Potomac is a medium-sized town located in the state of Maryland. With a population of 44,821 people and six constituent neighborhoods, Potomac is the 16th largest community in Maryland.

Potomac is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 97.02% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Potomac is a town of professionals, managers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Potomac who work in management occupations (19.17%), sales jobs (10.80%), and business and financial occupations (9.39%).

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

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

A relatively large number of people in Potomac telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 9.35% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.

In addition, Potomac is home to many people who could 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, Potomac 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, Potomac really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Potomac 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.

One downside of living in Potomac is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Potomac, the average commute to work is 30.50 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

Potomac Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Potomac is a pretty powerful place. 76.40% of the adults in Potomac have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 14.96% for all cities and towns.

The per capita income in Potomac in 2000 was $64,875, which is wealthy relative to Maryland and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $259,500 for a family of four. However, Potomac contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

Foreign born people are also an important part of Potomac's cultural character, accounting for 24.72% of the town's population.

The languages spoken by people in Potomac are also diverse. These are tabulated as the languages people preferentially speak when they are at home with their families. The most common language spoken in Potomac is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Persian.