Ocean Pines, Maryland

Area Profile

12,351 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Ocean Pines, in Worcester County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 5% of 3,904 cities measured83
SchoolsTop 11% of 2,668 cities measured82
Housing affordability3012th of 4,223 cities measured66
ClimateTop 39% of 4,223 cities measured72
Physical resilienceTop 44% of 4,182 cities measured64
Access4066th of 4,226 cities measured50
Economic stability3624th of 4,226 cities measured38
The quick read

Ocean Pines ranks in the top 5% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.7% and median household income of $91,824.

Rent takes 27% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.1 times that income.

A typical July reaches 84°F and a typical January falls to 28°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
12,351
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$91,824
Top 24% nationally
Density
1,907/sq mi
6.5 sq mi of land
Median age
62.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Worcester County
Maryland
Metro area
Ocean Pines, MD
Nearest major airport
ACY
80 mi · Atlantic City Intl
Median home value
$380,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 74% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 2.1% over the past year, to 29,646 employed residents.

40% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 82% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,363$91,824Top 24%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,928$53,755Top 14%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.5%Bottom 26%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.4 minTop 46%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher40.4%Top 18%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment29,646Bottom 37%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.4%Top 8%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.1%Top 5%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force30,773Bottom 37%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation46.3%Bottom 16%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 44%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202492k81k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $91,824 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 Worcester County, MD, which contains this city.

27% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 35% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
27.2%
Top 12% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
35.3%
Top 21% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Stephen Decatur HighWorcester County Public Schools1,46217.4
Stephen Decatur MiddleWorcester County Public Schools66512.826%40%
Showell ElementaryWorcester County Public Schools63811.624%32%
Berlin IntermediateWorcester County Public Schools61312.040%43%
Buckingham ElementaryWorcester County Public Schools51812.017%24%

44.0% 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 $2,069 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
27.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,069
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$380,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.14Top 25%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate90.5%Top 21%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3599,000Top 7%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$188$2,069Top 8%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,256$380,100Top 19%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income27.0%Top 12%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate35.2%Top 9%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 28°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 42.6 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station OCEAN CITY MUNI AP, 5.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation42.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low28°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing40°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

64 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
Coastal floodingHigh

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, cold wave, wildfire, drought, ice storm, heat wave, inland flooding, earthquake, lightning, strong wind, tornado, 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
24
per 100,000 residents · 2025 calendar year
Property crime
196
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.

Ocean Pines's police department reported 24 violent offences per 100,000 residents, lower than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 196.

Worcester County records 3.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of 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 22.2 per 100,000 residents in Worcester County.

Homicide
3.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
22.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.3
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 Ocean Pines’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 Worcester 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 Ocean Pines rather than Ocean Pines 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 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 80 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Atlantic City IntlACY80 mi10,001 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI98 mi10,503 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL103 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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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
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 Ocean Pines

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
2181124,377$90,082