Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 4,602, incorporated in 1904. Public schools that outperform most of Maryland.
Trash day: look up yoursSykesville is one of the best-graded places in America: an A+, 20th among Maryland's 259 graded towns. The median household earns $140K, its schools rank ahead of 92% of Maryland towns, and it is healthier than 88% of U.S. towns. Its lowest mark, a C, is in cost of living. 18% of the land in Sykesville is conserved, above both Maryland’s towns (9.5%) and U.S. towns (4.3%). Sykesville has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Sykesville Historic District and Springfield Presbyterian Church.
Where Sykesville beats most towns.
Where Sykesville’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 Sykesville is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 565 in 1910, 4,316 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1895 and 6 maps from 1892 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Sykesville. 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 draw35 mi LandmarkArlington National Cemetery
Big draw34 mi LandmarkUnited States Triumphal Arch
Big draw34 mi MuseumSmithsonian Institution30.0M visitors a year
Big draw35 mi LandmarkRaven Rock Mountain ComplexWhite 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 · Raven Rock Mountain Complex: US Government, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Sykesville, 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 Sykesville.
Sykesville has schools in the top 5% of Maryland, fares better on crime within Maryland than nationally and has less food insecurity than most of Maryland.
That grade ranks #6 of the 261 Maryland towns we grade for schools.
Its public schools are run by the Carroll County Public Schools. One of its 2 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. Sykesville’s only public school teaches 697 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sykesville MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 697 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MD on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with Maryland is food insecurity: 8% of its 3,380 adults worry about having enough food, against 15.4% statewide. Against the 3,612 U.S. towns with household incomes like Sykesville’s, it is healthier than 55%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
In Sykesville, 13% of adults say their health is fair or poor, and 9% have diabetes. 31% of Sykesville adults feel lonely, against 34% in Maryland’s towns and 33% across U.S. towns. Add to that, for adults here, the share who report frequent physical distress is 10%. Of 32 CDC measures, Sykesville beats the Maryland average on 15 and trails it on 4.
| Sykesville | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 12% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 17% | 19% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 9% | 12% | 12% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 75% | 79% | 79% |
| What stands out | Sykesville | MD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 4.9% | 8.4% |
| More binge drinkers | 17.9% | 14.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Just 3% of Sykesville’s working residents have a job in town. Among residents in the town, 3.1% live below the poverty line. Between 2013 and 2023, jobs here rose by 109, to 1,202. Its average trip to work comes in at 31 minutes.
| Sykesville | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $140,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 3.1% | 7% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 10% | 18% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 31 minutes | 32 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
At 10.3 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 86% of Maryland’s graded towns. Violent crime is rare: 4 reported in 2025, 0.9 per 1,000 residents.
Sykesville’s property crime rate stands at 5.7 per 1,000 residents. Its violent crime rate comes in at 0.9 per 1,000 residents.
| Sykesville | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.7 per 1,000 residents | 14.4 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.9 per 1,000 residents | 2.4 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
63% of Sykesville’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by strong winds at 13%. Compared with 77% of U.S. communities, expected storm and flood damage in the town is lower. This Maryland town has had 2 paid flood insurance claims since 2003.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
In Sykesville, the rent at the middle of the market is $1,828 a month. 78% of households are owner-occupiers in the town.
| Sykesville | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,828 a month | $1,809 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 78% | 74% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Trails total 0.4 miles in 9 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Patapsco Valley State Park Freedom Area, at 51 acres. The trail network density for Sykesville comes to 0.3 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bloom Field Park | 0.3 mi | 4 |
| 2. Patapsco Valley State Park Freedom Area | — | 51 |
| 3. Carrie Dorsey Park | — | 30 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
A winter brings about 29 inches of snow, with January nights at 24° and July afternoons at 86°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
7 within 15 miles of the center of Sykesville
About 11 of every 100 Sykesville residents are enrolled in college, against 7 across Maryland.
3 places in Sykesville on the National Register of Historic Places.
Town in Maryland, United States
Sykesville is a small town in Howard and Carroll counties, Maryland, United States. The town lies 20 miles (32 km) west of Baltimore and 40 miles (64 km) north of Washington D.C. As of the 2020 census, Sykesville had a population of 4,316.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Sykesville.
| Town | MD rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sykesville | #20 | A+ | C | B+ | A | A |
| Eldersburg | #33 | A | C | — | A | A |
Eldersburg reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Sykesville with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Sykesville grades A+ overall, better than 96% of U.S. towns and #20 of 259 in Maryland. It grades A for health, B+ for safety and A for schools.
That is 5.5 years of the area's median household income ($99,470 across the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, 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 C.
Sykesville was incorporated in 1904 and has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places. 2 notable people were born here, including Brandon Copeland and Christopher Emery.
