The Baltimore–Columbia–Towson Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as Central Maryland, is a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

as defined by the United States

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). The office's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, while it also examines agency pro ...

(OMB). It is part of the larger

Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area The Washington–Baltimore combined metropolitan statistical area is a combined statistical area, statistical area, including the overlapping metropolitan areas of Washington metropolitan area, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan area, B ...

. As of 2022, the combined population of the seven counties is 2,985,871, making it the 20th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the nation. The area has the fourth-highest median

household income in the United States Household income is an economic standard that can be applied to one household, or aggregated across a large group such as a county, city, or the whole country. It is commonly used by the United States government and private institutions to ...

, at $66,970 as of 2012.

Composition

The area includes the following counties: *

Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, wh ...

* Baltimore City *

Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland. The county is part of the Central Maryland region of the state. Baltimore County partly surrounds but does not include the independent city ...

* Carroll County * Harford County * Howard County * Queen Anne's County

Principal communities

The metropolitan area includes the following principal communities: *

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

* Columbia *

Towson Towson () is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 59,533 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is t ...

It also includes several other communities (not necessarily incorporated as cities or towns): *

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

* Bel Air * Catonsville *

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

* Eldersburg * Ellicott City * Edgewood * Glen Burnie *

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

* Havre de Grace * Jessup * Joppatowne *

Owings Mills Owings Mills is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore. Per the 2020 census, the population was 35,674. Owings Mills is home to the northern terminus o ...

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

In addition to its technical metropolitan area, Baltimore also receives a large number of commuters from cities such as

York, Pennsylvania York is a city in York County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located in South Central Pennsylvania, the city's population was 44,800 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in ...

and the

Washington metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also referred to as the National Capital Region, Greater Washington, or locally as the DMV (short for Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia), is the metropolitan area comprising Washing ...

History

Companies in metropolitan Baltimore

Four

Fortune 1000 {{location map+ , United States , float=right , width=400, relief=1 , caption=''Fortune'' 1000 company headquarters locations. Top 20 companies labeled, places= {{location map~ , United States , lat= 36.365378 , long= -94.217629 , label= Walmart, ...

companies are headquartered in Greater Baltimore: Grace Chemicals in Columbia and Legg Mason, T. Rowe Price, and

McCormick & Company McCormick & Company, Incorporated is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and distributes spices, seasoning mixes, condiments, and other flavoring products to retail outlets, food manufacturers, and food service businesses. The ...

in Hunt Valley. Other companies headquartered in Greater Baltimore include

AAI Corporation AAI Corporation is an aerospace and defense development and manufacturing firm, located in Hunt Valley, Maryland, US. Formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of United Industrial Corporation, AAI was acquired by Textron in 2007. It currently opera ...

and

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...

in Hunt Valley and

Adams Express Company Adams Funds, formerly Adams Express Company, is an investment company made up of Adams Diversified Equity Fund, Inc. (), a publicly traded diversified equity fund, and Adams Natural Resources Fund Inc. (), formerly Petroleum & Resources Corp., a ...

, Brown Advisory, Alex Brown, First Home Mortgage Corporation, FTI Consulting, Petroleum & Resources Corporation,

Prometric Prometric, also known as Prometric Testing, is an American test administration company. The corporate headquarters are located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The company manages a network of test centers, with thousands of sites in 160 ...

Sylvan Learning Sylvan Learning, Inc. (formerly Sylvan Learning Corporation) consists of franchised and corporate supplemental learning centers which provide personalized instruction in reading, writing, mathematics, study skills, homework support, and test pr ...

Laureate Education Laureate Education, Inc. is a company based in Miami, Florida, United States. The firm owns and operates Laureate International Universities, with campuses in Mexico and Peru. The company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq. Corporate history Beg ...

Under Armour Under Armour, Inc. is an American sportswear company that manufactures footwear and clothing, apparel headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. History 20th century Under Armour was founded on September 25, 1996, by Kevin Plank, a ...

, DAP, DeBaufre Bakeries, Wm. T. Burnett & Co, Old Mutual Financial Network, Fila USA, and

Firaxis Games Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, and Brian Reynolds (game designer), Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meie ...

in Sparks.

Government and infrastructure

The capital of Maryland and the agencies of the Maryland state government are located in the Baltimore MSA, mainly in Annapolis and Baltimore City. The area is also home to the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA) headquarters in

Fort Meade Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States military bands#Army Field Band, United States Army Field Band, and the head ...

in Anne Arundel County, as well as the

Social Security Administration The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government that administers Social Security (United ...

and the

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer M ...

(CMS) in Woodlawn in Baltimore County.

Sports teams in metropolitan Baltimore

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles (also known as the O's) are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East Division. As one of the America ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(since 1954) *

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(since 1996) * Baltimore Burn of

Women's Spring Football League The United States Women's Football League (USWFL) is a full-contact women's American football minor league that opened with exhibition play in 2010 and subsequently played its first regular season in 2011. The league was known as the "Women's Sp ...

(since 2001) * Baltimore Nighthawks of the Independent Women's Football League (since 2008) * Charm City Roller Girls of the

Women's Flat Track Derby Association The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is the international governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby. It sets the international standards for rankings, rules, and competition in the sport, and provides guidance and ...

(since 2006) * Coppin State Eagles * Johns Hopkins Blue Jays competes in Division I for men's and women's lacrosse only * Loyola Greyhounds *

Morgan State Bears The Morgan State Bears are the twelve varsity sports teams representing Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland in intercollegiate athletics, including men and women's basketball, cross country, tennis and track and field; women's-only bow ...

: *

Towson Tigers The Towson Tigers, formerly the ''Towson College Knights'', are the athletics teams of Towson University. All of the major athletic teams compete in the Coastal Athletic Association with 19 Division I athletic teams (13 in women's sports, 6 in me ...

UMBC Retrievers The UMBC Retrievers are the athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, located in Catonsville, Maryland, in intercollegiate athletics as a member of the NCAA Division I, Division I level of the National Collegiate ...

in Catonsville *

Baltimore Blast The Baltimore Blast are an American professional indoor soccer team based in Baltimore, Maryland, that competes in the Major Arena Soccer League (MASL). Including one championship victory as the original Baltimore Blast, the team has won 10 c ...

of the

Major Arena Soccer League The Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) is a professional indoor soccer league in North America. The MASL features teams playing coast-to-coast in the United States and Mexico. The league is the highest level of arena soccer in North America. The le ...

(since 2014) In

: *

Navy Midshipmen The Navy Midshipmen are the athletic teams that represent the United States Naval Academy. The academy sponsors 36 varsity sports teams and 12 club sport teams.Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...

* Chesapeake Bayhawks in Annapolis *

Maryland Black Bears The Maryland Black Bears are a Tier II junior ice hockey team in the North American Hockey League's East Division. The Black Bears play their home games in the Piney Orchard Ice Arena in Odenton, Maryland. Founded in 2018, the Black Bears are ...

in Odenton

Notes

{{Coord, 39, 16, 59.86, N, 76, 36, 27.6, W, type:landmark_region:US-MD, display=title * Metropolitan areas of Maryland Regions of Maryland