Census-designated place · Washington County, Maryland

Halfway, Maryland

Halfway is a census-designated place in Washington County, Maryland, part of the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV metro area. It has 10,849 residents. Halfway, Maryland has a quality-of-life score of 40 out of 100 (low), ranking #9,460 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Maryland it ranks #267 of 334 cities and towns. It ranks best on job growth (high), natural hazard risk (low) and days with unhealthy air (low). It ranks worst on time spent in the emergency room (high), injury deaths (high) and drought exposure (high).

40Low

Quality-of-life score: #9,460 of 15,651 cities and towns
Maryland: #267 of 334 in MD
Population: 10,849 (2020-2024)
Land area: 4 mi²
Density: 2,484.6 /mi²
FIPS code: 2436125

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 75 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety39#9,594/15,637
Economy56#6,892/15,631
Housing24#11,403/14,977
Health29#11,071/15,609
Healthcare38#9,714/15,650
Environment76#3,647/15,453
Education34#10,253/15,649
Infrastructure55#7,033/15,650
Community37#9,860/15,651
Leisure & amenities58#6,559/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Halfway, Maryland ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Washington County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Job growth · high4.7%
97/100Maryland -1.7%United States 0.1%2026 Q1U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsProvisional dataWashington County value
Natural hazard risk · low7.3
88/100Maryland 4.72025Federal Emergency Management AgencyWashington County value
Days with unhealthy air · low0.0%
84/100Maryland 0.4%2025U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyWashington County value
Grocery stores · high2.2 /10k
81/100Maryland 1.9 /10kUnited States 1.7 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsWashington County value
Social associations · high12.3 /10k
78/100Maryland 8.9 /10kUnited States 9.1 /10k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteWashington County value
High ozone days · low0 days
76/100Maryland 2 daysUnited States 7 days2022Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyWashington County value

Weaknesses

Time spent in the emergency room · high250 min
3/100Maryland 246 minUnited States 170 minOct 2024–Sep 2025Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesWashington County value
Injury deaths · high140 /100k
6/100Maryland 95 /100kUnited States 87 /100k2019-2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteWashington County value
Drought exposure · high91%
6/100Maryland 64%United States 43%Oct 2025–Sep 2026National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), USDA and NOAAWashington County value
Primary care shortage · high17.0
9/100Maryland 7.1United States 6.2Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationWashington County value
Comfortable days · low23.4%
12/100Maryland 24.9%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationWashington County value
Drug overdose deaths · high25.0 /100k
17/100Maryland 21.4 /100kUnited States 18.4 /100kMar 2025–Feb 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataWashington County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

Rent-burdened householdsWorsening
49.1% (2015-2019) → 61.9% (2020-2024)
+13 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
80.4% (2015-2019) → 92.0% (2020-2024)
+12 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Home price to income ratioWorsening
2.7× (2015-2019) → 3.6× (2020-2024)
+32%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×
Child poverty rateWorsening
8.7% (2015-2019) → 13.6% (2020-2024)
+4.9 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Average commute timeImproving
28.3 min (2015-2019) → 22.3 min (2020-2024)
−21%5 yearsCensus table B08013US 26.9 min → 26.4 min
Rent as share of incomeWorsening
29.5% (2015-2019) → 32.9% (2020-2024)
+3.4 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Halfway, Maryland improved on 1 of 14 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 12 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved1

Broadband+12 points80.4% → 92.0%

Declined1

Price / income+0.9×2.7× → 3.6×

All 14 measures

Change of every measure of Halfway, Maryland between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	28.3 min2015-2019	22.3 min2020-2024	−6.1 min	Within the margin of error	93%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.2%2015-2019	21.3%2020-2024	−2.9 points	Within the margin of error	13%
Broadband subscriptions	80.4%2015-2019	92.0%2020-2024	+12 points	Improved	67%
Child poverty rate	8.7%2015-2019	13.6%2020-2024	+4.9 points	Within the margin of error	21%
Effective property tax rate	0.95%2015-2019	0.76%2020-2024	−0.2 points	Within the margin of error	56%
High school diploma or higher	89.0%2015-2019	89.8%2020-2024	+0.8 points	Within the margin of error	44%
Home price to income ratio	2.7×2015-2019	3.6×2020-2024	+0.9×	Declined	28%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.3822015-2019	0.4222020-2024	+0.040	Within the margin of error	21%
Median household income	$66,0522015-2019	$71,0362020-2024	+7.5%	Within the margin of error	14%
Poverty rate	7.3%2015-2019	10.5%2020-2024	+3.2 points	Within the margin of error	19%
Rent as share of income	29.5%2015-2019	32.9%2020-2024	+3.4 points	Within the margin of error	31%
Rent-burdened households	49.1%2015-2019	61.9%2020-2024	+13 points	Within the margin of error	18%
Unemployment rate	3.4%2015-2019	4.0%2020-2024	+0.7 points	Within the margin of error	35%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	3.1%2015-2019	4.7%2020-2024	+1.6 points	Within the margin of error	29%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Halfway, Maryland five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Halfway, Maryland in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Halfway, Maryland itself moved −7 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

