Bethesda is a larger medium-sized town located in the state of Maryland. With a population of 55,300 people and 14 constituent neighborhoods, Bethesda is the seventh largest community in Maryland.

Bethesda is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 97.51% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Bethesda is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Bethesda who work in management occupations (17.35%), legal occupations (11.21%), and business and financial occupations (8.85%).

And if you like science, one thing you'll find is that Bethesda has lots of scientists living in town - whether they be life scientists, physical scientists (like astronomers), or social scientists (like geographers!). So, if you're scientific-minded, you might like it here too.

Of important note, Bethesda is also a town of artists. Bethesda has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Bethesda's character.

Also of interest is that Bethesda has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 8.01% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

One thing that you will notice about Bethesda is that there is a good-sized population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. Many singles consider Bethesda a good place to live without being in a really big city, with opportunities for friendships and fun with others like themselves.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Bethesda is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

Because of many things, Bethesda is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Bethesda really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Bethesda perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

Bethesda Information and Demographics

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Bethesda. 78.88% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 14.96%.

The per capita income in Bethesda in 2000 was $58,479, which is wealthy relative to Maryland and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $233,916 for a family of four. However, Bethesda contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Bethesda is a somewhat ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Bethesda home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Bethesda is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Bethesda include Irish, English, German, Russian, Italian, Polish, French, and Eastern European.

Foreign born people are also an important part of Bethesda's cultural character, accounting for 21.39% of the town's population.

The most common language spoken in Bethesda is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.