ZIP code 21863

ZIP 21863 is a mid-size town in Worcester County, Maryland, with 5,202 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #234 of 477 ranked by population — larger than 51% of them. The median age here is 38.3 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 21863 earn a median of $71,250 a year, 9.3% below the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 14.2% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 21863 is valued at $245,500, 19.1% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,058 a month, 24.8% below the national figure, or roughly $12,696 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 74.7% 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.

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 21863 is tabulated inside Worcester County, Maryland, one of 10 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 477 across Maryland. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. 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 21863 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 21863 reports a median household income of $71,250, 19% below the $87,717 county median, and 32% below the $104,338 typical MD ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $245,500, 25% below the county figure and 39% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,058 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 21863.

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 21863 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.