Maryland - WikiHQ

is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States. It borders Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east, as well as with the Atlantic Ocean to its east, and the national capital and federal district of Washington, D.C. to the southwest. With a total area of , Maryland is the ninth-smallest state by land area, and its population of 6.1 million ranks it the 19th-most populous state and the fifth-most densely populated. Maryland's capital city is Annapolis, and the state's most populous city is Baltimore.

Maryland's coastline was first explored by Europeans in the 16th century. Prior to that, it was inhabited by several Native American tribes, mostly the Algonquian peoples. One of the original Thirteen Colonies, the charter for the Province of Maryland was petitioned and secured in 1632 by George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore and Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, and the land first settled in 1634, primarily to provide a religious haven for Catholics persecuted in England. Religious strife was common in Maryland's early years, and Catholics remained a minority, albeit in greater numbers than in any other English colony. Its economy was heavily plantation-based and centered mostly on the cultivation of tobacco. Demand for cheap labor from Maryland colonists led to the importation of numerous indentured servants and enslaved Africans. In 1760, Maryland's current boundaries took form following the settlement of a long-running border dispute with Pennsylvania. Although it was a slave state, Maryland remained in the Union during the American Civil War, and its proximity to Washington D.C. and Virginia made it a significant strategic location. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Maryland took part in the Industrial Revolution, driven by its seaports, railroad networks, and mass immigration from Europe.

Since the 1940s, the state's population has grown rapidly, to approximately six million residents, and it is among the most densely populated U.S. states. , Maryland had the highest median household income of any state, owing in large part to its proximity to Washington, D.C., and a highly diversified economy spanning manufacturing, retail services, public administration, real estate, higher education, information technology, defense contracting, health care, and biotechnology. Maryland is one of the most multicultural states in the country; it is one of the nine states where non-Whites compose a majority of the population, with the fifth-highest percentage of African Americans, and high numbers of residents born in Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean. The state's central role in U.S. history is reflected by its hosting of some of the highest numbers of historic landmarks per capita.

The western portion of the state contains stretches of the Appalachian Mountains, the central portion is primarily composed of the Piedmont, and the eastern side of the state makes up a significant portion of the Chesapeake Bay. Sixteen of Maryland's twenty-three counties, and the city of Baltimore, border the tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay estuary and its many tributaries, Maryland's geography, culture, and history are diverse, including elements of the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, and Southern regions of the country.

History

17th century

Maryland's first colonial settlement

Present-day Maryland was originally inhabited by native tribes such as the Piscataway (including the Patuxent), the Nanticoke (including the Tocwogh, the Ozinie and other subdivisions), the Powhatan, the Lenape, the Susquehannock, the Shawnee, the Tutelo, the Saponi, the Pocomoke and the Massawomeck. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore (1579–1632), sought a charter from King Charles I for the territory between Massachusetts to the north and Virginia to the immediate south.

After Baltimore died in April 1632, the charter was granted to his son, Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore (1605–1675), on June 20, 1632. Officially, the new "Maryland Colony" was named in honor of Henrietta Maria of France, wife of Charles I. Lord Baltimore initially proposed the name "Crescentia", the land of growth or increase, but "the King proposed Terra Mariae [Mary Land], which was concluded on and inserted in the bill." first called Augusta Carolina, after the King, and later named St. Mary's County.

Lord Baltimore's first settlers arrived in the new colony in March 1634, with his younger brother, Leonard Calvert (1606–1647), as the first provincial Governor of Maryland. They made their first permanent settlement at St. Mary's City in what is now St. Mary's County. They purchased the site from the paramount chief of the region, who was eager to establish trade. St. Mary's became the first capital of Maryland, and remained so for 60 years until 1695. More settlers soon followed. Their tobacco crops were successful and quickly made the new colony profitable. However, given the incidence of malaria, yellow fever, and typhoid, life expectancy in Maryland was about 10 years less than in New England.

Persecution of Catholics

Maryland was founded to provide a haven for England's Roman Catholic minority.

Although Maryland was the most heavily Catholic of the English mainland colonies, the religion was still in the minority, consisting of less than 10% of the total population.

In 1642, several Puritans left Virginia for Maryland and founded the city of Providence, now called Annapolis, on the western shore of the upper Chesapeake Bay. A dispute with traders from Virginia over Kent Island in the Chesapeake led to armed conflict. In 1644, William Claiborne, a Puritan, seized Kent Island while his associate, the pro-Parliament Puritan Richard Ingle, took over St. Mary's. Both used religion as a tool to gain popular support. The two years from 1644 to 1646 when Claiborne and his Puritan associates held sway were known as "The Plundering Time". They captured Jesuit priests, imprisoned them, and then sent them back to England.

