Best PlacesQueen Anne's County, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Queen Anne's County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Queen Anne's County ranks 579th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Queen Anne's County
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Queen Anne's County
The parts of Queen Anne's County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Stevensville & Chester
Crime runs lower, tree cover is thicker, and incomes run higher.
Grasonville & Queenstown
Local pay stretches further, though more homes sit empty.
Centreville
More households have young kids and disaster risk is lower.
Scores across Queen Anne's County run from about the 23rd to the 88th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Queen Anne's County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Queen Anne's County ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of counties
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of counties
- Household income$117,581 median, better than 97% of counties
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of counties
Where Queen Anne's County ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of counties
- Short commute33.3 minutes each way, better than only 6% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 7% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Queen Anne's County
A household needs to earn about $123,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Queen Anne's County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $117,581; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Queen Anne's County's effective rate of 0.74%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Queen Anne's County
Queen Anne's County runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Queen Anne's County.
Who works in Queen Anne's County, and how
Work in Queen Anne's County centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Queen Anne's County
Queen Anne's County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of counties and more parkland per resident than 71% of counties. The coast is about 10 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Queen Anne's County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Queen Anne's County growing, and who is moving in?
Queen Anne's County has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Baltimore, MD metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Queen Anne's County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Queen Anne's County, month by month
Queen Anne's County sees roughly 88 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 37° | 31° |
| April | 67° | 57° | 49° |
| July | 90° | 81° | 74° |
| October | 70° | 62° | 55° |
Flying in and out of Queen Anne's County
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 30 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.3 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Queen Anne's County
Schools across Queen Anne's County average a B−, better than 60% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Bayside Elementary SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Grasonville Elementary SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
- Matapeake Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Matapeake Middle SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Stevensville Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
- Centreville Middle SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- South River HighA · 70% proficient
- Kent Island High SchoolA− · 66% proficient
- Queen Anne's County High SchoolB · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Queen Anne's County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Queen Anne's County measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Queen Anne's County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Queen Anne's County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 15% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Queen Anne's County
Is Queen Anne's County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Queen Anne's County ranks 579th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on fast internet, big-city access, and what local pay buys, and lowest on taxes and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Queen Anne's County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $475,081. The overall cost of living runs about 0% above the national average. Set against a $117,581 median income, cost of living beats 97% of counties.
Is Queen Anne's County safe?
Yes, Queen Anne's County is safer than 83% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $262 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Queen Anne's County?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 31. That works out to about 88 pleasant days a year, more than 49% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Queen Anne's County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Stevensville & Chester, Grasonville & Queenstown, and Centreville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Queen Anne's County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Queen Anne's County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Queen Anne's County represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Queen Anne's County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Queen Anne's County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Queen Anne's County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Queen Anne's County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Queen Anne's County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Queen Anne's County detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.