20601Waldorf, Maryland

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 20601.

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
Schools3300th of 4,422 published ZIP areas32
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 6,685 published ZIP areas85
ClimateTop 42% of 6,789 published ZIP areas72
Physical resilienceTop 13% of 6,709 published ZIP areas88
Access5494th of 6,791 published ZIP areas78
Economic stabilityTop 9% of 6,742 published ZIP areas82
The quick read

In the public schools here, 7% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.8 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 23% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.4 times that income.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 20601 in the top 13% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
26,945
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$117,480
Top 11% nationally
Density
563/sq mi
47.8 sq mi of land
Median age
37.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Waldorf
Maryland
Metro area
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
Nearest major airport
IAD
40 mi · Washington Dulles Intl
Median home value
$402,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 71% of measured US ZIP areas.

Household income is higher than at least 89% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,817$117,480Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,547$49,227Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.5%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute45.3 minTop 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher33.0%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation72.8%Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$91,930Top 5%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$71,060Top 6%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024120k106k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $117,480 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 — Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
General and Operations Managers112,530$156,460
Business Operations Specialists, All Other76,600$104,770
Software Developers69,060$154,930
Retail Salespersons66,920$36,610
Management Analysts62,360$126,830
Fast Food and Counter Workers60,560$34,600

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.

7% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 14% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
6.9%
Bottom 25% in Maryland
Reading proficiency
14.1%
Bottom 18% in Maryland
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Thomas Stone High SchoolCharles County Public Schools1,23014.5
John Hanson Middle SchoolCharles County Public Schools72712.33%17%
J. P. Ryon Elementary SchoolCharles County Public Schools64014.54%6%
Malcolm Elementary SchoolCharles County Public Schools41513.818%21%

58.2% 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 $2,208 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
22.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,208
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$402,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.42Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.6%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±50910,468Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$123$2,208Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,689$402,100Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.6%Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.8%Bottom 16%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 41.8 inches, including 13.7 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and about 3 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 WASHINGTON REAGAN AP, 18.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index50.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation41.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall13.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low30°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10032024 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
50
90th percentile index
Days above 100
3
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

88 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Overall hazard risk is lower than 71% of measured US ZIP areas.

HurricaneModerate
Strong windModerate
DroughtElevated
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

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.

Charles County records 9.9 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 14.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 9.9 per 100,000 residents in Charles County.

Homicide
9.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
9.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.6
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 Charles 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 20601 rather than 20601 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 40 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Washington Dulles IntlIAD40 mi11,500 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI40 mi10,503 ft
Richmond IntlRIC81 mi9,003 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.

20601 vs Waldorf

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

20601
Waldorf
Median household income
$117,480
vs
$116,089
Per capita income
$49,227
vs
$48,929
Population density
563/sq mi
vs
2,289/sq mi
Median home value
$402,100
vs
$407,600
Median gross rent
$2,208
vs
$1,995
Homeownership rate
79.6%
vs
74.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher
33.0%
vs
34.7%
Poverty rate
6.5%
vs
7.7%
Median age
37.4
vs
36.1

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.