In 1646, Leonard Calvert returned with troops, recaptured St. Mary's City, and restored order. The House of Delegates passed the "Act concerning Religion" in 1649, granting religious liberty to all Trinitarian Christians.]]

The royal charter granted Maryland the land north of the Potomac River up to the 40th parallel. A problem arose when Charles II granted a charter for the Province of Pennsylvania, which defined Pennsylvania's southern border as the 40th parallel, identical to Maryland's northern border. But the grant indicated that Charles II and William Penn assumed the 40th parallel would pass close to New Castle, Delaware, where it falls north of Philadelphia, which Penn already designated as Pennsylvania's capital city. Negotiations ensued after the problem was discovered in 1681.

A compromise proposed by Charles II in 1682 was undermined by Penn's receiving the additional grant of what is now Delaware. Penn successfully argued that the Maryland charter entitled Lord Baltimore only to unsettled lands, and Dutch settlement in Delaware predated his charter. The dispute remained unresolved for nearly a century, carried on by the descendants of William Penn and Lord Baltimore—the Calvert family, which controlled Maryland, and the Penn family, which controlled Pennsylvania. In the early years, the line between indentured servants and African slaves or laborers was fluid, and white and black laborers commonly lived and worked together, and formed unions. Mixed-race children born to white mothers were considered free by the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, by which children took the social status of their mothers, a principle of slave law that was adopted throughout the colonies, following Virginia in 1662.

Many of the free black families migrated to Delaware, where land was cheaper. As the flow of indentured laborers to the colony decreased with improving economic conditions in England, planters in Maryland imported thousands more slaves and racial caste lines hardened.

Maryland was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. Near the end of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), on February 2, 1781, Maryland became the last and 13th state to approve the ratification of the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, first proposed in 1776 and adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1778, which brought into being the United States as a united, sovereign and national state. It also became the seventh state admitted to the Union after ratifying the new federal Constitution in 1788. In December 1790, prior to the move of the national capital from Philadelphia in 1800, Maryland donated land selected by first President George Washington to the federal government for its creation. The land was provided along the north shore of the Potomac River from Montgomery and Prince George's counties, as well as from Fairfax County and Alexandria on the south shore of the Potomac in Virginia; however, the land donated by the Commonwealth of Virginia was later returned to that state by the District of Columbia retrocession in 1846.

19th century

thumb|The bombardment of Fort McHenry in the [[Battle of Baltimore, which inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner"]]

Influenced by a changing economy, revolutionary ideals, and preaching by ministers, numerous planters in Maryland freed their slaves in the 20 years after the Revolutionary War. Across the Upper South the free black population increased from less than 1% before the war to 14% by 1810.

During the War of 1812, the British military attempted to capture Baltimore, which was protected by Fort McHenry. During its bombardment, the song "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written by Francis Scott Key; it was later adopted as the national anthem.

National Road, later renamed U.S. Route 40, was authorized in 1817 as the federal highway, and ran from Baltimore to St. Louis. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first chartered railroad in the United States, opened its first section of track for regular operation in 1830 between Baltimore and Ellicott City, and in 1852 it became the first rail line to reach the Ohio River from the eastern seaboard.

Civil War

thumb|The [[Battle of Antietam in 1862, one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, with nearly 23,000 casualties]]

The state remained in the Union during the American Civil War, due in significant part to demographics and Federal intervention. The 1860 census, held shortly before the outbreak of the civil war, showed that 49% of Maryland's African Americans were free.

Governor Thomas Holliday Hicks suspended the state legislature, and to help ensure the election of a new pro-union governor and legislature, President Abraham Lincoln had a number of its pro-slavery politicians arrested, including the Mayor of Baltimore, George William Brown; suspended several civil liberties, including habeas corpus; and ordered artillery placed on Federal Hill overlooking Baltimore.

In April 1861, Federal units and state regiments were attacked as they marched through Baltimore, sparking the Baltimore riot of 1861, the first bloodshed in the Civil War. The largest and most significant battle in the state was the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg. Although a tactical draw, the battle was considered a strategic Union victory and a turning point of the war.

Post-Civil War

A new state constitution in 1864 abolished slavery and Maryland was first recognized as a "Free State" in that context. Following passage of constitutional amendments that granted voting rights to freedmen, in 1867 the state extended suffrage to non-white males.