10,849 residents (±770)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

4,590 households (±314)

Halfway, Maryland
Maryland share

Under $25k12%†565
$25k–50k24%1,079
$50k–75k16%742

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

4,590 households (±314)

Halfway, Maryland
Maryland share

Own72%3,286
Rent28%1,304

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

5,408 workers (±507)

Halfway, Maryland
Maryland share

Drive alone78%4,229
Carpool13%†728
Public transit0.2%†9

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Washington County, the county holding most of Halfway's residents.

Washington County has 3,417 employer establishments, 220 for every 10,000 residents (0.89× the US rate of 248; 0.95× Maryland's), with 61,729 paid employees at an average annual pay of $49,242. The Census Bureau also counts 11,673 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 3,417; 11,673 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 220; US 248 · Maryland 230
Paid employees: 61,729
Average annual pay: $49,242; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Washington County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	270	17.4	0.83×About typical	3,878	$76,140	545
Restaurants and other eating places	261	16.8	0.91×About typical	5,046	$21,215	65
Specialty trade contractors	230	14.8	0.96×About typical	2,318	$64,588	918
Religious organizations	137	8.8	1.59×More than typical	649	$23,723	—
Limited-service restaurants	128	8.2	1.03×About typical	2,509	$18,777	23
Lessors of real estate	112	7.2	0.58×Fewer than typical	424	$44,182	1,039
Full-service restaurants	103	6.6	0.86×About typical	2,128	$24,250	36
Services to buildings and dwellings	100	6.4	0.95×About typical	736	$33,287	710
Truck transportation	98	6.3	1.25×About typical	2,207	$62,889	321
Building equipment contractors	94	6	1.00×About typical	1,036	$62,954	214
Offices of physicians	92	5.9	0.91×About typical	1,427	$99,925	77
Automotive repair and maintenance	90	5.8	1.15×About typical	437	$49,400	154

Rank places for an industry Open Washington County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 155,437 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $6.4M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Halfway, Maryland: $591 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $6.4M; +412% vs FY2025
Per resident: $591; US $1,994
Sole-source: 10%; US 30%
Single offer: 0.3%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement$5.4M84%
National Park Service$393.9K6.1%
Defense Logistics Agency$318.8K5.0%
Department of State$88.4K1.4%
Social Security Administration$59.4K0.9%
Department of the Army$52.5K0.8%
Federal Communications Commission$33K0.5%
Federal Prison System / Bureau of Prisons$18.7K0.3%

Top recipients

KVG LLC$5M77%
TEYA DIVERSIFIED SERVICES LLC$438.1K6.8%
MACCAFERRI, INC.$365.2K5.7%
KAU INC$153.1K2.4%
KOKOSING CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC.$111.4K1.7%

Spending by fiscal year

766.4KFY2017
481KFY2018
214.6KFY2019
512.4KFY2020
1.1MFY2021
543.9KFY2022
1.9MFY2023
742.1K

Top industries (NAICS)

Management, scientific, and technical consulting services · 5416$5M77%
Facilities support services · 5612$439.7K6.9%
Architectural and structural metals manufacturing · 3323$327K5.1%
Other heavy and civil engineering construction · 2379$211.1K3.3%
Nonresidential building construction · 2362$153.1K2.4%
Warehousing and storage · 4931$88.6K

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Halfway, Maryland, so they do not add up across cities.

Halfway, Maryland's figures are part of those of Washington County, MD ($175.6M in FY2026), never added to them: 3.7% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Halfway is mostly in Washington County.

See federal money in Washington County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Halfway, Maryland is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

April McClain DelaneyD-MD-6 · 100% of residentsWith party 96%Missed 2.7%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Washington County55100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV49

Other cities and towns in Washington County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/2436125

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends