21215Baltimore, Maryland

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 21215.

54out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 28% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5169th of 6,210 published ZIP areas37
Schools3939th of 4,422 published ZIP areas21
Growth4819th of 5,428 published ZIP areas25
Housing affordability4441st of 6,685 published ZIP areas69
ClimateTop 44% of 6,789 published ZIP areas71
Physical resilienceTop 9% of 6,709 published ZIP areas91
AccessTop 25% of 6,791 published ZIP areas97
Economic stability6140th of 6,742 published ZIP areas31
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.5% and the Opportunity signal places 21215 in the bottom 17%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 885 units authorized over the past twelve months, 30% below the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 21215 in the top 9% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
52,229
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$51,587
Bottom 17% nationally
Density
7,667/sq mi
6.8 sq mi of land
Median age
41.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Baltimore
Maryland
Metro area
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
Nearest major airport
BWI
12 mi · Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall
Median home value
$201,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.5% is lower than 14% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 268,819 employed residents.

Median household income of $51,587 is below 83% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,355$51,587Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,142$33,520Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.4%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.6 minTop 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.0%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment268,819Top 18%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.8%Bottom 36%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 22%June 2026
Labor force284,483Top 18%June 2026
Labor force participation57.9%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$76,370Top 23%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,070Top 20%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.0%Bottom 47%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.5%Top 14%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202452k42k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $51,587 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 — Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers44,960$117,040
Retail Salespersons39,920$34,800
Registered Nurses30,930$99,550
Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive29,780$49,220
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand28,350$43,250
Home Health and Personal Care Aides26,880$37,640

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Baltimore, MD, the city containing this ZIP code.

6% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 8% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
5.7%
Bottom 17% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
7.6%
Bottom 4% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Cross Country Elementary/MiddleBaltimore City Public Schools74016.45%10%
Pimlico Elementary/Middle · charterBaltimore City Public Schools73217.45%8%
Fallstaff Elementary/MiddleBaltimore City Public Schools61114.26%6%
Frederick Douglass HighBaltimore City Public Schools53911.7
Arlington ElementaryBaltimore City Public Schools52916.55%5%
Park Heights AcademyBaltimore City Public Schools39013.96%6%
Dr. Nathan A. Pitts-Ashburton Elementary/MiddleBaltimore City Public Schools28714.38%8%
Milbrook ElementaryBaltimore County Public Schools26313.86%15%
Callaway ElementaryBaltimore City Public Schools23114.45%5%
Creative City Public Charter School · charterBaltimore City Public Schools21017.58%8%

78.6% 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 $1,172 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
27.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,172
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$201,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.90Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate54.8%Bottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±82725,215Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$66$1,172Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,205$201,200Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income27.3%Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.8%Top 41%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
25/ 100
Ranks 4819 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

60% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 1.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
885
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.5
Bottom 34% nationally
Year over year
−30%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
60.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Baltimore, MD, the city containing this ZIP code.

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 43.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 42, in the Good band, and about 6 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MD SCI CTR BALTIMORE, 5.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation43.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10062024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
67
90th percentile index
Days above 100
6
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

91 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane and earthquake.

EarthquakeModerate
HurricaneModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, winter weather, cold wave, strong wind, tornado, inland flooding, lightning, hail, ice storm, coastal flooding, landslide, wildfire, drought, avalanche.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Baltimore city records 23.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 23.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 86.0 per 100,000 residents in Baltimore city.

Homicide
23.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
23.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
86.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.8
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 Baltimore city 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 21215 rather than 21215 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 12 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI12 mi10,503 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD50 mi11,500 ft
Harrisburg IntlMDT59 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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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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

21215 vs Baltimore

How this ZIP area compares with Baltimore as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

21215
Baltimore
Median household income
$51,587
vs
$62,177
Per capita income
$33,520
vs
$40,604
Population density
7,667/sq mi
vs
7,082/sq mi
Median home value
$201,200
vs
$229,600
Median gross rent
$1,172
vs
$1,331
Homeownership rate
54.8%
vs
47.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher
26.0%
vs
36.1%
Poverty rate
21.4%
vs
19.7%
Median age
41.2
vs
36.2

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.