The Democratic Party rapidly regained power in the state from Republicans. Democrats replaced the Constitution of 1864 with the Constitution of 1867. Following the end of Reconstruction in 1877, Democrats devised means of disenfranchising blacks, initially by physical intimidation and voter fraud, later by constitutional amendments and laws. Blacks and immigrants, however, resisted Democratic Party disfranchisement efforts in the state. Maryland blacks were part of a biracial Republican coalition elected to state government in 1896–1904 and comprised 20% of the electorate.

Compared to some other states, blacks were better established both before and after the civil war. Nearly half the black population was free before the war, and some had accumulated property. Half the population lived in cities. Literacy was high among blacks and, as Democrats crafted means to exclude them, suffrage campaigns helped reach blacks and teach them how to resist.

20th century

thumb|The ruins left by the [[Great Baltimore Fire of 1904]]

The Progressive Era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought political reforms. In a series of laws passed between 1892 and 1908, reformers worked for standard state-issued ballots (rather than those distributed and marked by the parties); obtained closed voting booths to prevent party workers from "assisting" voters; initiated primary elections to keep party bosses from selecting candidates; and had candidates listed without party symbols, which discouraged the illiterate from participating. These measures worked against ill-educated whites and blacks. The measures were led by the Democratic Party, which sought to disenfranchise Blacks, who were becoming an important part of the Republican Party. Blacks resisted such efforts, with suffrage groups conducting voter education.

Blacks defeated three efforts to disenfranchise them, making alliances with immigrants to resist various Democratic campaigns.

Maryland's urban and rural communities had different experiences during the Great Depression. The "Bonus Army" marched through the state in 1932 on its way to Washington, D.C. Maryland instituted its first income tax in 1937 to generate revenue for schools and welfare.

Passenger and freight steamboat service, once important throughout Chesapeake Bay and its many tributary rivers, ended in 1962.

Baltimore was a major war production center during World War II. The biggest operations were Bethlehem Steel's Fairfield Yard, which built Liberty ships; and Glenn Martin, an aircraft manufacturer.

Maryland experienced population growth following World War II. Beginning in the 1960s, as suburban growth took hold around Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, the state began to take on a more mid-Atlantic culture as opposed to the traditionally Southern and Tidewater culture that previously dominated most of the state. Agricultural tracts gave way to residential communities, some of them carefully planned such as Columbia, St. Charles, and Montgomery Village. Concurrently the Interstate Highway System was built throughout the state, most notably I-95, I-695, and the Capital Beltway, altering travel patterns. In 1952, the eastern and western halves of Maryland were linked for the first time by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which replaced a nearby ferry service.

Maryland's regions experienced economic changes following WWII. Heavy manufacturing declined in Baltimore. In Maryland's four westernmost counties, industrial, railroad, and coal mining jobs declined. On the lower Eastern Shore, family farms were bought up by major concerns and large-scale poultry farms and vegetable farming became prevalent. In Southern Maryland, tobacco farming nearly vanished due to suburban development and a state tobacco buy-out program in the 1990s.

In an effort to reverse depopulation due to the loss of working-class industries, Baltimore initiated urban renewal projects in the 1960s with Charles Center and the Baltimore World Trade Center. Some resulted in the break-up of intact residential neighborhoods, producing social volatility, and some older residential areas around the harbor have had units renovated and have become popular with new populations.

Geography

thumb|Physical regions of Maryland

Maryland has an area of and is comparable in overall area with Belgium. It is the 42nd-largest and 9th-smallest state and is closest in size to the state of Hawaii that, with its , is the next smallest state. The next largest state is Maryland's neighbor, West Virginia, which is nearly twice the size of Maryland with its area of .

Description

thumb|[[Western Maryland is known for its heavily forested mountains. A panoramic view of Deep Creek Lake and the surrounding Appalachian Mountains in Garrett County.]]

thumb|[[Great Falls (Potomac River)|Great Falls on the Potomac River]]

thumb|[[Patapsco River includes the Thomas Viaduct and is part of the Patapsco Valley State Park; the river forms Baltimore's Inner Harbor as it empties into the Chesapeake Bay.]]

thumb|Sunset over a marsh at Cardinal Cove on the [[Patuxent River]]

thumb|Tidal wetlands of the [[Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the nation and the largest water feature in Maryland]]

Maryland possesses a variety of topography within its borders, contributing to its nickname America in Miniature. It ranges from sandy dunes dotted with seagrass in the east, to low marshlands teeming with wildlife and large bald cypress near the Chesapeake Bay, to gently rolling hills of oak forests in the Piedmont Region, and pine groves in the Maryland mountains to the west.

