Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Mount Rainier grades D overall, 247th among Maryland's 259 graded towns, mostly because of schools and safety. Its schools rank behind 92% of the state's. Its police reported 24 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025, a higher rate per resident than 91% of U.S. towns. In its favor, it is among the most walkable places in the country. Only 2 of Maryland’s 329 towns score lower on hazard risk. Mount Rainier Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places. Among 261 Maryland towns, just 5 have a lower share of households owning their home than Mount Rainier.
Where Mount Rainier beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Mount Rainier Historic District| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas S. Stone Elementary | PK–5 | 580 |
| Mt Rainier Elementary | PK–5 | 311 |
Where Mount Rainier’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maryland), ordered by how far Mount Rainier is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for schools (better than 8%), so the D overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,242 in 1910, 8,333 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1918 and 3 maps from 1900 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Mount Rainier. Close and well known come first.
Big draw5 mi National park siteWhite House311K visitors a year
Big draw5 mi National MemorialWashington Monument204K visitors a year
Big draw5 mi MuseumSmithsonian Institution30.0M visitors a year
Big draw7 mi LandmarkArlington National Cemetery
Big draw7 mi LandmarkUnited States Triumphal Arch
Big draw6 mi National MemorialLincoln Memorial7.7M visitors a yearWhite 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 · Smithsonian Institution: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer, Public domain · Arlington National Cemetery: Protoant, Public domain · United States Triumphal Arch: Hstoops, CC0 · Lincoln Memorial: Aerial_view_of_Lincoln_Memorial_-_east_side.jpg: Carol M. Highsmith derivative w, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Mount Rainier, and how to reach them.
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 Mount Rainier.
Mount Rainier has more 90° days than almost anywhere else in Maryland and sends many workers across the state line to Arlington, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Maryland (mostly inland flooding).
Its public schools are run by the Prince George's County Public Schools. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas S. Stone ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 580 | D |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MD on state tests and graduation
At 51.4 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 75% of Maryland’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 344 to 207 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
At 22.2 per 1,000 residents, Mount Rainier’s property crime rate is above both the Maryland town median (13.8) and the median of U.S. towns (9.9). Mount Rainier reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 91% report less. The violent crime rate in Mount Rainier is 2.9 per 1,000 residents.
| Mount Rainier | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 22.2 per 1,000 residents | 13.8 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2.9 per 1,000 residents | 2.3 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 99% of Maryland towns, with expected losses of about $266 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
At 85 of 100, Mount Rainier’s FEMA risk score is against 6 of 100 in Maryland’s towns and 44 of 100 across U.S. towns.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
54% of working residents cross a state line to work, Arlington among the top destinations. Mount Rainier has 587 jobs for its 3,399 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave Mount Rainier for work: only 1% work in town. Mount Rainier’s median household income is $69,000. Jobs based in Mount Rainier fell to 587 in 2023, 86 fewer than in 2013.
| Mount Rainier | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $69,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 32 minutes | 32 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 19% | 18% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.1% | 3.2% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The Dalecarlia Rsvr weather station, 8 miles away, records that about 44 days a year reach 90°, the #2 highest of 536 Maryland places with climate records.
Mount Rainier has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 26° and about 6 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Only 23.5% of households own their home, against 67.6% across Maryland.
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Maryland average. 38% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 44% across Maryland.
| Mount Rainier | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 38% | 42% | 29% |
| Aged 65 or older | 16% | 16% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 23% | 23% | 22% |
52% women, 48% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±5 points. Across Maryland, 51.3% of residents are women.
| Mount Rainier | MD | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 15.1% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.1% | 10.3% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 4.9% | 8.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 13% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 20.3% | 13.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.6% | 12.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 12.5% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 12.3% | 9.9% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 3.2% | 6.8% | 7% |
| No diploma | 16.1% | 8.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 24.9% | 23.4% | 26% |
| Some college | 18.3% | 17.4% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 2.9% | 6.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 20.6% | 22.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 17.3% | 20.8% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Against the 10,391 U.S. towns with household incomes like Mount Rainier’s, it is healthier than 74%, so its B isn’t only a matter of income. Within Maryland it is less healthy than 70% of the 261 graded towns: Maryland sets a high bar.
Mount Rainier beats the Maryland average on 8 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 12. 16% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in Mount Rainier.
| Mount Rainier | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 8% | 8.1% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 20% | 23% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 43% | 38% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 74% | 79% | 79% |
| What stands out | Mount Rainier | MD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 4.6% | 7.6% |
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 4.4% | 5.8% |
| More uninsured adults | 16.3% | 8.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
0.1 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves.
| Mount Rainier | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 5.8% | 9.5% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mount Rainier Neighborhood Park | — | 11 |
| 2. Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park | — | 3 |
| 3. Queenstown Park | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its typical home is the priciest on its borders; Hyattsville is next at $396K. At about $440K, home values are down 2% in five years, against a rise of 13% across Maryland.
The typical Mount Rainier home is worth about $440,000, down 1.8% in a year, close to the Maryland typical home.
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
37 within 15 miles of the center of Mount Rainier
About 5 of every 100 Mount Rainier residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Maryland.
City in Maryland, United States
Mount Rainier () is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, bordering Washington, D.C. The population was 8,333 at the 2020 census. Mount Rainier is contained between the Northwest Branch Anacostia River, Cedar Lane Alley, and 34th Street to the north, 37th Street and 37th Place to the northeast, Upshur Street and Queens Chapel Road to the west, the CSX Capital Subdivision train tracks to the east, and Eastern Avenue NE to the south. Mount Rainier got its start as a streetcar suburb, when tracks were laid for the 82 Streetcar Line. According to local tradition, surveyors from the Pacific Northwest named the town, giving the streets names such as Shasta and Cascade. Histor…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Mount Rainier.
All 3 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its D; Brentwood (D) is closest.
| Town | MD rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Rainier | #247 | D | C | D | D | B |
| Chillum | #230 | C− | C+ | — | D | C+ |
| Brentwood | #245 | D | C+ | C+ | D | C |
| Hyattsville | #242 | C− | C− | D− | D | B+ |
| Cottage City | — | — | B− | — | D | C |
Cottage City has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Chillum and Cottage City report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Mount Rainier with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Mount Rainier grades D overall, better than 12% of U.S. towns and #247 of 259 in Maryland. It grades B for health, D for safety and D for schools. Schools is its weak spot, with a D.
That is 3.5 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 C.
2 notable people were born here, including Arthur S. Moreau, Jr. and Harry Chappas.
