Cumberland, Maryland

Area Profile

18,804 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cumberland, in Allegany County.

57out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 36% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3734th of 3,904 cities measured27
SchoolsTop 49% of 2,668 cities measured52
Growth2458th of 2,973 cities measured30
Housing affordabilityTop 11% of 4,223 cities measured99
Climate2384th of 4,223 cities measured69
Physical resilienceTop 19% of 4,182 cities measured83
Access3774th of 4,226 cities measured68
Economic stability4167th of 4,226 cities measured19
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.3% and the Opportunity signal places Cumberland in the bottom 4%.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 18% of median household income and the median home is 2.6 times it.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Cumberland in the top 19% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
18,804
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$48,162
Bottom 20% nationally
Density
1,856/sq mi
10.1 sq mi of land
Median age
41.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Allegany County
Maryland
Metro area
Cumberland, MD-WV
Nearest major airport
LBE
55 mi · Arnold Palmer Rgnl
Median home value
$123,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.3% is lower than 16% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 22,924 employed residents.

Median household income of $48,162 is below 80% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,822$48,162Bottom 20%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,139$31,056Bottom 40%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate25.1%Top 15%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.3 minBottom 19%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.7%Top 44%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,924Bottom 29%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-5.7%Bottom 2%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 45%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force24,207Bottom 30%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation49.8%Bottom 22%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.6%Bottom 14%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate5.3%Top 16%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202448k44k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $48,162 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Allegany County, MD, which contains this city.

11% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 20% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
11.2%
Bottom 49% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
19.9%
Bottom 41% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Allegany HighAllegany County Public Schools71916.0
Fort Hill HighAllegany County Public Schools65515.6
Washington MiddleAllegany County Public Schools57713.73%17%
Braddock MiddleAllegany County Public Schools53612.88%27%
South Penn ElementaryAllegany County Public Schools49110.49%14%
West Side ElementaryAllegany County Public Schools32111.921%28%
Center for Career & Technical EducationAllegany County Public Schools30011.5
Northeast ElementaryAllegany County Public Schools27214.315%15%
Cresaptown ElementaryAllegany County Public Schools26812.215%18%
Cash Valley ElementaryAllegany County Public Schools26611.114%21%
John Humbird ElementaryAllegany County Public Schools24211.58%15%
Parkside ElementaryAllegany County Public Schools22213.117%22%

60.1% 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 →

Median rent of $741 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.6 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
18.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$741
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$123,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.56Bottom 39%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate60.0%Bottom 20%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±34110,610Top 6%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$91$741Bottom 20%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,731$123,200Bottom 29%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.5%Bottom 49%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate20.8%Top 22%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 →
Development Momentum
30/ 100
Ranks 2458 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 fallen 2% since 2020, reaching 18,643 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
6
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.3
Bottom 16% nationally
Year over year
−14%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202419k19k
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
20222023202420259.00.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+800%).

Weather & climate

6 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 23°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 39.2 inches, including 28.7 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station CUMBERLAND 2, 0.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation39.2"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall28.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low23°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

83 / 100
Physical resilience

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

LandslideModerate
HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

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.

Allegany County records 6.0 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 12.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 31.2 per 100,000 residents in Allegany County.

Homicide
6.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
31.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
20.8
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 Allegany 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 rather than Cumberland 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 55 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Arnold Palmer RgnlLBE55 mi8,222 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD85 mi11,500 ft
Pittsburgh IntlPIT97 mi11,500 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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Area Score
57
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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
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

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 Cumberland

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2150241,015$60,72557