Maryland is bounded on its north by Pennsylvania, on its north and east by Delaware, on its east by the Atlantic Ocean, and on its south and west, across the Potomac River, by West Virginia and Virginia. The mid-portion of its border with Virginia is interrupted by Washington, D.C., which sits on land that was originally part of Montgomery and Prince George's counties and including Georgetown, Maryland, which was ceded to the United States federal government in 1790 to form the Washington, D.C. Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state, and the counties east of the bay are known collectively as the Eastern Shore.

Most of the state's waterways are part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, with the exceptions of a tiny portion of extreme western Garrett County (drained by the Youghiogheny River as part of the watershed of the Mississippi River), the eastern half of Worcester County (which drains into Maryland's Atlantic coastal bays), and a small portion of the state's northeast corner (which drains into the Delaware River watershed). So prominent is the Chesapeake in Maryland's geography and economic life that there has been periodic agitation to change the state's official nickname to the "Bay State", a nickname that has been used by Massachusetts for decades.

The highest point in Maryland, with an elevation of , is Hoye Crest on Backbone Mountain, in the southwest corner of Garrett County, near the border with West Virginia, and near the headwaters of the North Branch of the Potomac River. Close to the small town of Hancock, in western Maryland, about two-thirds of the way across the state, less than separates its borders, the Mason–Dixon line to the north, and the northwards-arching Potomac River to the south.

Portions of Maryland are included in various official and unofficial geographic regions. For example, the Delmarva Peninsula is composed of the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland, the entire state of Delaware, and the two counties that make up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, whereas the westernmost counties of Maryland are considered part of Appalachia. Much of the Baltimore–Washington corridor lies just south of the Piedmont in the Coastal Plain, though it straddles the border between the two regions.

Geology

Earthquakes in Maryland are infrequent and small due to the state's distance from seismic/earthquake zones. The M5.8 Virginia earthquake in 2011 was felt moderately throughout Maryland. Buildings in the state are not well-designed for earthquakes and can suffer damage easily. As well as this, notably a M4.8 earthquake from Tewksbury in central New Jersey was felt slightly throughout Maryland.

Maryland has no natural lakes, mostly due to the lack of glacial history in the area. All lakes in the state today were constructed, mostly via dams. Buckel's Bog is believed by geologists to have been a remnant of a former natural lake.

Maryland has shale formations containing natural gas, where fracking is theoretically possible.

Flora

thumb|[[Rudbeckia hirta|Black-eyed susans, the state flower, grow throughout much of the state.]]

As is typical of states on the East Coast, Maryland's plant life is abundant and healthy. An adequate volume of annual precipitation helps to support many types of plants, including seagrass and various reeds at the smaller end of the spectrum to the gigantic Wye Oak, a huge example of white oak, the state tree, which can grow over tall.

Middle Atlantic coastal forests, typical of the southeastern Atlantic coastal plain, grow around Chesapeake Bay and on the Delmarva Peninsula. Moving west, a mixture of Northeastern coastal forests and Southeastern mixed forests cover the central part of the state. The Appalachian Mountains of western Maryland are home to Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests. These give way to Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests near the West Virginia border.

Many foreign species are cultivated in the state, some as ornamentals, others as novelty species. Included among these are the crape myrtle, Italian cypress, southern magnolia, live oak in the warmer parts of the state, and even hardy palm trees in the warmer central and eastern parts of the state. USDA plant hardiness zones in the state range from Zones 5and6 in the extreme western part of the state to Zone7 in the central part, and Zone8 around the southern part of the coast, the bay area, and parts of metropolitan Baltimore. Maryland's state flower, the black-eyed susan, grows in abundance in wild flower groups throughout the state.

Fauna

thumb|A feral [[Chincoteague Pony on Assateague Island on Maryland's Atlantic coastal islands]]

The state harbors a considerable number of white-tailed deer, especially in the woody and mountainous west of the state, and overpopulation can become a problem. Mammals can be found ranging from the mountains in the west to the central areas and include black bears, bobcats, foxes, coyotes, raccoons, and otters. They are believed to be descended from horses that escaped from Spanish galleon shipwrecks. In 1878, the Chesapeake Bay Retriever was the first individual retriever breed recognized by the American Kennel Club. The state is part of the territory of the Baltimore oriole, which is the official state bird and mascot of the MLB team the Baltimore Orioles. Aside from the oriole, 435 other species of birds have been reported from Maryland.

The state insect is the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly, although it is not as common in Maryland as it is in the southern edge of its range.

Environment

Maryland joined with neighboring states during the end of the 20th century to improve the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The bay's aquatic life and seafood industry have been threatened by development and by fertilizer and livestock waste entering the bay.

