DunkirkMD
A town of 2,166, settled in 1842. A regional job hub with 1,514 jobs.
Is Dunkirk a good place to live?
Dunkirk’s best subject grades are an A+ for incomes, an A for health, and an A− for schools. Dunkirk’s median household income is $149,000, against $113,000 in Maryland’s towns and $80,000 across U.S. towns. 18% of the land in Dunkirk is conserved, above both Maryland’s towns (9.5%) and U.S. towns (4.3%). The biggest park or preserve is Hall Creek Natural Resource Management Area, at 379 acres. Dunkirk has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
What makes Dunkirk stand out
Where Dunkirk beats most towns.
Every workday, about 1,470 people come to Dunkirk for work
Where Dunkirk’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Dunkirk grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maryland), ordered by how far Dunkirk is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
White House and 273 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Dunkirk. Close and well known come first.
Big draw23 mi National park siteWhite House311K visitors a year
Big draw22 mi National MemorialWashington Monument204K visitors a year
Big draw24 mi LandmarkArlington National Cemetery
Big draw23 mi LandmarkUnited States Triumphal Arch
Big draw22 mi MuseumSmithsonian Institution30.0M visitors a year
Big draw16 mi Stadium & arenaNorthwest StadiumPhoto credits
White House: This image or media was taken or created by Matt H. Wade. To see his entire port, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Washington Monument: Oren Rozen, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Arlington National Cemetery: Protoant, Public domain · United States Triumphal Arch: Hstoops, CC0 · Smithsonian Institution: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer, Public domain · Northwest Stadium: Maryland GovPics, CC BY 2.0
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Moving to Dunkirk: who provides what
Dunkirk is unincorporated, so Calvert County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Mar 11, 2026.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Dunkirk.
A job hub: Dunkirk has 2.0 jobs for every working resident and draws in 1,470 commuters
Most working residents leave Dunkirk for work: only 6% work in town. 1.8% of Dunkirk residents live below the poverty line. The top destinations are Washington (8%), Prince Frederick (5%) and Waldorf (3%).
| Dunkirk | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 1.8% | 7% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 31 minutes | 32 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 5.7% | 3.1% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Dunkirk ranks healthier than 91% of the country’s towns
Dunkirk beats the Maryland average on 13 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 17% of adults get no exercise outside work in Dunkirk.
| Dunkirk | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 23% | 25% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 15% | 17% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 34% | 33% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 7.5% | 14% | 14% |
| What stands out | Dunkirk | MD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.5% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 4.5% | 8.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.1% | 7.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Dunkirk’s typical home value is about $628K
The typical Dunkirk home is worth about $628,000, about the same as a year ago, 48% above the Maryland typical home.
Typical home value
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Very low risk in Dunkirk, with inland flooding at the top
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 89% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Dunkirk’s grade for the outdoors is an A
5.8 miles of trail in 4 parks and preserves. The trail density in Dunkirk is 0.8 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Ward Farm Recreation and Nature Park | 4.3 mi | 185 |
| 2. Dunkirk District Park | 0.8 mi | 59 |
| 3. Hall Creek Natural Resource Management Area | 0.4 mi | 379 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Dunkirk has four seasons and hot summers
Dunkirk has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 26° and about 16 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
More middle-aged adults than Maryland overall
Adults 35 to 64 are 46% of residents (40% statewide). 47% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 44% across Maryland.
| Dunkirk | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 47% | 42% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 20% | 23% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 14% | 16% | 18% |
| Median age | 42.1 years | 39.4 years | 40.5 years |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
47% women, 53% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±5.6 points. Across Maryland, 51.3% of residents are women.
| Dunkirk | MD | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 8% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 11.6% | 10.3% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 9.6% | 8.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 11.7% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.6% | 13.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 15.8% | 12.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 16.3% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 8.4% | 9.9% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 5.1% | 6.8% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.6% | 8.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 23.1% | 23.4% | 26% |
| Some college | 20.9% | 17.4% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 4.7% | 6.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 36.8% | 22.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 9.8% | 20.8% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,200, single groups can be off by several points
Everything we know about Dunkirk
Colleges nearby
2 within 15 miles of the center of Dunkirk
About 6 of every 100 Dunkirk residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Maryland.
About Dunkirk
Census-designated place in Maryland, United States
Dunkirk is a census-designated place (CDP) in Calvert County, Maryland, United States. The population was 2,521 at the 2010 census. It is the northernmost community in Calvert County and is the main commerce area for northern Calvert County.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 7.3 sq mi
- Elevation
- 121 ft
- ZIP code
- 20754
Dunkirk’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Dunkirk.
Dunkirk, Croom and Baden have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Dunkirk, Croom and Baden report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Dunkirk with a neighbor →
Questions about Dunkirk
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Dunkirk, MD expensive?
That is 5 years of the area's median household income ($126,256 across the Lexington Park, MD metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B.
What is Dunkirk, MD known for?
2 notable people were born here, including Brett Cecil and Frank Owens Smith.