Destination profile
Howard County, Maryland
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Cost of living and taxes
Effective property tax rate
1.11%
Maryland county average: 0.93%
Median property tax bill
$6,983
On a median home of $630,300
This is the rate actually paid on the median home in Howard County — the median bill divided by the median value. It is not the headline millage, and it does not include any senior or homestead exemption you may qualify for.
Income tax, sales tax, insurance and everyday prices for MD are handled in the moving-cost calculator, which lets you put your own income and home value in.
Source: county median property tax and median home value, tax year 2026, loaded 2026.
Health care
Nearest emergency room
JOHNS HOPKINS HOWARD COUNTY MEDICAL CENTER
1.8 miles
3 of 5 CMS stars
Straight-line distance from the county’s population centre. Road travel is longer.
Nearest major teaching hospital
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MEDICAL CENTER
13 miles
Major medical-school affiliation on the Medicare Provider of Services file — where complex care and specialist referrals usually end up.
Primary-care doctors per 100,000 people
182.2
Maryland county median: 49.3 per 100,000
Specialists: 410.4 per 100,000
Hospital beds: 1.45 per 1,000
HRSA does not designate this county a Health Professional Shortage Area for primary care.
Sources: HRSA Area Health Resources File 2024–25 (physicians, beds, shortage areas); CMS Hospital General Information and Provider of Services file, 2026 release.
Physicians are counted where they practise, not where patients live, so a county next to a medical hub can look thinner than it is — which is why we lead with distance to the nearest hospital.
Climate
Average January low
24°F
Average July high
87°F
Climate burden: moderate
5,764 heating and cooling degree days a year.
Source: NOAA nClimDiv county climate normals, 1991–2020 (2020 release).
Arts and culture
Places you can name in Howard County
- Columbia Center For Theatrical Arts — Performing arts
- Silhouette Stages — Performing arts
- African Art Museum of Maryland — Museum
- Carrollton Hall — Museum
- DoodleHATCH Interactive Art Museum — Museum
- Ellicott City B & O Railroad Station Museum — Museum
Museums and performing-arts venues in the county
35
Maryland county median: 21
In and around, within about an hour
449
Includes venues in neighbouring counties within 60 miles of this county’s population centre — not just the county itself.
Places on the National Register of Historic Places
21
Maryland county median: 25.5
Active arts and museum nonprofits
24
Combined annual revenue: $971,449
Businesses on the Census County Business Patterns file
- Theatre companies
- 13
- Event and music promoters
- 4
- Museums
- 7
- Historic sites
- Fewer than 3 (withheld)
The Census withholds any count below three to protect individual businesses, so “fewer than 3” means exactly that — it does not mean none.
Sources: Overture Maps Foundation places (venue names and locations, CDLA-Permissive-2.0); National Park Service National Register of Historic Places; National Center for Charitable Statistics Business Master File at the Urban Institute (ODC-BY 1.0); Census County Business Patterns 2023.
These are counts of what exists, not a rating of how good it is. A county with one much-loved theatre can be a better fit than one with a dozen you would never visit.
Family proximity
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Nearest commercial airport
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) is 15 miles away with 70 nonstop destinations.
Sources: OurAirports (airport names and locations, public domain); Bureau of Transportation Statistics On-Time Performance, 2026 (nonstop destinations flown by reporting carriers in the most recent month). Distances are great-circle from the county centre point.
Every figure above is named by source and vintage. See our data & methodology for the agency, licence and limits behind each dimension.