In 2007, Forbes.com rated Maryland as the fifth "Greenest" state in the country, behind three of the Pacific States and Vermont. Maryland ranks 40th in total energy consumption nationwide, and it managed less toxic waste per capita than all but six states in 2005. In April 2007, Maryland joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) — a regional initiative, formed by all the Northeastern states, Washington, D.C., and three Canadian provinces, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In March 2017, Maryland became the first state with proven gas reserves to ban fracking by passing a law against it. Vermont has such a law, but no shale gas, and New York has such a ban, though it was made by executive order.

Climate

thumb|[[Köppen climate classification|Köppen climate types of Maryland, using 1991–2020 climate normals]]

thumb|Winter on Lancaster Street in [[Baltimore's Fells Point]]

Maryland has a wide array of climates, due to local variances in elevation, proximity to water, and protection from colder weather due to downslope winds.

The eastern half of Maryland, which includes Ocean City, Salisbury, Annapolis, and the southern and eastern suburbs of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, lies on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, with flat topography and sandy or muddy soil. This region has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with hot, humid summers and cool to cold winters; it falls under USDA Hardiness zone 8a.

The Piedmont region, which includes northern and western greater Baltimore, Westminster, Gaithersburg, Frederick, and Hagerstown, has average seasonal snowfall totals generally exceeding , and, as part of USDA Hardiness zones 7b and 7a,

Because of its location near the Atlantic Coast, Maryland is somewhat vulnerable to tropical cyclones, although the Delmarva Peninsula and the outer banks of North Carolina provide a large buffer, such that strikes from major hurricanes (category3 or above) occur infrequently. More often, Maryland gets the remnants of a tropical system that has already come ashore and released most of its energy. Maryland averages around 30–40 days of thunderstorms a year, and averages around six tornado strikes annually.

{| class="wikitable"

|+ style="vertical-align:top; background:silver;" |Monthly average high and low temperatures for various Maryland cities and landmarks (covering breadth and width of the state)

!| City

!| Jan

!| Feb

!| Mar

!| Apr

!| May

!| Jun

!| Jul

!| Aug

!| Sep

!| Oct

!| Nov

!| Dec

! | Oakland

| |

! | Cumberland

| |

! | Hagerstown

| |

! | Frederick

| |

! | Baltimore

| |

! | Elkton

| |

! | Ocean City

| |

! | Waldorf

| |

! | Point Lookout State Park

| |

| colspan="13" style="text-align:center" |'

Cities and metro areas

thumb|Maryland population distribution map; Maryland's population is concentrated mostly in the [[Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area.]]

Most of the population of Maryland lives in the central region of the state, in the Baltimore metropolitan area and Washington metropolitan area, both of which are part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The majority of Maryland's population is concentrated in the cities and suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., and in and around Baltimore, Maryland's most populous city. Historically, these and many other Maryland cities developed along the Fall Line, the line along which rivers, brooks, and streams are interrupted by rapids and waterfalls. Maryland's capital city, Annapolis, is one exception to this pattern since it lies along the banks of the Severn River, close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay.

The Eastern Shore is less populous and more rural, as are the counties of western Maryland. The two westernmost counties of Maryland, Allegany and Garrett, are mountainous and sparsely populated, resembling West Virginia and Appalachia more than they do the rest of the state. Both eastern and western Maryland are, however, dotted with cities of regional importance, such as Ocean City, Princess Anne, and Salisbury on the Eastern Shore and Cumberland, Frostburg, and Hancock in Western Maryland. Southern Maryland is still somewhat rural, but suburbanization from Washington, D.C., has encroached significantly since the 1960s; important local population centers include Lexington Park, Prince Frederick, California, and Waldorf.

Demographics

thumb|[[List of counties in Maryland|Maryland's counties]]

In the 2020 United States census, the United States Census Bureau found that population of Maryland was 6,185,278 people, a 7.1% increase from the 2010 United States census. In 2018, The top countries of origin for Maryland's immigrants were El Salvador (11%), India (6%), China (5%), Nigeria (5%), and the Philippines (4%). The center of population of Maryland is located on the county line between Anne Arundel County and Howard County, in the unincorporated community of Jessup.

Maryland's history as a border state has led it to exhibit characteristics of both the Northern and the Southern regions of the United States. Generally, rural Western Maryland between the West Virginian Panhandle and Pennsylvania has an Appalachian culture; the Southern and Eastern Shore regions of Maryland embody a Southern culture, while densely populated Central Maryland – radiating outward from Baltimore and Washington, D.C. – has more in common with that of the Northeast. The U.S. Census Bureau designates Maryland as one of the South Atlantic States, but it is commonly associated with the Mid-Atlantic States by other federal agencies, the media, and some residents.

According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 5,349 homeless people in Maryland.

