Bel Air South, Maryland

Area Profile

58,137 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Bel Air South, in Harford 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 33% of 2,668 cities measured65
Housing affordabilityTop 15% of 4,223 cities measured97
ClimateTop 49% of 4,223 cities measured71
Physical resilienceTop 7% of 4,182 cities measured94
Access2873rd of 4,226 cities measured86
Economic stabilityTop 6% of 4,226 cities measured81
The quick read

In the public schools here, 15% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.2 students for every teacher.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 17% of median household income and the median home is 3.3 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Bel Air South in the top 7% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
58,137
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$123,653
Top 10% nationally
Density
2,733/sq mi
21.3 sq mi of land
Median age
38.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Harford County
Maryland
Metro area
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
Nearest major airport
BWI
30 mi · Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall
Median home value
$405,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

49% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 88% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 90% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$5,708$123,653Top 10%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,733$55,975Top 12%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate3.9%Bottom 19%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute32.8 minTop 23%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher49.4%Top 12%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation68.7%Top 22%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$76,370Top 27%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,070Top 25%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024124k106k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $123,653 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.

15% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 28% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
14.8%
Top 38% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
28.0%
Top 35% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
C. Milton Wright HighHarford County Public Schools1,29116.3
Harford Technical HighHarford County Public Schools95416.7
Old Post Road ElementaryHarford County Public Schools85012.96%11%
Patterson Mill High SchoolHarford County Public Schools83917.1
Patterson Mill Middle SchoolHarford County Public Schools71614.63%42%
Abingdon ElementaryHarford County Public Schools64113.620%25%
Prospect Mill ElementaryHarford County Public Schools57914.527%32%
William S. James ElementaryHarford County Public Schools46315.412%29%
Fountain Green ElementaryHarford County Public Schools44315.329%37%
Harford Academy at Campus HillsHarford County Public Schools1413.4

34.1% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 3% above the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,757 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
103.2

Prices here run about 3% above the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
17.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,757
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$405,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index103.2Top 39%of 3,6582023
Home price to income3.28Top 41%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate81.9%Top 38%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±68822,921Top 2%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$73$1,757Top 13%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,431$405,900Top 18%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.1%Bottom 39%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.5%Bottom 17%of 32,0012024 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 86°F and January a low of 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 47.1 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.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ABERDEEN PHILLIPS FLD, 7.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index64.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation47.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10062024 calendar year
Median air quality index42.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
42
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
64
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

94 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
DroughtModerate
LandslideModerate
AvalancheModerate

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

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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Harford County records 2.0 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 8.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 16.2 per 100,000 residents in Harford County.

Homicide
2.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
16.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
14.4
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 Harford 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 Bel Air South rather than Bel Air South 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 30 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI30 mi10,503 ft
Harrisburg IntlMDT53 mi10,001 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL62 mi12,000 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 Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BaltimoreBaltimore city573,24359vs Bel Air South
ColumbiaHoward County104,338vs Bel Air South
Ellicott CityHoward County75,257vs Bel Air South
Glen BurnieAnne Arundel County72,590vs Bel Air South
DundalkBaltimore County65,969vs Bel Air South
TowsonBaltimore County58,679vs Bel Air South
SevernAnne Arundel County58,402vs Bel Air South
OdentonAnne Arundel County45,002vs Bel Air South
CatonsvilleBaltimore County43,368vs Bel Air South
AnnapolisAnne Arundel County40,72080vs Bel Air South
EssexBaltimore County40,580vs Bel Air South
WoodlawnBaltimore County40,379vs Bel Air South

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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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 Bel Air South

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2100933,679$121,660
2101530,013$137,281