Anne Arundel County neighborhood guide
Anne Arundel County is a dozen very different places sharing one county line, and the people on your street depend a lot on which one you live in.
The Hood Shepherd started here, so this is the county we know best. Below is what our field study found, and what the Census says about who lives in each community, matched to the field guides written for those kinds of streets. Read the one that fits your town, then type your own address for the guide to your block.
What the field study found
The field studyGospelGraph studied all 130 of the county's Census tracts, which it calls neighborhoods, and found a county that looks fine on paper and isn't in fifteen places. On average, Anne Arundel is better churched than about 85% of American counties its size. The problem is the spread. Its best and worst neighborhoods are further apart than in two thirds of those counties.
Fifteen neighborhoods have no church inside them at all, and twelve of those have people living in them. They aren't remote. Every one has a church within 1.4 miles, and most of them are comfortable subdivisions where the houses went up and nothing was planted alongside them. On Annapolis Neck, about 6,000 people live in one of them, 1.2 miles from the nearest church.
The other surprise is health. Of the five areas the study uses to measure how households are doing, Anne Arundel beats the Maryland average on four. On health it scores 52.5 out of 100 against Maryland's 62.5, and in north county it falls to 36.9. The full study names thirteen neighborhoods to start with and who's best placed to go.
Who lives here
The countyAnne Arundel has about 220,000 households. The most common kind of street here matches the Affluent Owner Family Suburbs guide, about a quarter of all households. That's settled families who own their homes and haven't needed a neighbor in years.
Next comes Dense Professional and Solo Households. On those streets young renters and older owners live close together and rarely talk. Then comes High-Achievement Homeowners, where somebody is almost always home and almost never has a free hour. Affluent Mature Owner Couples and Cost-Pressed Family Suburbs round out the top five.
Annapolis and the Neck
AnnapolisInside the city limits, about a third of homes match Professional Multifamily Households. Crowded Extended-Family Homeowners and Dense Professional and Solo Households come next. About six in ten households in the city own their homes. That's fewer than in most of the county.
Eastport matches Professional Multifamily Households.
Annapolis Neck, outside the city line, leans High-Achievement Homeowners, about half its households.
Parole, along the shopping corridor, leans Dense Professional and Solo Households, with Professional Multifamily Households and Car-Oriented Creative Renters close behind.
Severna Park, Arnold, Pasadena and Cape St. Claire
The peninsulasMost people here own their homes, nine in ten in Severna Park. The guides that fit best describe busy, comfortable households that haven't needed a neighbor in years. That's what makes them hard to get to know.
Severna Park leans High-Achievement Homeowners, about half its households, with Affluent Mature Owner Couples and Affluent Owner Family Suburbs behind.
Arnold splits about evenly between High-Achievement Homeowners and Affluent Owner Family Suburbs, with Affluent Mature Owner Couples close behind.
Cape St. Claire matches Affluent Owner Family Suburbs, about two in three households.
Pasadena, Lake Shore and Riviera Beach mostly match Affluent Owner Family Suburbs. Parts of Pasadena also match Multifamily First-Timers.
Glen Burnie, Ferndale and the north
North countyThe north end of the county is the most mixed. Glen Burnie's Census tracts alone fall into seven different types. Money is tighter here than in most of the county. In Glen Burnie and Ferndale, about one household in four makes under $50,000 a year.
Glen Burnie leans Dense Professional and Solo Households and Affluent Owner Family Suburbs, nearly tied, with Cost-Pressed Family Suburbs third.
Ferndale leans Cost-Pressed Family Suburbs, where one adult is often raising the children alone.
Brooklyn Park and Linthicum lean Middle-Income Established Homeowners, longtime owners on streets where nobody new is moving in.
Odenton, Crofton, Severn and Fort Meade
West countyWest county has more renters and first-time buyers than the rest of Anne Arundel. Around Fort Meade, only about one household in eight owns its home.
Odenton leans Dense Professional and Solo Households.
Crofton leans High-Achievement Homeowners, about two in five households.
Severn leans Affluent Owner Family Suburbs, with Multifamily First-Timers and Dense Professional and Solo Households behind. Around Hanover, Multifamily First-Timers is the most common type.
Fort Meade leans Dense Professional and Solo Households, with Car-Oriented Creative Renters and Multifamily First-Timers behind.
Maryland City, the Anne Arundel side of Laurel, leans Dense Professional and Solo Households, with Cost-Pressed Family Suburbs second.
Edgewater, Davidsonville and the shore
South countySouth county is the most uniform part of the map. Close to nine in ten households own their homes, and most streets match the same one or two guides.
Edgewater and Mayo mostly match Affluent Owner Family Suburbs.
Shady Side and Deale match Affluent Owner Family Suburbs, more than nine in ten households in Deale.
Around Davidsonville, High-Achievement Homeowners is the most common type, about half of households.
Come to the workshop in Annapolis
In personThe Hood Shepherding Workshop is on Saturday, December 5, 2026, at Downtown Hope in Annapolis. Everyone who comes gets the guide for their own street. You'll sit with people from other churches who live on the same kind of street.
Questions
From pastors and ministry leadersHow do you know what kind of neighborhood my town is?
We match each Census block group, a small area of a few hundred homes, to one of thirty neighborhood types using Census data on how households live. The lines above add those up by town. Your own block may differ, so type your address for the guide to your street.
Why does my town list more than one type?
Because most towns hold several kinds of street. A town's name covers a lot of ground, and the blocks inside it can look very different from each other. The shares above are estimates, and town edges don't line up neatly with Census areas.
Are the Anne Arundel guides free?
Yes. Every field guide is free with your name, email and ZIP code, here and everywhere else in the country.
Keep reading from the same library
Same frame, different door in.
These pages share the field guide frame: neighbor knowledge, incarnational ministry, evangelism training, and a practical outreach posture.
Still not sure what this is? The fastest answer is to read the guide for your own street.