ZIP code 21204

ZIP 21204 is a mid-size town in Baltimore County, Maryland, with 19,605 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #128 of 477 ranked by population — larger than 73% of them. The median age here is 34.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 21204 earn a median of $98,452 a year, 25.4% above the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 14.9% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 21204 is valued at $571,800, 88.5% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,894 a month, 34.7% above the national figure, or roughly $22,728 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 23.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 5.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 46.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.

ZIP 21204 is tabulated inside Baltimore County, Maryland, one of 44 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 477 across Maryland. This is a mid-sized suburban ZIP inside a county that is split across many delivery areas. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 21204 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 21204 reports a median household income of $98,452, 9% below the $107,714 county median, and 6% below the $104,338 typical MD ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $571,800, 31% above the county figure and 43% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,894 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Maryland charges 6% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 21204.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 21204 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.