Featured Maryland Cities and Counties

Annapolis Anne Arundel County Baltimore County Bethesda Bowie Calvert County Carroll County Charles County Columbia Ellicott City Frederick County Gaithersburg Germantown Howard County Montgomery County Potomac Prince George's County Silver Spring Upper Marlboro Waldorf

Maryland Quick Facts

Located in the Mid-Atlantic region of America, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the District of Columbia across the Potomac River, Maryland is home to a population of around 5.6 million. The majority of the population is concentrated in the cities and suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. The state's geography ranges from sandy dunes in the east, marshlands, rolling hills and forests and mountain pine groves in the west. The Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state. The capital is Annapolis, the largest city is Baltimore, and other large cities include Bethesda, Rockville and Silver Spring. The state has the highest median household income of any state in the U.S. with $68,080 and its poverty rate of 7.8% is the lowest in the country. The state is a life sciences hub, with more than 350 biotechnology firms. There are a number of government, educational and private-sector institutions and agencies throughout the state, such as the University System of Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Celera Genomics, Human Genome Sciences, the J. Craig Venter Institute, the Food and Drug Administration, MedImmune, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Transportation, centered around the port of Baltimore, is also a big industry-producer and is the number two auto port in the U.S. The defense/aerospace industry has companies and institutions, and there is a large number of satellite government headquarters in the area near D.C. Commercial fishing in Chesapeake Bay area and agriculture are big industries throughout the state as well. There are 19 private colleges, the University of Maryland, Towson University, Maryland Institute College of Art and a number of other colleges and universities throughout the state. The state is also the home of the U.S. Naval Academy. Two professional sports teams, the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL and the Baltimore Orioles of MLB, are based here.