Cumberland County, ME

County Profile

308,827 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cumberland County, ME.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

77out of 100
Area Score
Top 5% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 8% of 1,255 counties81
GrowthTop 4% of 1,226 counties80
Housing affordability1002nd of 1,255 counties76
Climate1109th of 1,254 counties56
Physical resilienceTop 4% of 1,255 counties94
Access1173rd of 1,255 counties45
Economic stabilityTop 20% of 1,255 counties82
The quick read

Cumberland County ranks in the top 8% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 2.3% and median household income of $95,677.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 2,402 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 55% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Cumberland County in the top 4% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
308,827
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$95,677
Top 7% nationally
Density
369/sq mi
836.2 sq mi of land
Median age
42.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cumberland County
Maine
Metro area
Portland-South Portland, ME
Nearest major airport
MHT
82 mi · Manchester Boston Rgnl
Median home value
$451,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.3% is lower than 99% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.1% over the past year, to 175,161 employed residents.

53% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 98% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 93% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,883$95,677Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,111$55,739Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.3%Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.8 minBottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher53.0%Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment175,161Top 16%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.8%Top 31%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 40%June 2026
Labor force179,255Top 16%June 2026
Labor force participation67.7%Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 39%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.3%Bottom 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.11.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 2.3% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202496k81k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $95,677 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Portland-South Portland, ME
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons8,510$37,320
Home Health and Personal Care Aides8,150$38,580
Fast Food and Counter Workers8,040$35,300
General and Operations Managers7,160$105,390
Registered Nurses6,970$88,470
Cashiers5,610$36,210

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

83% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 86% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.3 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
94
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
82.7%
Reading proficiency
86.3%
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Bonny Eagle High SchoolRSU 06/MSAD 061,02712.5
Windham High SchoolRSU 1493912.2
South Portland High SchoolSouth Portland Public Schools92811.6
Portland High SchoolPortland Public Schools91214.5
Scarborough High SchoolScarborough Public Schools90311.0
Falmouth Elementary SchoolFalmouth Public Schools87111.298%98%
Deering High SchoolPortland Public Schools85012.5
Gorham High SchoolGorham Public Schools81213.1
South Portland Middle SchoolSouth Portland Public Schools8079.3
Mabel I Wilson SchoolRSU 51/MSAD 5173012.487%87%
Windham Primary SchoolRSU 1472713.082%87%
Brunswick High SchoolBrunswick Public Schools72210.9

33.8% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Maine’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,589 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.7 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,589
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$451,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.72Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate69.8%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±137153,286Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$36$1,589Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,798$451,200Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.9%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.8%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
80/ 100
Top 4% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 3% since 2020, reaching 313,809 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

At 7.8 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
2,402
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
7.8
Top 14% nationally
Year over year
+55%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
59.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024314k304k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20222023202420252k1k
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−9%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 80°F and January a low of 16°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 48.1 inches, including 68.7 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 37, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PORTLAND INTL JETPORT, 11.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index57.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation48.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall68.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low16°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high80°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index37.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing46°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
37
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
57
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

94 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, ice storm and coastal flooding.

Ice stormHigh
HurricaneElevated
LightningModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Coastal floodingElevated
LandslideModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, strong wind, hail, inland flooding, cold wave, drought, wildfire, tornado, avalanche.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Cumberland County records 1.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 11.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.4 per 100,000 residents in Cumberland County.

Homicide
1.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
11.0
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
18.4
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
16.4
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Cumberland County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Cumberland County rather than Cumberland County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 82 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Manchester Boston RgnlMHT82 mi9,250 ft
Bangor IntlBGR101 mi11,440 ft
General Edward Lawrence Logan IntlBOS106 mi10,083 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
77
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.