Are you sick of being a city slicker?
Do you long for life in suburban Maryland? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?
We do too.
Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.
So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Annapolis, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which Maryland suburb was best?
No worries. We got it all figured out here.
These are the 10 best suburbs in the Old Line State:
- Rockville (Photos)
- Hampstead (Photos)
- Poolesville (Photos)
- Bowie (Photos)
- Mount Airy (Photos)
- La Plata (Photos)
- Gaithersburg (Photos)
- Takoma Park (Photos)
- Cheverly (Photos)
- Annapolis (Photos)
Rockville is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban Maryland.
So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in Maryland, we’ve got you covered.
Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in Maryland and the best places to raise a family in Maryland.
How do you determine which suburb is the best in Maryland anyways?
To give you the best suburbs in Maryland, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a “best city” and what isn’t.
So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.
How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Old Line State
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Maryland, we looked at every town between 5,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).
We paid particular attention to:
- Median Home Values
- Median Income
- Population Density (Higher is Better)
- Unemployment Rates
- Commute Time
- Education Levels
- Health Insurance Coverage
- Poverty Rates
We ranked each suburb in Maryland across a number of criteria from one to 22, with one being the best.
We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Suburb To Live In Maryland”.
The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in Maryland
Read on to see why Rockville is the ‘burb with the most, while Bladensburg is probably not the best place to live in Maryland.
1. Rockville
Population: 65,171
Median Income: $101,774
Median Home Price: $499,400
Rockville is located 14 miles north of Washington.
2. Hampstead
Population: 6,352
Median Income: $80,313
Median Home Price: $234,800
Hampstead is located 25 miles north of Baltimore.
3. Poolesville
Population: 5,108
Median Income: $150,000
Median Home Price: $391,600
Poolesville is located 24 miles west of Arlington.
4. Bowie
Population: 57,633
Median Income: $106,098
Median Home Price: $303,900
Bowie is located 15 miles east of Washington.
5. Mount Airy
Population: 9,376
Median Income: $108,578
Median Home Price: $351,300
Mount Airy is located 29 miles west of Baltimore.
6. La Plata
Population: 9,059
Median Income: $87,759
Median Home Price: $320,600
La Plata is located 24 miles south of Arlington.
7. Gaithersburg
Population: 66,104
Median Income: $83,724
Median Home Price: $369,900
Gaithersburg is located 18 miles north of Arlington.
8. Takoma Park
Population: 17,567
Median Income: $78,921
Median Home Price: $508,600
Takoma Park is located 5 miles north of Washington.
9. Cheverly
Population: 6,390
Median Income: $96,325
Median Home Price: $297,100
Cheverly is located 5 miles east of Washington.
10. Annapolis
Population: 39,009
Median Income: $74,187
Median Home Price: $377,200
Annapolis is located 23 miles south of Baltimore.
There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In Maryland
Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in Maryland according to the data:
- Bladensburg
- Riverdale Park
- Mount Rainier
For more Maryland reading, check out:
Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In Maryland
City | Rank |
---|---|
Rockville | 1 |
Hampstead | 2 |
Poolesville | 3 |
Bowie | 4 |
Mount Airy | 5 |
La Plata | 6 |
Gaithersburg | 7 |
Takoma Park | 8 |
Cheverly | 9 |
Annapolis | 10 |
Glenarden | 11 |
Laurel | 12 |
Greenbelt | 13 |
Westminster | 14 |
Aberdeen | 15 |
College Park | 16 |
Chesapeake Beach | 17 |
New Carrollton | 18 |
Hyattsville | 19 |
Mount Rainier | 20 |
Riverdale Park | 21 |
Bladensburg | 22 |