ZIP code 21842

ZIP 21842 is a mid-size town in Worcester County, Maryland, with 11,121 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #173 of 477 ranked by population — larger than 63% of them. The median age here is 53.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. 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 21842 earn a median of $75,372 a year, 4% below 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 8.2% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 21842 is valued at $415,900, 37.1% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,258 a month, 10.5% below the national figure, or roughly $15,096 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20% 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 5.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 73.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 53.7 puts ZIP 21842 well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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 21842 is tabulated inside Worcester County, Maryland, one of 10 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 477 across Maryland. This is a mid-sized ZIP that covers a large share of its county's addresses. 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 21842 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 21842 reports a median household income of $75,372, 14% below the $87,717 county median, and 28% below the $104,338 typical MD ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $415,900, 27% above the county figure and 4% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,258 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 21842.

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 21842 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.