Dorchester County, MD
County Profile
32,754 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Dorchester County, MD.
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.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 14 sourcesEmployment conditions sit below most comparable counties measured: unemployment is 4.8% and the Opportunity signal places Dorchester County in the bottom 10%.
In the public schools here, 27% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.9 students for every teacher.
Rent takes 35% of renter income here, at or above the threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, while buying strains owner incomes less — the median home is 3.2 times what its owners earn, against a historic benchmark near three.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 4.8% — higher than in all but 26% of the 1,467 measured US counties.
Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 14,937 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsfiling years 2022–2023 | $60,263 | 55th percentileof 1,417 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftfiling years 2022–2023 | $60,194 | 57th percentileof 1,417 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$4,4142024 ACS 5-Year | $61,839 | Bottom 41%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,7782024 ACS 5-Year | $35,605 | Top 46%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per-capita personal income2023 | $57,062 | Top 47%of 1,389 | 2023 |
| Poverty rate ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 16.9% | Bottom 26%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±1.6 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 28.3 min | Bottom 32%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 19.4% | Bottom 34%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 78.7% | 58th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentJuly 2026 | 14,937 | Bottom 21%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)July 2026 | −1.5% | Bottom 31%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)July 2026 | −1.9% | Bottom 23%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceJuly 2026 | 15,682 | 21st percentileof 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 76.6% | Top 45%of 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Public transit to work ±0.0%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.0% | 27th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)July 2026 | +0.2% | Bottom 27%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateJuly 2026 | 4.8% | Bottom 26%of 1,467 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.3% | 37th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Unemployment rate
Median household income, successive ACS releases
27% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 40% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 13.9 students for every full-time teacher across 11 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cambridge-South Dorchester High School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 811 | 16.9 | 27% | 57% |
| North Dorchester High School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 526 | 15.0 | 32% | 67% |
| Mace's Lane Middle School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 490 | 12.3 | 6% | 25% |
| Maple Elementary School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 483 | 14.6 | 25% | 20% |
| North Dorchester Middle School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 414 | 13.8 | 23% | 42% |
| Sandy Hill Elementary | Dorchester County Public Schools | 393 | 11.9 | 22% | 22% |
| Hurlock Elementary School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 391 | 13.5 | 27% | 21% |
| Warwick Elementary School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 346 | 15.0 | 52% | 52% |
| Choptank Elementary School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 319 | 11.8 | 17% | 22% |
| South Dorchester School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 230 | 14.4 | 62% | 67% |
| Vienna Elementary School | Dorchester County Public Schools | 183 | 12.2 | 27% | 27% |
| Judith P. Hoyer Early Childhood Center | Dorchester County Public Schools | 0 | — | — | — |
73.4% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against Maryland’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the non-metropolitan parts of Maryland is up 46% over five years, and up 5.3% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $2,456 a year in real estate taxes, about 0.94% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $1,144, some 11% above the $1,032 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $1,144 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $45,800 a year, about 74% of the median household income here of $61,839.
The typical renter household here spends 35% of its income on rent, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $1,032 a month.
A median home at $262,400 costs 3.2 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $81,525, above the historic benchmark of about 3 times income.
The figures above are measured against Dorchester County’s median household income of $61,839, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price change (1 year)the non-metropolitan parts of Maryland’s figure2026 Q2 | +5.3% | 78th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the non-metropolitan parts of Maryland’s figure2026 Q2 | +46.0% | 57th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the non-metropolitan parts of Maryland’s figure2026 Q2 | +90.3% | 45th percentileof 1,431 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.32024 ACS 5-Year | 3.2 | Bottom 24%of 3,217 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 65.6% | 16th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±302024 ACS 5-Year | 16,433 | 58th percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $952 | Top 49%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,591 | Bottom 46%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $1,144 | Top 46%of 1,423 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$822024 ACS 5-Year | $1,032 | Bottom 28%of 3,215 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$12,5082024 ACS 5-Year | $262,400 | 74th percentileof 3,219 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$1052024 ACS 5-Year | $2,456 | 76th percentileof 3,172 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$5,7712024 ACS 5-Year | $81,525 | Top 39%of 3,218 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.06%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.94% | 60th percentileof 3,126 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 34.6% | Bottom 5%of 3,216 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±1972024 ACS 5-Year | 1,090 | 76th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 6.6% | 71st percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 10.9% | 62nd percentileof 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±3872024 ACS 5-Year | 2,887 | 65th percentileof 3,222 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
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 2% since 2020, reaching 33,138 in 2024.
Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before: 62 units authorized in 2025, 23% below the prior year.
Population is still rising but the pace is easing: 33,138 residents in 2024, up 0.7% over the year, a smaller gain than the year before.
New construction is predominantly single-family: of 88 units permitted over the past twelve months, none were in buildings of five or more homes.
Federal tax returns show Dorchester County gained about 2.2% of its residents through moves within the US in the most recent year, counting those who arrived against those who left. Households that moved in reported an average income of $60,263, close to the $60,194 of households that moved out.
At 2.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US counties.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- Talbot County, MD 241 people · 14% of arrivals
- Caroline County, MD 202 people · 12% of arrivals
- Wicomico County, MD 145 people · 8.5% of arrivals
- Anne Arundel County, MD 116 people · 6.8% of arrivals
- Sussex County, DE 92 people · 5.4% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Talbot County, MD 205 people · 18% of departures
- Caroline County, MD 145 people · 13% of departures
- Wicomico County, MD 138 people · 12% of departures
- Sussex County, DE 68 people · 5.9% of departures
- Queen Anne's County, MD 33 people · 2.9% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
Housing units permitted per year
Weather & climate
7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 30°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 45.3 inches, including 12.5 inches of snow.
Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index2024 calendar year | 57 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 45.3" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall1991-2020 Normals | 12.5" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 30°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 87°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 7 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 1002024 calendar year | 1 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index2024 calendar year | 40 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 42°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Air quality
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. Air quality is measured by EPA monitors and published by county only where a monitor sits; a county without one shows nothing rather than an estimate, and a county reading is still the county’s. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are coastal flooding, hurricane and inland flooding, with coastal flooding alone responsible for 37% of it. Inland flooding is independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large that hazard is.
Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, ice storm, winter weather, cold wave, lightning, tornado, inland flooding, landslide, hail, tsunami, volcanic activity, avalanche.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). These are FEMA’s own figures for this county rather than a value derived from surrounding geographies. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
These are deaths, not offenses — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.
Dorchester County has a modeled homicide rate of about 3.5 per 100,000 residents a year, because the CDC suppresses counts this small, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at about 10.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at about 17.1 per 100,000 residents in Dorchester County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe Dorchester County as a whole. They are shown and not scored. How to read death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Reported crime
- Offenses reported to police are published by department rather than by town, so AreaProfile shows a rate only on city profiles, and only where that city’s department submitted every month of a year. City profiles inside this area carry their own figure where their department reported a full year. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Cost of living
- Price parities are published for metropolitan areas, and this place lies outside one.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. Cost of living is published where the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures it, though not for this place. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Dover AFB at 58 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 85.8% | Bottom 42%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 58 mi | Bottom 23%of 1,463 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 5 | Top 26%of 1,463 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 10.9% | Bottom 45%of 3,221 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dover AFB | DOV | 58 mi | 9,602 ft |
| Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall | BWI | 61 mi | 10,503 ft |
| Washington Dulles Intl | IAD | 84 mi | 11,500 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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Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyData & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Income | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 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 every source with how often each updates.
Cities in Dorchester County, MD
ZIP areas
Only ZIP areas whose income or home value differ from their city’s by at least ten percent get a profile of their own, so this is a selection rather than every ZIP code in the county.