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Data on this report is based on areas within the legal city boundary, outlined in black on the map. Any additional neighborhoods shown on the map are associated with the city by name and are included for reference only.

Columbia, MD
Real Estate & Demographic Data






Columbia profile


Living in Columbia



Columbia is a larger medium-sized town located in the state of Maryland. With a population of 104,681 people and 20 constituent neighborhoods, Columbia is the second largest community in Maryland.

Housing costs in Columbia are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in Maryland.

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

A relatively large number of people in Columbia telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 15.25% 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.

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

In Columbia, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 30.88 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average.

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Columbia, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Columbia is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 62.84% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84%.

The per capita income in Columbia in 2018 was $54,634, which is upper middle income relative to Maryland, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $218,536 for a family of four. However, Columbia contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Columbia is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call Columbia home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Columbia residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Columbia include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Polish.

In addition, Columbia has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (21.15%).

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