21136Reisterstown, Maryland

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 21136.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
SchoolsTop 48% of 4,422 published ZIP areas53
Housing affordabilityTop 24% of 6,685 published ZIP areas94
ClimateTop 44% of 6,789 published ZIP areas71
Physical resilienceTop 6% of 6,709 published ZIP areas94
Access3691st of 6,791 published ZIP areas92
Economic stabilityTop 31% of 6,742 published ZIP areas70
The quick read

In the public schools here, 13% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.4 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 15% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.6 times that income.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 21136 in the top 6% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
32,088
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$118,500
Top 10% nationally
Density
571/sq mi
56.2 sq mi of land
Median age
46.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Reisterstown
Maryland
Metro area
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
Nearest major airport
BWI
20 mi · Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall
Median home value
$422,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

55% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US ZIP areas.

Household income is higher than at least 90% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,043$118,500Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,803$59,518Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.7%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.9 minTop 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher54.6%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation67.7%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$76,370Top 23%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,070Top 20%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024119k94k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $118,500 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.

13% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
13.1%
Top 47% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
25.2%
Top 45% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Franklin HighBaltimore County Public Schools1,48116.8
Franklin MiddleBaltimore County Public Schools1,15016.23%28%
Reisterstown ElementaryBaltimore County Public Schools51814.49%14%
Cedarmere ElementaryBaltimore County Public Schools50213.917%23%
Glyndon ElementaryBaltimore County Public Schools47617.612%17%
Franklin ElementaryBaltimore County Public Schools39215.134%37%
Chatsworth SchoolBaltimore County Public Schools30110.826%35%

53.8% 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 $1,524 takes 15% 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
15.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,524
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$422,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.56Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.4%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±64413,837Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$120$1,524Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,664$422,100Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.4%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.7%Bottom 26%2024 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 90°F and January a low of 30°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 45, in the Good band, and about 5 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MD SCI CTR BALTIMORE, 16.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index71.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation43.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10052024 calendar year
Median air quality index45.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
45
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
71
90th percentile index
Days above 100
5
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 cold wave.

HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Cold waveModerate
DroughtModerate
LandslideModerate
Coastal floodingModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, heat wave, lightning, strong wind, inland flooding, hail, tornado, ice storm, wildfire, avalanche.

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. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Baltimore County records 6.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 12.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.8 per 100,000 residents in Baltimore County.

Homicide
6.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
12.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
21.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.5
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 Baltimore 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 21136 rather than 21136 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
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. 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.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 20 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI20 mi10,503 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD47 mi11,500 ft
Harrisburg IntlMDT52 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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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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

21136 vs Reisterstown

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

21136
Reisterstown
Median household income
$118,500
vs
$85,543
Per capita income
$59,518
vs
$44,176
Population density
571/sq mi
vs
5,024/sq mi
Median home value
$422,100
vs
$358,700
Median gross rent
$1,524
vs
$1,600
Homeownership rate
79.4%
vs
66.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
54.6%
vs
46.2%
Poverty rate
8.7%
vs
10.7%
Median age
46.3
vs
41.8

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.