Easton, Maryland

Area Profile

17,308 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Easton, in Talbot County.

74out of 100
Area Score
Top 9% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 5% of 3,904 cities measured82
Schools1751st of 2,668 cities measured39
GrowthTop 9% of 2,973 cities measured76
Housing affordability2372nd of 4,223 cities measured77
ClimateTop 22% of 4,223 cities measured78
Physical resilienceTop 14% of 4,182 cities measured87
Access3405th of 4,226 cities measured78
Economic stability2809th of 4,226 cities measured51
The quick read

Easton ranks in the top 5% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.5% and median household income of $74,653.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 106 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 152% on the prior year.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Easton in the top 14% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
17,308
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$74,653
Top 40% nationally
Density
1,509/sq mi
11.5 sq mi of land
Median age
45.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Talbot County
Maryland
Metro area
Easton, MD
Nearest major airport
BWI
42 mi · Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall
Median home value
$358,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 84% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 2.0% over the past year, to 17,827 employed residents.

38% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 79% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,181$74,653Top 40%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,995$44,905Top 24%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.0%Top 50%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.1 minBottom 26%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher38.0%Top 21%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment17,827Bottom 21%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)6.2%Top 4%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.0%Top 5%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force18,482Bottom 20%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation59.5%Bottom 46%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 24%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 16%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202475k73k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $74,653 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.

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

6% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 20% 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
3
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
6.2%
Bottom 20% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
20.1%
Bottom 42% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Easton HighTalbot County Public Schools1,17916.6
Easton ElementaryTalbot County Public Schools1,07511.19%19%
Easton MiddleTalbot County Public Schools70312.63%22%

67.5% 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 $1,197 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,197
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$358,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.81Top 17%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.4%Bottom 27%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2917,946Top 8%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$174$1,197Top 33%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,819$358,900Top 22%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.2%Top 46%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.4%Bottom 40%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
76/ 100
Top 9% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 17,381 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

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

At 6.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
106
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
6.1
Top 24% nationally
Year over year
+152%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202417k17k
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
202020222023202420256021
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+50%).

Weather & climate

7 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 30°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.0 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station ANNAPOLIS NAF, 25.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation44.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing43°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

87 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 78% of measured US cities.

DroughtElevated
HurricaneElevated
WildfireModerate
Coastal floodingHigh
LightningModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Strong windModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, winter weather, ice storm, cold wave, tornado, inland flooding, landslide, 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.

Violent crime
493
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
1,640
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year

Below these are deaths rather than offences, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Easton's police department reported 493 violent offences per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 1,640.

Talbot County records 0.0 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 10.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 11.4 per 100,000 residents in Talbot County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
11.4
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.

Offences are reported to the FBI by Easton’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Talbot 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 Easton rather than Easton 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.

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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 42 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI42 mi10,503 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD76 mi11,500 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL88 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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Area Score
74
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
safetyFederal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer
Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency
2025 calendar yearAnnually, with monthly revisions
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 Easton

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2160124,671$83,68075