ZIP code profile · 2024 county data

ZIP Code 21042

Howard County, Maryland: Census demographics for this ZIP plus the containing county's FBI UCR crime rate.

Data updated 2026-08-24

42,528
Population (ZIP)
0
Violent rate /100K (county)
0
Property rate /100K (county)

Is ZIP code 21042 safe? Honest data snapshot

ZIP code 21042 sits within Howard County, MD, in which law-enforcement agencies did not report complete 2024 data to the FBI UCR Program. The county figures below cover only the agencies that submitted, so they are not a measure of crime in this area and no comparison to the national average is drawn from them.

ZIP 21042 is the largest ZIP in Howard County by population, 42,528 residents (#3 of 20 county ZIPs), across 37 square miles (1,149/sq mi). For a full breakdown of Howard County's crime categories and year-over-year trend, see the Howard County crime page linked below.

ZIP 21042 has no FBI-native crime rate (postal codes are not police jurisdictions). Figures above use the Howard County proxy where reported; see methodology for the ZCTA plurality map. Methodology.

ZIP 21042 Census context

These are ZIP/ZCTA demographic estimates, separate from the county-level FBI proxy above. They describe the local settlement, not a crime rate.

Median household income
$178,207
Median age
44.6 years
Owner-occupied homes
84%
Occupied homes
14,913

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 5-year ZCTA estimates (income, age, and occupied housing tenure).

ZIP 21042 settlement vs Howard County

ZIP 21042 itself is about 1,149 people per Census sq mi across 37 sq mi (42,528 residents), a postal settlement fact independent of the county UCR proxy.

ZIP 21042 accounts for roughly 12.8% of the county reporting population (42,528 of 332,317).

Settlement lines use Census ZCTA figures only; incomplete county agency coverage blocks any UCR mix or rate desk for this ZIP.

Nationwide peers for ZIP 21042

Similar Census population (~42,528)

County detail: Howard County · State atlas: Maryland

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ZIP population, land area, 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file, ACS 5-year estimates) and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States (CIUS) Table 10 (county-level crime, attributed via ZIP-to-county crosswalk).

Verify with Census.gov Geography and FBI.gov UCR.

Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page combines Census ZIP-level figures with a ZIP-to-county crosswalk to attribute FBI UCR crime data honestly, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.