page_title: Cumberland, Maryland
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Cumberland, Maryland / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: English: A graph created in Numbers showing a comparison of the populations of Cumberland, and Allegany County in Maryland. The data was pulled from the Cumberland Wikipedia article.
context_page_description: Cumberland is a city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland, United States. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,859, and the metropolitan area had a population of 103,299. Located on the Potomac River, Cumberland is a regional business and commercial center for Western Maryland and the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia.
  Historically Cumberland was known as the "Queen City", as it was once the second largest in the state. Because of its strategic location on what became known as the Cumberland Road through the Appalachians, after the American Revolution it served as a historical outfitting and staging point for westward emigrant trail migrations throughout the first half of the 1800s. In this role, it supported the settlement of the Ohio Country and the lands in that latitude of the Louisiana Purchase. It also became an industrial center, served by major roads, railroads, and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, which connected Cumberland to Washington, D.C. and is now a national historical park. Today, Interstate 68 bisects the town.
  Industry declined after World War II.
context_section_description: The median household income $25,142, and the median family income was $34,500. Males had a median income of $29,484 versus $20,004 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,813. About 15.3% of families and 19.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.4% of those under age 18 and 10.3% of those age 65 or over. The Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area ranked 305th out of 318 metropolitan areas in per capita income.
  In 2007, Forbes ranked the Cumberland Metro as having the 6th-lowest cost of living in the USA, based on an index of cost of housing, utilities, transportation and other expenditures.
  In 2007, The Baltimore Sun newspaper, citing the National Association of Realtors figures on home prices, stated that while most areas were stagnant, Cumberland home prices were rising by more than 17%, the highest in the country. In July 2007, Washington Post writer Stephanie Cavanaugh wrote that the great quality of living in Cumberland had attracted many urbanites to the area.
  Population trends
  Population decline from 1950–1990 was due to a string of industrial plant closures. Plants such as Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Allegany Munitions and Celanese closed down and relocated as part of widespread industrial restructuring after WWII. The 1987 closure of the Kelly Springfield Tire Plant marked a turning point, as it was the last major manufacturing plant in the city limits to close its doors.
  The population of the city has continued to decline since 1990, with the 2010 census population of 20,859 the lowest since the 1900 census.
caption: A graph showing the population in Cumberland and Allegany County
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