Note: Births in the table do not add up because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"

|+ Live births by single race/ethnicity of mother

! Race

! 2013

! 2014

! 2015

! 2016

! 2017

! 2018

! 2019

! 2020

! 2021

! 2022

! 2023

| White

| 32,568 (45.2%)

| 33,178 (44.9%)

| 32,412 (44.0%)

| 31,278 (42.8%)

| 29,809 (41.6%)

| 29,585 (41.6%)

| 28,846 (41.1%)

| 28,060 (40.9%)

| 28,193 (41.3%)

| 27,333 (39.7%)

| 25,746 (39.3%)

| Black

| 24,764 (34.4%)

| 25,339 (34.3%)

| 25,017 (34.0%)

| 22,829 (31.2%)

| 22,327 (31.1%)

| 21,893 (30.8%)

| 21,494 (30.6%)

| 20,869 (30.4%)

| 20,449 (29.9%)

| 20,438 (29.7%)

| 18,939 (28.9%)

| Asian

| 5,415 (7.5%)

| 5,797 (7.8%)

| 5,849 (7.9%)

| 5,282 (7.2%)

| 5,276 (7.3%)

| 4,928 (6.9%)

| 4,928 (7.0%)

| 4,595 (6.7%)

| 4,431 (6.5%)

| 4,480 (6.5%)

| 4,262 (6.5%)

| American Indian

| 300 (0.4%)

| 260 (0.3%)

| 279 (0.4%)

| 104 (0.1%)

| 127 (0.2%)

| 114 (0.2%)

| 113 (0.2%)

| 79 (0.1%)

| 83 (0.1%)

| 77 (0.1%)

| 75 (0.1%)

| Hispanic (any race)

| 10,515 (14.6%)

| 10,974 (14.8%)

| 11,750 (16.0%)

| 11,872 (16.2%)

| 12,223 (17.1%)

| 12,470 (17.5%)

| 12,872 (18.3%)

| 13,034 (19.0%)

| 13,164 (19.3%)

| 14,398 (20.9%)

| 14,442 (22.0%)

| Total

| 71,953 (100%)

| 73,921 (100%)

| 73,616 (100%)

| 73,136 (100%)

| 71,641 (100%)

| 71,080 (100%)

| 70,178 (100%)

| 68,554 (100%)

| 68,285 (100%)

| 68,782 (100%)

| 65,594 (100%)

Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.

{| class="wikitable floatright"

|+Country of birth (2022)

! Birthplace !! Population

| United States || 4,999,873

| || 105,778

| || 60,535

| || 43,499

| || 39,185

| || 38,222

| || 37,020

| || 34,091

| || 33,833

| || 28,554

| || 26,068

| || 21,991

| || 19,934

| || 19,082

|17,414

|17,000

NH = Non-Hispanic

| label1 = White NH

| value1 = 49.82| color2=#36A

| label2 = Black NH

| value2 = 29.75 | color1=#6A5

| label3 = Hispanic Any Race

| value3 = 10.64 | color8=#9400D3

| label4 = Asian NH

| value4 = 6.35 | color3=#1A9

| label5 = Native American NH

| value5 = 0.25 | color4=#928

| label6 = Pacific Islander NH

| value6 = 0.04| color5=#122

| label7 = Two or more races NH

| value7 = 2.85 | color6=#00FFFF

| label8 = Other NH

| value8 = 0.31 | color7=#E94196

As of 2016, the most spoken languages in Maryland other than English were Spanish (9%), Chinese (1.2%), West African languages (mostly Yoruba and Igbo, 1%), French (1%), Korean (0.7%), Afro-Asiatic languages (mostly Amharic, 0.6% and Arabic, 0.4%), and Tagalog (0.6%). Other languages with a large number of speakers in Maryland include Vietnamese (0.4%), Russian (0.4%), Hindi (0.3%), Urdu (0.3%), Persian (0.3%), Nepali (0.3%), Haitian Creole (0.2%), and Telugu (0.2%).

{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible" style="font-size: 90%;"

|+ Racial breakdown of population of Maryland

! Racial composition !! 1970 !! 2000!! 2010

!2020

| White || 81.5% || 71.0% || 64.0% || 60.8%

|58.5%

| Black || 17.8% || 24.9% || 27.9% || 29.8%

|31.1%

| Asian || 0.5% || 2.9% || 4.0% || 5.5%

|6.7%

| Native American || 0.1% || 0.3% || 0.3% || 0.3%

|0.6%

| Other race || 0.1% || 0.9% || 1.8% || 3.6%

|–

| Two or more races || – || – || 2.0% || 2.9%

|2.9%

| Non-Hispanic whites || 80.4% || 69.6% || 62.1% || 54.7%

|50.0%

thumb|Ethnic origins in Maryland

thumb|Largest alone or in any combination ethnic origin by county in Maryland, per the 2020 census

thumb|Map of counties in Maryland by racial plurality, according to [[2020 United States census|2020 U.S. census findings

Non-Hispanic White

Black or African American

|241x241px]]

In 1970, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Maryland's population as 17.8 percent African-American and 80.4 percent non-Hispanic White.

