Golden BeachMD
A town of 3,830.
Is Golden Beach a good place to live?
Golden Beach gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $383K, 3 years of the Lexington Park metro’s $126K median household income. It grades A overall, 51st among Maryland's 259 graded towns. On the plus side, the median household earns $133K. Golden Beach’s average trip to work is 46 minutes, where Maryland’s towns sit at 32 minutes and U.S. towns at 25 minutes. Golden Beach has 1 place on the National Register. On the outdoors, just 7 of Maryland’s 329 towns do worse.
What makes Golden Beach stand out
Where Golden Beach beats most towns.
Golden Beach lives by the ocean
Coastal flooding makes up 8% of the storm damage FEMA expects here.
- Main Beach
- Long Point Directions ↗
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA · OpenStreetMap
How Golden Beach grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maryland), ordered by how far Golden Beach is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Golden Beach: who provides what
Golden Beach is unincorporated, so St. Mary's 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 Golden Beach.
Golden Beach has homes that are cheap against local pay and has less food insecurity than most of Maryland, but it has little public open land.
Inland flooding leads a very low hazard risk in Golden Beach
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 84% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Most working residents commute out of Golden Beach
Golden Beach has 102 jobs for its 1,396 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 45.5 minutes, against 31.1 across Maryland.
Most working residents leave Golden Beach for work: only 0% work in town. 2.7% of Golden Beach residents live below the poverty line. The top destinations are Waldorf (8%), Washington (5%) and Leonardtown (5%).
| Golden Beach | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $133,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 2.7% | 7% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.2% | 3.2% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Golden Beach ranks healthier than 71% of the country’s towns
Its widest gap with Maryland is food insecurity: 9.9% of its 2,822 adults worry about having enough food, against 15.4% statewide. Against the 4,238 U.S. towns with household incomes like Golden Beach’s, it is less healthy than 75%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Golden Beach beats the Maryland average on 10 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 18% of adults binge drink in Golden Beach.
| Golden Beach | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 14% | 16% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 9.9% | 14% | 14% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 77% | 79% | 79% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 34% | 33% |
| What stands out | Golden Beach | MD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.9% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 5.8% | 8.4% |
| More binge drinkers | 17.9% | 14.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Golden Beach has four seasons and pleasant summers
Golden Beach has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 27° and about 15 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Compared with most of Maryland and the rest of the country, less of Golden Beach is conserved land
Just 22 of its 2,964 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Golden Beach itself; its outdoors grade is D.
Golden Beach’s conserved land covers 0.8% of the town. 0.0 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Indian Creek Natural Resource Management Area | — | 10 |
| 2. Main Beach | — | 1 |
| 3. Long Point | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Homes in Golden Beach sell for about $445K
At 3 years of the Lexington Park metro’s $126K median household income, the typical home costs less against local pay than in 81% of Maryland towns; that ratio is one input to its B+ for cost of living.
Only 9 of the 261 Maryland towns we compare have a higher share of households owning their home than Golden Beach.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
White House and 226 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Golden Beach. Close and well known come first.
Big draw33 mi National park siteWhite House311K visitors a year
Big draw33 mi National MemorialWashington Monument204K visitors a year
Big draw33 mi LandmarkArlington National Cemetery
Big draw33 mi LandmarkUnited States Triumphal Arch
Big draw33 mi MuseumSmithsonian Institution30.0M visitors a year
Big draw33 mi National MemorialLincoln Memorial7.7M visitors a yearPhoto 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 · Lincoln Memorial: Aerial_view_of_Lincoln_Memorial_-_east_side.jpg: Carol M. Highsmith derivative w, Public domain
Everything we know about Golden Beach
Colleges nearby
None within 15 miles of Golden Beach; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 Golden Beach residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Maryland.
100% of working residents leave Golden Beach for work
Where Golden Beach’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
About Golden Beach
CDP in Maryland, United States
Golden Beach is an upscale census-designated place (CDP) in St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 3,796 at the 2010 census. It consists of a small housing development with a private beach, located within the larger postal designation of Mechanicsville. One former resident was popular 1960s romantic recording artist Ronnie Dove.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 4.7 sq mi
- Elevation
- 13 ft
Questions about Golden Beach
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Golden Beach, MD a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Golden Beach grades A overall, better than 90% of U.S. towns and #51 of 259 in Maryland. It grades B+ for health and B+ for schools.
Is Golden Beach, MD expensive?
Not for the area. The typical home is worth about $383,000, 10% below the Maryland typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.