WildewoodMD
A town of 7,552.
Is Wildewood a good place to live?
Wildewood is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades A overall, 64th among Maryland's 259 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $127K. It also does better than most on health: it is healthier than 81% of U.S. towns. A typical home there costs about $383K, 3 years of the Lexington Park metro’s $126K median household income. Wildewood’s mean commuting time is 37 minutes, against 32 minutes in Maryland’s towns and 25 minutes across U.S. towns. Wildewood has 1 place on the National Register.
What makes Wildewood stand out
Where Wildewood beats most towns.
96% of working residents leave Wildewood for work
Where Wildewood’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Wildewood grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Maryland), ordered by how far Wildewood is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Wildewood: who provides what
Wildewood 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 Wildewood.
Wildewood has a longer frost-free season than almost anywhere else in Maryland, has homes that are cheap against local pay and owes part of its health edge to its incomes.
Very low risk in Wildewood, with inland flooding at the top
Wildewood’s FEMA hazard score stands at 12 of 100. FEMA puts 37% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 33% to hurricanes. Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 88% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
On state tests, Wildewood’s schools beat 68% of Maryland districts
Its public schools are run by the St. Mary's County Public Schools. Enrollment at Wildewood’s public school: 715 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evergreen Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 715 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MD on state tests and graduation
For health, Wildewood earns an A−
Against the 4,869 U.S. towns with household incomes like Wildewood’s, it is less healthy than 50%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Among adults in Wildewood, 9.4% have diabetes. On the CDC’s 32 measures, Wildewood is ahead of Maryland on 13 and behind on 3.
| Wildewood | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 14% | 16% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 35% | 35% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 9.4% | 12% | 12% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 11% | 12% | 14% |
| What stands out | Wildewood | MD |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had a stroke | 2.4% | 3.4% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 10.9% | 15.4% |
| More binge drinkers | 18.1% | 14.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
With 0.7 jobs for every working resident, most of Wildewood’s workers commute out
Half the trips to work are shorter than 12 miles. Wildewood had 2,160 jobs in 2023, up 352 from 2013. Most working residents leave Wildewood for work: only 4% work in town. The share of residents in Wildewood who live below the poverty line: 4.7%.
| Wildewood | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $127,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 4.7% | 7% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 4.1% | 3.1% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Wildewood: four seasons and pleasant summers
The Patuxent River Nas weather station, 7 miles away, records that the frost-free season runs about 230 days, the highest of 536 Maryland places with climate records.
July afternoons reach 88°, January nights drop to 27° and about 13 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Wildewood keeps 6% of its land conserved
Trails total 0.9 miles in 3 parks and preserves. The trail density in Wildewood is 0.3 miles per square mile.
| Wildewood | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.3 miles per square mile | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 6% | 9.5% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Wildewood Community Park | 0.3 mi | 10 |
| 2. Wildewood Park #2 | — | 11 |
| 3. Pepperidge Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
A home in Wildewood sells for about $417K at the median
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 C+ for cost of living.
For Wildewood, the rent at the middle of the market is $2,144 a month. 64% of households live in a home they own in the town. Homes sold in Wildewood spent a median 40 days on the market.
| Wildewood | Maryland towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,144 a month | $1,809 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 64% | 74% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
George Washington Birthplace National Monument and 15 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Wildewood. Close and well known come first.
21 mi National MonumentGeorge Washington Birthplace National Monument72K visitors a year
20 mi State parkPoint Lookout State Park
12 mi Ancient siteU-1105
5 mi MuseumPatuxent River Naval Air Museum
39 mi ParkwayGeorge Washington Memorial Parkway6.7M visitors a year
38 mi National park siteFort Washington Park502K visitors a yearPhoto credits
George Washington Birthplace National Monument: National Park Service Digital Image Archives, Public domain · Point Lookout State Park: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0 · U-1105: U.S. Navy, Public domain · Patuxent River Naval Air Museum: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0 · George Washington Memorial Parkway: Yoichi Okamoto, Public domain · Fort Washington Park: Dfowlerdc, CC BY-SA 3.0
Everything we know about Wildewood
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Wildewood
About 6 of every 100 Wildewood residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Maryland.
About Wildewood
Census-designated place in Maryland, United States
Wildewood is a planned community and census-designated place (CDP) in St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States. It is in east-central St. Mary's County, 7 miles (11 km) east of Leonardtown, the county seat, and 58 miles (93 km) southeast of Washington, D.C. It is bordered to the east by the unincorporated community of California. Homesites feature large shade trees. Wildewood was first listed as a CDP prior to the 2020 census which listed a population of 7,821.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 2.9 sq mi
- Elevation
- 105 ft
Wildewood’s neighbors
One town shares a border with Wildewood.
| Town | MD rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildewood | #64 | A | C+ | — | B+ | A− |
| California | #39 | A | B+ | — | B+ | B+ |
Wildewood and California report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Wildewood with a neighbor →
Questions about Wildewood
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Wildewood, MD a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Wildewood grades A overall, better than 87% of U.S. towns and #64 of 259 in Maryland. It grades A− for health and B+ for schools.
Is Wildewood, MD expensive?
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 C+.