Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 6,840, settled in 1875.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Ocean City grades B overall, 141st among Maryland's 259 graded towns. It is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns. Its schools rank ahead of 96% of Maryland towns. The catch is cost: the typical home is worth about $445K, 5.4 years of the Ocean Pines area’s $82K median household income. 39% of working residents work locally in Ocean City, where Maryland’s towns sit at 3.1% and U.S. towns at 8%. On hazard risk, just 5 of Maryland’s 329 towns do worse. Ocean City has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them St. Paul's by-the-sea Protestant Episcopal Church and Captain Robert S. Craig Cottage.
Where Ocean City beats most towns.
Coastal flooding makes up 31% of the storm damage FEMA expects here.
83.1% of homes are seasonal or vacation homes, so the town is fuller in summer than its census count suggests.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA · OpenStreetMap
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maryland), ordered by how far Ocean City is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 98% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 11%), so the B overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 49 in 1880, 6,844 in 2020. The archive holds 24 old photos and papers going back to 1905 and 5 maps from 1901 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Ocean City. Close and well known come first.
6 mi National SeashoreAssateague Island National Seashore2.3M visitors a year
in town Theme parkTrimper's Rides
31 mi MuseumUSCGC Tamaroa
26 mi LandmarkFort Miles
21 mi Theme parkFunland (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware)Assateague Island National Seashore: Fritz Geller-Grimm, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Trimper's Rides: Mttbme, CC BY-SA 3.0 · USCGC Tamaroa: Unknown USCG member, Public domain · Fort Miles: Unknown, Public domain · Funland (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware): Tsole, CC BY-SA 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Ocean City, 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 Ocean City.
Ocean City has milder winter nights than almost anywhere else in Maryland and draws workers from Ocean Pines and beyond, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Maryland (mostly hurricanes).
12 miles of trail in 11 parks and preserves. The trail density in Ocean City is 1.3 miles per square mile. The biggest park or preserve is Devil Island Area, at 47 acres.
| Ocean City | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.3 miles per square mile | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.6% | 9.5% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Ocean City Beach Erosion Control District | 0.4 mi | 10 |
| 2. Devil Island Area | — | 47 |
| 3. Northside Park | 0.1 mi | 32 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
6,510 jobs are based in Ocean City, 2.2 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 19.6 minutes, against 31.1 across Maryland.
About one in 3 of Ocean City’s working residents works in town. Ocean City’s average trip to work is 20 minutes. Jobs based in Ocean City grew to 6,510 in 2023, 663 more than in 2013.
| Ocean City | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 20 minutes | 32 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $78,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 7% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 17% | 18% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
31% of Ocean City residents are 65 or older. Only 2 of the 261 Maryland towns we compare have a higher median age than Ocean City. 9.4% of Ocean City residents are under 18.
| Ocean City | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 9.4% | 23% | 22% |
| Median age | 55.6 years | 39.4 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 31% | 16% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 42% | 42% | 29% |
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±3.1 points. Across Maryland, 51.3% of residents are women.
| Ocean City | MD | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 6.3% | 11.9% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 3.1% | 10.3% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 9.6% | 8.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 11.8% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 6.4% | 13.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.7% | 12.6% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 19.8% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 19% | 9.9% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 12.2% | 6.8% | 7% |
| No diploma | 5% | 8.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 24.5% | 23.4% | 26% |
| Some college | 20.7% | 17.4% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8% | 6.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 25.3% | 22.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 16.4% | 20.8% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
January nights average 29.8°, the #2 highest of 536 Maryland places with climate records; July afternoons average 85.7°.
Ocean City has mild winters and warm summers. Only 1 of the 261 Maryland towns we compare have a higher January low than Ocean City. About 10 inches of snow falls in a winter.
| Ocean City | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 30°F | 26°F | 22°F |
| July high | 86°F | 88°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Within Maryland it is less healthy than 61% of the 261 graded towns: Maryland sets a high bar.
83% of adults had a checkup this year in Ocean City. Ocean City beats the Maryland average on 12 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 8. 29% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Ocean City.
| Ocean City | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 38% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 34% | 33% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 35% | 35% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 83% | 79% | 79% |
| What stands out | Ocean City | MD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 8.5% | 13.5% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 10.2% | 15.4% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 12.4% | 7.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Ocean City's reported crime rate is well above Maryland's. No town among the 56 in Maryland we compare has a higher property crime rate than Ocean City. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts.
| Ocean City | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 9.8 per 1,000 residents | 3.5 | 1.7 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 88.1 per 1,000 residents | 18.5 | 11.5 |
FBI crime data, 2024 · crimes reported to police
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 98% of Maryland towns, with expected losses of about $1,225 per resident a year; that rating is what its C+ for hazard risk is built on. 1,022 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 37 properties have flooded more than once.
Since 1978, 1,022 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Ocean City. Only 5 of the 261 Maryland towns we compare have a higher FEMA risk score than Ocean City.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
None within 15 miles of Ocean City; the nearest are
About 7 of every 100 Ocean City residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Maryland.
Where Ocean City’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
2 places in Ocean City on the National Register of Historic Places.
City in Maryland, United States
Ocean City, officially the Town of Ocean City, is an Atlantic resort city in Worcester County, Maryland, along the East Coast of the United States. The population was 6,844 in the 2020 U.S. census, although during summer weekends the city hosts between 320,000 and 345,000 vacationers, and up to eight million visitors annually. During the summer, Ocean City becomes the second most populated municipality in Maryland, after Baltimore. It is part of the Salisbury metropolitan area as defined by the United States Census Bureau. During peak vacation season, the city gains over 1,000 seasonal police officers, along with additional firefighters and other workers. Numerous events take place within t…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Ocean City grades B overall, better than 60% of U.S. towns and #141 of 259 in Maryland. It grades B+ for health and A+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
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