Montgomery County, Maryland
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Montgomery County and Fairfax County sit on opposite sides of the Potomac, and their distress profiles are nearly identical. Both wealthy DC suburbs. Both Healthy zone. Both driven almost entirely by housing costs. Montgomery's housing burden scores 80.2. Its poverty score is 4.2. Its debt score is 26.1. The pattern is the same one playing out across the river. The only difference is the degree. Half of renters spend more than 30% of income on housing. The owner burden percentile sits at 85. The median household income is 1.4 times Maryland's statewide figure. Child poverty is 7.1%. Those numbers should produce a county with essentially no financial distress. Instead, the overall score is 34.8, pushed upward almost entirely by the cost of living near the capital. Next door, Prince George's County scores 58.1 (Elevated). That's a 23-point gap between two counties that share a border and a metro area. Montgomery ranks 16th of 24 Maryland counties. Howard County to the south manages 26.1. Frederick to the north, 32.9. The wealthy DC suburbs cluster together in the Healthy zone, surrounded by neighbors where the income base isn't high enough to absorb the same housing costs.
The Numbers Behind the Score
The CDI measures five statistically derived factors of household financial distress, PCA-weighted. Montgomery County's primary driver is Housing Cost Burden at 87.6 — worse than roughly 88% of U.S. counties.
Scores are percentile-based: 50 = national median, higher = more distressed.
Neighbors and Peers
Neighboring Counties
| County | Score | Zone | vs. Montgomery County |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montgomery County, MD | 40.3 | Normal | — |
| Prince George's County, MD | 73.5 | Serious | +33.2 |
| District of Columbia, DC | 53.5 | Elevated | +13.1 |
| Frederick County, MD | 38.8 | Normal | -1.6 |
| Howard County, MD | 34.2 | Healthy | -6.1 |
| Fairfax County, VA | 30.0 | Healthy | -10.3 |
| Loudoun County, VA | 25.1 | Healthy | -15.2 |
| Arlington County, VA | 23.5 | Healthy | -16.9 |
Population Peers
| County | Score | Zone | vs. Montgomery County |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York County, NY | 40.4 | Normal | +0.1 |
| Alameda County, CA | 39.3 | Normal | -1.0 |
| Allegheny County, PA | 41.6 | Normal | +1.3 |
| Oakland County, MI | 38.1 | Normal | -2.3 |
| Hennepin County, MN | 37.5 | Normal | -2.9 |
Download Data
Export all distress indicators for Montgomery County as a CSV file.
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