Riviera Beach, Maryland

Area Profile

12,192 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Riviera Beach, in Anne Arundel 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 12% of 3,904 cities measured76
Housing affordabilityTop 27% of 4,223 cities measured92
ClimateTop 36% of 4,223 cities measured73
Physical resilienceTop 7% of 4,182 cities measured93
AccessTop 19% of 4,226 cities measured98
Economic stabilityTop 5% of 4,226 cities measured81
The quick read

Riviera Beach ranks in the top 12% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.4% and median household income of $112,672.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published city profiles, placing Riviera Beach in the top 7% for physical resilience.

A major airport is 8 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
12,192
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$112,672
Top 13% nationally
Density
4,636/sq mi
2.6 sq mi of land
Median age
37.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Anne Arundel County
Maryland
Metro area
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
Nearest major airport
BWI
8 mi · Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood Marshall
Median home value
$350,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 87% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 308,887 employed residents.

31% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$12,372$112,672Top 13%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,970$50,312Top 17%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate4.7%Bottom 22%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute32.0 minTop 25%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher31.1%Top 29%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment308,887Top 22%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.5%Bottom 44%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 23%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force319,879Top 22%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation73.0%Top 12%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$76,370Top 27%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,070Top 25%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 35%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate3.4%Bottom 13%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024113k102k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $112,672 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 publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Anne Arundel County, MD, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 3% above the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,972 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Cost of living
103.2

Prices here run about 3% above the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
21.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,972
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$350,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index103.2Top 39%of 3,6582023
Home price to income3.11Top 45%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate81.9%Top 37%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4124,863Top 12%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$370$1,972Top 9%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,357$350,300Top 22%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.0%Top 35%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.8%Bottom 23%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

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 25°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 45.0 inches, including 19.3 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and about 2 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 BALTIMORE WASH INTL AP, 8.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation45.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall19.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low25°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index40.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
40
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
67
90th percentile index
Days above 100
2
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

93 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
LandslideModerate

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

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.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Anne Arundel County records 2.4 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 6.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.8 per 100,000 residents in Anne Arundel County.

Homicide
2.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.7
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 Anne Arundel 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 Riviera Beach rather than Riviera Beach 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 8 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI8 mi10,503 ft
Washington Dulles IntlIAD52 mi11,500 ft
Harrisburg IntlMDT72 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Other cities in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BaltimoreBaltimore city573,24359vs Riviera Beach
ColumbiaHoward County104,338vs Riviera Beach
Ellicott CityHoward County75,257vs Riviera Beach
Glen BurnieAnne Arundel County72,590vs Riviera Beach
DundalkBaltimore County65,969vs Riviera Beach
TowsonBaltimore County58,679vs Riviera Beach
SevernAnne Arundel County58,402vs Riviera Beach
Bel Air SouthHarford County58,137vs Riviera Beach
OdentonAnne Arundel County45,002vs Riviera Beach
CatonsvilleBaltimore County43,368vs Riviera Beach
AnnapolisAnne Arundel County40,72080vs Riviera Beach
EssexBaltimore County40,580vs Riviera Beach

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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
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.