21078Havre de Grace, Maryland

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 21078.

76out of 100
Area Score
Top 6% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 11% of 6,210 ZIP areas measured77
Schools2228th of 4,422 ZIP areas measured52
GrowthTop 24% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured65
Housing affordabilityTop 25% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured93
ClimateTop 48% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured71
Physical resilienceTop 6% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured94
Access5271st of 6,791 ZIP areas measured81
Economic stabilityTop 38% of 6,742 ZIP areas measured66
The quick read

21078 ranks in the top 11% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.5% and median household income of $106,667.

In the public schools here, 11% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.0 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 21078 in the top 6% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
20,030
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$106,667
Top 15% nationally
Density
665/sq mi
30.1 sq mi of land
Median age
46.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Havre de Grace
Maryland
Metro area
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
Nearest major airport
BWI
39 mi · Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall
Median home value
$385,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 138,174 employed residents.

42% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 81% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$10,243$106,667Top 15%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,010$53,163Top 16%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.5%Bottom 39%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.1 minTop 37%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher41.6%Top 19%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment138,174Top 29%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.5%Bottom 42%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 21%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force143,252Top 29%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation63.6%Top 38%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$76,370Top 23%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,070Top 20%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 36%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate3.5%Bottom 14%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024109k94k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $106,667 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Havre de Grace, MD, the city containing this ZIP code.

11% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 27% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
10.7%
Bottom 41% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
27.4%
Top 39% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Havre de Grace HighHarford County Public Schools82217.1
Havre de Grace MiddleHarford County Public Schools61713.43%32%
Havre de Grace ElementaryHarford County Public Schools59315.615%27%
Meadowvale ElementaryHarford County Public Schools55216.215%28%
Roye-Williams ElementaryHarford County Public Schools44412.311%21%

45.1% 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 $1,433 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
16.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,433
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$385,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.61Top 36%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.0%Bottom 45%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3728,869Top 19%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$102$1,433Top 24%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,522$385,600Top 22%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.1%Bottom 39%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.4%Bottom 20%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
65/ 100
Top 24% 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 11.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
169
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
11.3
Top 9% nationally
Year over year
−10%
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 Havre de Grace, MD, the city containing this ZIP code.

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, 6.2 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. 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.

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 21078 rather than 21078 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 and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. 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 39 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI39 mi10,503 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL53 mi12,000 ft
Harrisburg IntlMDT55 mi10,001 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
76
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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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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
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.

21078 vs Havre de Grace

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

21078
Havre de Grace
Median household income
$106,667
vs
$105,817
Per capita income
$53,163
vs
$53,916
Population density
665/sq mi
vs
2,525/sq mi
Median home value
$385,600
vs
$392,900
Median gross rent
$1,433
vs
$1,416
Homeownership rate
77.0%
vs
71.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
41.6%
vs
42.5%
Poverty rate
8.5%
vs
9.0%
Median age
46.8
vs
45.1

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.