!Pop 2010

!% 2000

!% 2010

|White alone (NH)

|3,286,547

|3,157,958

|style='background: #ffffe6; |2,913,782

|62.05%

|54.70%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |47.17%

|Black or African American alone (NH)

|1,464,735

|1,674,229

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1,795,027

|27.66%

|29.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |29.06%

|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)

|13,312

|13,815

|style='background: #ffffe6; |12,055

|0.25%

|0.24%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.20%

|Asian alone (NH)

|209,738

|316,694

|style='background: #ffffe6; |417,962

|3.96%

|5.49%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |6.77%

|Pacific Islander alone (NH)

|1,913

|2,412

|style='background: #ffffe6; |2,575

|0.04%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.04%

|Other race alone (NH)

|9,379

|11,972

|style='background: #ffffe6; |35,314

|0.18%

|0.21%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.57%

|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)

|82,946

|125,840

|style='background: #ffffe6; |270,764

|1.57%

|2.18%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |4.38%

|Hispanic or Latino (any race)

|227,916

|470,632

|style='background: #ffffe6; |729,745

|4.30%

|8.15%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |11.81%

|Total

|5,296,486

|5,773,552

|style='background: #ffffe6; |6,177,224

|100.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%

In 2019, non-Hispanic white Americans were 49.8% of Maryland's population (White Americans, including White Hispanics, were 57.3%), which made Maryland a majority minority state. By 2031, minorities are projected to become the majority of voting eligible residents of Maryland. Maryland's multiculturalism and diversity can be explained by its historically large African American population, and immigration brought by the importance of the D.C. and Baltimore areas, especially from Central America, Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia.

African Americans form a sizable portion of the state's population, 31.1% as of 2020. Maryland also hosts populations from other African and Caribbean nations. Maryland's African immigrant population is generally well-educated and is most concentrated in the inner suburbs of Baltimore and D.C. Nigerians are the fourth-largest immigrant group in Maryland, and are largely concentrated in the Baltimore area and surrounding suburbs, as well as Prince George's county. Many immigrants from the Horn of Africa, especially Ethiopia, have settled in Maryland, with large communities in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., particularly in Montgomery and Prince George's counties. The Washington metropolitan area has the world's largest population of Ethiopians outside of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian community of Greater D.C. was historically based in the Adams Morgan and Shaw neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., but as the community has grown, many Ethiopians have settled in Silver Spring. The Ethiopian American population in Maryland and the rest of the D.C. area is largely Amharic-speaking, but there are significant numbers of speakers of Oromo and Tigrinya speakers as well. The Washington metropolitan area is also home to a large Eritrean community.

The top reported ancestries by Maryland residents are: German (15%), Irish (11%), English (8%), American (7%), Italian (6%), and Polish (3%).

Irish American populations can be found throughout the Baltimore area, and the Northern and Eastern suburbs of Washington, D.C., in Maryland, who were descendants of those who moved out to the suburbs of Washington, D.C.'s once predominantly Irish neighborhoods), as well as Western Maryland, where Irish immigrant laborers helped to build the B&O Railroad. This population, however, still remains culturally very active and yearly festivals are held.

More recent European immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th century settled first in Baltimore, attracted to its industrial jobs. These groups were largely of Jewish, Italian, Greek, Polish, Czech, Lithuanian, Russian and Ukrainian descent. The Greek community includes a number of Greek Jews.

The shares of European immigrants born in Eastern Europe increased significantly between 1990 and 2010. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, many immigrants from Eastern Europe came to the United States—12 percent of whom currently reside in Maryland.

Hispanic immigrants of the later 20th century have settled in Aspen Hill, Hyattsville/Langley Park, Glenmont/Wheaton, Bladensburg, Riverdale Park, Gaithersburg, as well as Highlandtown and Greektown in East Baltimore. Maryland has the highest percentage of residents of Central American origin of any state. Salvadorans are the largest Hispanic group in Maryland, and Maryland has the largest percentage of Salvadoran residents of any state. The D.C. area also has the highest percentage of Salvadorans of any American metro area, who are particularly concentrated in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, and has the second-highest total number of Salvadorans after the Los Angeles area. Other Hispanic groups with significant populations in the state include Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Dominicans, Peruvians, and Puerto Ricans, along with growing populations of Brazilians, Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Bolivians. Maryland's Hispanic population is especially concentrated in Montgomery County and Prince George's County, with other large populations in the Baltimore area and Frederick County. Maryland has one of the most diverse Hispanic populations in the country, with significant populations from various Caribbean and Central American nations.

