Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 3,314, established in 1774.
Jefferson is one of the best-graded places in America: an A+, 9th among Maryland's 259 graded towns. The median household earns $151K, CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 78% of the country, and its public schools beat 76% of Maryland towns on state tests and graduation. Its lowest mark, a B+, is in cost of living. Only 18 of Maryland’s 328 towns score higher on cost of living. Jefferson has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Poffenberger Road Bridge and Lewis Mill Complex. On walkability, just 32 of Maryland’s 328 towns do worse.
Where Jefferson beats most towns.
The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1917 and 3 maps from 1944 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maryland), ordered by how far Jefferson is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Jefferson. Close and well known come first.
Big draw26 mi LandmarkRaven Rock Mountain Complex
Big draw28 mi LandmarkMount Weather Emergency Operations Center
32 mi MuseumSteven F. Udvar-Hazy Center1.6M visitors a year
11 mi National BattlefieldAntietam National Battlefield161K visitors a year
36 mi LandmarkCIA Memorial Wall
8 mi National Historical ParkHarpers Ferry National Historical Park538K visitors a yearRaven Rock Mountain Complex: US Government, Public domain · Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center: Unknown, Public domain · Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Antietam National Battlefield: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0 · CIA Memorial Wall: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain · Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: Mark Fickett, CC BY 3.0
Jefferson is unincorporated, so Frederick 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.
Ordered by what stands out in Jefferson.
Jefferson pairs an A− for schools with modest home prices, trades lower home prices for longer drives to work and has less food insecurity than most of Maryland.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 95% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its A− for schools comes with a B+ for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $559K.
Its public schools are run by the Frederick County Public Schools. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valley ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 525 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MD on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with Maryland is food insecurity: 9.9% of its 2,170 adults worry about having enough food, against 15.4% statewide. Against the 2,689 U.S. towns with household incomes like Jefferson’s, it is less healthy than 77%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
32% of Jefferson adults feel lonely, below both the Maryland town median (34%) and the median of U.S. towns (33%). 34% of Jefferson adults sleep under 7 hours. Jefferson beats the Maryland average on 7 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 5.
| Jefferson | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 34% | 33% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 38% | 36% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 23% | 25% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 9.9% | 14% | 14% |
| What stands out | Jefferson | MD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.9% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 9% | 13.5% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.4% | 7.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Jefferson has 343 jobs for its 1,329 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave Jefferson for work: only 2% work in town. Jefferson’s median household income is $151,000, where Maryland’s towns sit at $113,000 and U.S. towns at $80,000. Jobs based in Jefferson grew to 343 in 2023, 31 more than in 2013.
| Jefferson | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $151,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 2% | 7% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 32 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.7% | 3.2% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Homes are within reach (about $559K for the typical one, B+ for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 20 miles.
The typical Jefferson home is worth about $559,000, about the same as a year ago, 32% above the Maryland typical home. 86% of households own their home in Jefferson.
| Jefferson | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 86% | 74% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,379 a month | $1,810 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Jefferson has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 24° and about 31 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Maryland average. 47% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 44% across Maryland.
| Jefferson | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 47% | 42% | 29% |
| Aged 65 or older | 13% | 16% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 22% | 23% | 22% |
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±4.6 points. Across Maryland, 51.3% of residents are women.
| Jefferson | MD | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 10.2% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 11.3% | 10.3% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 11.2% | 8.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 11.2% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.8% | 13.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 15.2% | 12.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 15.1% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 6.6% | 9.9% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 6.3% | 6.8% | 7% |
| No diploma | 2.6% | 8.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 21.2% | 23.4% | 26% |
| Some college | 18% | 17.4% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 10.8% | 6.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 24% | 22.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 23.4% | 20.8% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 3,300, single groups can be off by several points
3 within 15 miles of the center of Jefferson
About 12 of every 100 Jefferson residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Maryland.
2,111 counted in 2010 and 2,697 in 2020.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts
2 places in Jefferson on the National Register of Historic Places.
Census-designated place in Maryland, United States
Jefferson is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Frederick County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 census the town had a population of 2,235 (which includes the widespread area of the town's zip code, not Jefferson proper). Jefferson was established in 1774 and incorporated as a town in 1831. However, a year later, in 1832, the citizens of the town decided that municipal government was unnecessary, and dis-incorporated the town, which has been unincorporated since then.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Jefferson grades A+ overall, better than 98% of U.S. towns and #9 of 259 in Maryland. It grades A− for health and A− for schools.
Not for the area. That is 4.4 years of the area's median household income ($126,684 across the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 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+.
