Aspen Hill, Maryland

Area Profile

53,279 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Aspen Hill, in Montgomery County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
SchoolsTop 35% of 2,668 published cities63
Housing affordability2740th of 4,223 published cities71
ClimateTop 42% of 4,223 published cities72
Physical resilienceTop 17% of 4,182 published cities85
Access2589th of 4,226 published cities89
Economic stabilityTop 27% of 4,226 published cities71
The quick read

In the public schools here, 13% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.2 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 21% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 5.1 times that income.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Aspen Hill in the top 17% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
53,279
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$111,575
Top 13% nationally
Density
5,605/sq mi
9.5 sq mi of land
Median age
37.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Montgomery County
Maryland
Metro area
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Nearest major airport
IAD
23 mi · Washington Dulles Intl
Median home value
$570,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

43% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 84% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,608$111,575Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,145$46,464Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.7%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute37.4 minTop 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher43.3%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation71.9%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$91,930Top 6%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$71,060Top 8%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024112k97k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $111,575 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 — Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers112,530$156,460
Business Operations Specialists, All Other76,600$104,770
Software Developers69,060$154,930
Retail Salespersons66,920$36,610
Management Analysts62,360$126,830
Fast Food and Counter Workers60,560$34,600

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.

13% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 26% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
20
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
13.4%
Top 42% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
26.4%
Top 41% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Wheaton HighMontgomery County Public Schools2,79416.2
Parkland MiddleMontgomery County Public Schools1,18515.43%30%
Earle B. Wood MiddleMontgomery County Public Schools1,01913.88%42%
A. Mario Loiederman MiddleMontgomery County Public Schools97813.03%31%
Argyle MiddleMontgomery County Public Schools86813.43%24%
Sargent Shriver ElementaryMontgomery County Public Schools69712.28%9%
Weller Road ElementaryMontgomery County Public Schools69111.510%11%
Harmony Hills ElementaryMontgomery County Public Schools65510.99%9%
Lucy V. Barnsley ElementaryMontgomery County Public Schools62113.853%58%
Georgian Forest ElementaryMontgomery County Public Schools60012.89%14%
Bel Pre ElementaryMontgomery County Public Schools55812.4
Viers Mill ElementaryMontgomery County Public Schools55610.912%17%

57.6% 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 Maryland’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 $1,916 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.1 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
20.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,916
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$570,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.11Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.7%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±68717,795Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$94$1,916Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,977$570,000Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.6%Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.1%Bottom 24%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 30°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 41.8 inches, including 13.7 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station WASHINGTON REAGAN AP, 17.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall13.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index40.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
40
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

85 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, cold wave and lightning.

HurricaneModerate
LightningModerate
Cold waveModerate
DroughtModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, heat wave, strong wind, hail, inland flooding, earthquake, tornado, ice storm, wildfire, coastal flooding.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Montgomery County records 2.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 4.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 7.9 per 100,000 residents in Montgomery County.

Homicide
2.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
4.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
7.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Montgomery 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 Aspen Hill rather than Aspen Hill 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 23 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Washington Dulles IntlIAD23 mi11,500 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI23 mi10,503 ft
Harrisburg IntlMDT78 mi10,001 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.

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Other cities in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
WashingtonDistrict of Columbia681,29465vs Aspen Hill
ArlingtonArlington County236,254vs Aspen Hill
AlexandriaAlexandria city156,97661vs Aspen Hill
GermantownMontgomery County90,719vs Aspen Hill
FrederickFrederick County83,39570vs Aspen Hill
WaldorfCharles County82,943vs Aspen Hill
Silver SpringMontgomery County81,462vs Aspen Hill
CentrevilleFairfax County71,706vs Aspen Hill
Dale CityPrince William County71,016vs Aspen Hill
GaithersburgMontgomery County69,82568vs Aspen Hill
BethesdaMontgomery County69,397vs Aspen Hill
RockvilleMontgomery County67,67171vs Aspen Hill

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

ZIP codes in Aspen Hill

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2090670,595$97,521
2085331,851$159,080