21601Easton, Maryland

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 21601.

75out of 100
Area Score
Top 7% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 3% of 6,210 ZIP areas measured84
Schools2859th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured40
GrowthTop 7% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured77
Housing affordabilityTop 46% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured83
ClimateTop 22% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured78
Physical resilienceTop 14% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured87
Access5461st of 6,791 ZIP areas measured78
Economic stability4437th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured51
The quick read

21601 ranks in the top 3% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.5% and median household income of $83,680.

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 ZIP profiles, placing 21601 in the top 14% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
24,671
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$83,680
Top 33% nationally
Density
230/sq mi
107.1 sq mi of land
Median age
48.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Easton
Maryland
Metro area
Easton, MD
Nearest major airport
BWI
41 mi · Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall
Median home value
$376,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.5% is lower than 86% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

41% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 80% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$8,439$83,680Top 33%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,629$52,322Top 17%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.3%Bottom 44%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.7 minBottom 33%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher40.6%Top 20%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment17,827Bottom 16%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)6.2%Top 3%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.0%Top 6%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force18,482Bottom 15%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation58.5%Bottom 42%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 25%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 14%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202484k77k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $83,680 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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Easton, MD, the city containing this ZIP code.

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 44% 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 $1,262 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,262
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$376,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.50Top 21%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate70.2%Bottom 30%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±33611,710Top 13%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$194$1,262Top 32%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,443$376,400Top 23%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.1%Top 47%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.1%Bottom 46%of 33,0282024 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
77/ 100
Top 7% 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.

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 ZIP areas.

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

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

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, 24.3 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 ZIP areas.

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. 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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

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.

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 21601 rather than 21601 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 41 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI41 mi10,503 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD75 mi11,500 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL87 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
75
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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.

21601 vs Easton

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

21601
Easton
Median household income
$83,680
vs
$74,653
Per capita income
$52,322
vs
$44,905
Population density
230/sq mi
vs
1,509/sq mi
Median home value
$376,400
vs
$358,900
Median gross rent
$1,262
vs
$1,197
Homeownership rate
70.2%
vs
64.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher
40.6%
vs
38.0%
Poverty rate
9.3%
vs
11.0%
Median age
48.1
vs
45.8

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.