More than 34,000 Frederick County households — nearly one in three — couldn't afford the basics of housing, food, child care and transportation in 2024, according to a new report from United Way of Frederick County. The finding, drawn from the organization's 2026 ALICE Report, lands even as the county's overall economic picture showed modest signs of improvement year over year.
The report found that 34,465 of the county's 108,330 households, or 32%, fell below what's known as the ALICE Threshold in 2024, according to United Way of Frederick County. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, a designation for households earning more than the Federal Poverty Level but still unable to cover a basic cost of living in their county, per United for ALICE. Households below the threshold include both ALICE households and those in poverty, and the category covers people who, in WYPR's framing, live above the national poverty level but still cannot meet basic needs.
A Modest Dip, But Still a Third of the County
The numbers did move in a more hopeful direction between 2023 and 2024. Households in poverty decreased by 356 and households below the ALICE Threshold overall dropped by 736, while households above the threshold increased by 2,090, even as the county's total household count grew by 998, per the seed facts behind WYPR's report. Separately, United Way of Frederick County put the year-over-year decline in ALICE households, including those under the federal poverty line, at 1,092.
Ken Oldham, CEO of United Way of Frederick County, said the share of struggling households has stayed roughly flat even as the county has grown dramatically. The ALICE household share hit 39% in 2016 before settling at 32% in 2024, and Frederick County's household population has swelled from about 84,000 in 2010 to 108,330 today. Oldham said that because the percentage has held steady while the population ballooned, the raw number of ALICE households in the county now far outpaces what it was in 2010. He also said he suspects that a 34% decrease in ALICE households under age 25 partly reflects younger residents simply aging out of that bracket rather than a straightforward improvement in their finances.
Rising Costs Across Every Age Group
United Way of Frederick County compiles an annual Household Survival Budget, and the organization found that costs climbed across every age range in 2024. A family of four needed $9,492 more to stay afloat than the year before, while single adults saw costs rise by $1,488 and single seniors by $1,284. The gap between 200% of the national poverty level and Frederick's actual cost of living — what the report calls the ALICE Gap — underscores how far wages can lag behind real expenses.
Those figures track with broader cost-of-living data: a single adult in Frederick needs to earn $49,380 a year, or $24.69 an hour, just to meet basic needs, while a family of four needs $111,588 annually, or $55.79 an hour, according to the same United Way budget cited by WYPR. Median household rent in the city of Frederick has climbed from $719 in 2000 to $1,706 in 2025, a 137% increase, the station reported. The same reporting found that 80% of county families relied on child care in order to work, and that 76% of single mothers lived below the ALICE threshold as of 2023 — the single largest demographic group among ALICE households by sex, according to the seed reporting.
Where ALICE Households Are Concentrated
Frederick County's ALICE households are concentrated in the city of Frederick and the northern part of the county, with African American, Hispanic, Native American and Alaska Native communities among the most represented groups. Urban centers tend to have higher concentrations of ALICE families because residents there often have easier access to resources, while rural communities struggle in part because of limited access to those same services. Newcomers to newer market-rate developments also tend to be more affluent than residents of older housing stock, factors that, along with household immigration and emigration, can shift the data from year to year. Some ALICE families relocate to lower-cost areas to stretch their budgets further, with West Virginia and Pennsylvania cited as possible destinations.
A Housing Shortage Looms Over the Numbers
Oldham's organization also tracks net community growth and housing availability across the county, and he said Frederick needs to bring significantly more housing online to keep pace with demand. A county housing study found that roughly 31,000 new housing units will be needed by 2035, a figure that aligns closely with a separate finding from a Frederick County affordable-housing strategic plan that put the need at 31,853 new units, including at least 10,000 affordable ones, according to Multifamily Dive. That plan calls for a more active and strategic approach to the shortage, recommending relaxed zoning restrictions, new partnerships and funding, use of county-owned land, and more staff dedicated to housing.
Notably, the outlet also reported that no moderately priced dwelling units have been produced in the county since 2011, a result of an opt-out option built into the county's existing program. Oldham said he worries that current county and city efforts remain insufficient to meet residents' needs, even as he believes Frederick is moving in the right direction overall. “The community is exploring many options to bring more housing online and keep up with demand,” he said, warning that housing costs will rise significantly if supply continues to lag behind demand.
The county has said it plans to use its own land to build more affordable housing, and the city of Frederick is working to create smaller, denser shared-housing options as one piece of the response. Those local efforts come against a broader backdrop: an estimated 39% of all Maryland households were below the ALICE Threshold in 2024, according to United for ALICE, meaning Frederick's 32% rate, while high, still trails the statewide figure.
