21811Ocean Pines, Maryland

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 21811.

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 6,210 ZIP areas measured83
SchoolsTop 13% of 4,422 ZIP areas measured80
Housing affordabilityTop 43% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured84
ClimateTop 40% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured72
Physical resilienceTop 43% of 6,709 ZIP areas measured64
Access6612th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured46
Economic stability5938th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured33
The quick read

21811 ranks in the top 5% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.7% and median household income of $90,082.

Rent takes 18% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.3 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
24,377
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$90,082
Top 27% nationally
Density
240/sq mi
101.5 sq mi of land
Median age
54.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Ocean Pines
Maryland
Metro area
Ocean Pines, MD
Nearest major airport
ACY
86 mi · Atlantic City Intl
Median home value
$388,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 78% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

40% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 79% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$7,498$90,082Top 27%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,158$51,350Top 18%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.8%Bottom 46%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.1 minBottom 36%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher39.9%Top 21%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment29,646Bottom 31%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)4.4%Top 7%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.1%Top 5%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force30,773Bottom 31%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation52.3%Bottom 24%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 45%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 22%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202491k79k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $90,082 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 Ocean Pines, MD, the city containing this ZIP code.

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 14% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
35.3%
Top 24% 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 $1,377 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
18.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,377
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$388,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.32Top 24%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate83.3%Top 37%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±40915,491Top 8%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$358$1,377Top 26%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,726$388,900Top 21%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.3%Top 45%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate30.6%Top 14%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 →

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. 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.

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.

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 21811 rather than 21811 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 86 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Atlantic City IntlACY86 mi10,001 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI98 mi10,503 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL107 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
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.

21811 vs Ocean Pines

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

21811
Ocean Pines
Median household income
$90,082
vs
$91,824
Per capita income
$51,350
vs
$53,755
Population density
240/sq mi
vs
1,907/sq mi
Median home value
$388,900
vs
$380,100
Median gross rent
$1,377
vs
$2,069
Homeownership rate
83.3%
vs
90.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher
39.9%
vs
40.4%
Poverty rate
9.8%
vs
5.5%
Median age
54.9
vs
62.4

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.