Caribbean Americans have a significant presence in Maryland, especially Jamaican Americans, who make up 0.6% of the population and have had a significant presence and influence in Maryland's politics and culture; Maryland's current governor, Wes Moore, is the son of a Jamaican immigrant mother. Other Caribbean American nationalities with a large population in Maryland include Dominicans, Haitians, Trinidadians and Tobagonians, and Guyanese. Caribbean Americans are most concentrated in Prince George's County, the city of Baltimore, Baltimore County, and Montgomery County. Maryland is home to nearly 17,000 Haitians, according to 2023 Census Bureau data. Roughly 4,200 live in Wicomico County, Maryland, which includes Salisbury. Trinidadians and Tobagonians are concentrated in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and Prince George's County. There are growing Caribbean populations in Columbia and Waldorf.

Asian Americans are concentrated in the suburban counties surrounding Washington, D.C., and in Baltimore suburbs, especially Howard County, with Chinese American, Korean American and Taiwanese American communities in Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Germantown. Chinese in particular form the second largest group of Asian Americans, and are the largest group in Montgomery County. Maryland also has a large Korean American population, especially in Howard County, where there is a Koreatown in Ellicott City. Filipino Americans, the largest group of Southeast Asians, form major communities in Montgomery, Prince George's, and Charles counties; other large groups of Southeast Asians include Vietnamese, who are concentrated in Montgomery County, and Burmese, who are concentrated in Frederick, Howard, and Baltimore Counties. Maryland has a very large and diverse South Asian American population that has had a major presence in the state since the 1970s. Indian Americans are the largest Asian group in Maryland, making up 1.7 percent of the population, and live throughout the state, especially in Montgomery and Howard counties, with large numbers in Baltimore, Frederick, and Prince George's counties. The Indian American population is culturally and linguistically diverse, with the Indian languages spoken most being Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, and Tamil. There are also large Pakistani American populations throughout the D.C. and Baltimore areas, especially in Baltimore County and Howard County, and a large Bangladeshi American community in the D.C. area. Maryland has one of the largest populations of Nepali Americans, including Bhutanese Americans of Nepali descent, in the U.S., many of whom are recent immigrants or refugees who sought asylum after expulsion from Bhutan or the 2015 Nepal earthquake; there are an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 Nepalis in Maryland, concentrated in the Baltimore area with significant populations in the D.C. area. The first Nepali American elected to a state legislature, Harry Bhandari, was elected in Maryland, representing part of Baltimore County. There are three state-recognized tribes, and in 2020, 31,845 identified as being Native American alone, and 96,805 did in combination with one or more other races.

Attracting educated Asians and Africans to the professional jobs in the region, Maryland has the fifth-largest proportions of racial minorities in the country.

In 2006, 645,744 were counted as foreign born, which represents mainly people from Latin America and Asia. About four percent are undocumented immigrants.

According to The Williams Institute's analysis of the 2010 U.S. census, 12,538 same-sex couples are living in Maryland, representing 5.8 same-sex couples per 1,000 households.

Romani people are present in Maryland.

Religion

thumb|[[Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary|Baltimore Basilica, the first Catholic cathedral built in the U.S.]]

Maryland has been historically prominent to American Catholic tradition because the English colony of Maryland was intended by George Calvert as a haven for English Catholics. Baltimore was the seat of the first Catholic bishop in the U.S. (1789), and Emmitsburg was the home and burial place of the first American-born citizen to be canonized, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Georgetown University, the first Catholic university, was founded in 1789 in what was then part of Maryland; it became a part of the District of Columbia when it was created in the 1790s. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Baltimore was the first Roman Catholic cathedral built in the United States, and the Archbishop of Baltimore is, albeit without formal primacy, the United States' quasi-primate, and often a cardinal. Among the immigrants of the 19th and 20th centuries from eastern and southern Europe were many Catholics.

Despite its historic relevance to the Catholic Church in the United States, the percentage of Catholics in the state of Maryland is below the national average of 20%. Demographically, both Protestants and those identifying with no religion are more numerous than Catholics.

According to the Pew Research Center in 2014, 69 percent of Maryland's population identifies themselves as Christian. Nearly 52% of the adult population are Protestants.