Maryland-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Towson near the bottom of Maryland's cities
Among the 479 Maryland cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Towson ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Towson only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#221 of 445
50th percentile in Maryland
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 479
0th percentile in Maryland
Median Home Value
#146 of 450
68th percentile in Maryland
Poverty Rate
#208 of 479
56th percentile in Maryland
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#37 of 479
92nd percentile in Maryland
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Maryland only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
78th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Towson's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$445,10019th percentilemore affordable than 19% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Towson's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,837 of 15,516
More affordable than 24% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#389 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.4×, Towson sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,837 of 15,516 and #389 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$100,481Towson, MD median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Towson, MD median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Towson, MD.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)68.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
57,683
Median Income
$100,481
Median Home Value
$445,100
Median Age
33.2
Poverty Rate
4.5%
Labor force participation
60.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
68.1%
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.4 minutes
Drive Alone
64.9%
Carpool
6.3%
Public Transit
2.0%
Walk
4.9%
Work from Home
20.8%
Other
1.1%
Based on 28,505 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Maryland statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $255
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Maryland at $255 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $55 ).
These are Maryland statewide averages, not a meter reading for Towson. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Maryland's BEA cost-of-living index is 105.0 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Towson is $1,657/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Maryland statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 60.2 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Maryland statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Towson sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Towson compares to similar-size Maryland cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.