page_title: Cecil County, Maryland
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Cecil County, Maryland / Geography
caption_attribution_description: A farm located near Fair Hill, Maryland
context_page_description: Cecil County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland at the northeastern corner of the state, bordering both Pennsylvania and Delaware. As of the 2010 census, the population was 101,108. The county seat is Elkton. The county was named for Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, the first Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. It is part of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metropolitan Statistical Area. Cecil County has existed since the late 1600s, though it continued to grow in population and town size. The county is located in Baltimore's Designated Market Area.
context_section_description: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 418 square miles (1,080 km²), of which 346 square miles (900 km²) is land and 72 square miles (190 km²) (17%) is water.
  Cecil County is in the northeast corner of Maryland, bounded on the north and east by the Mason–Dixon line with Pennsylvania and Delaware.  The western border is defined by the lower reaches of the Susquehanna River and the northernmost coves, flats and tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay.  On the south, the county is bounded by the Sassafras River and Kent County, Maryland.  The county is part of the Delmarva Peninsula as well as Maryland's "Eastern Shore."
  Topographically, Cecil County straddles the border between the rolling hills of the Piedmont Plateau north of U.S. Route 40 and the flatlands of the Atlantic Coastal Plain to the south.  The highest and most rugged hills are found in the northwestern and north-central parts of the county, reaching 534 feet (163 m) just south of the Mason–Dixon line near Nottingham, Pennsylvania and just east of U.S. Route 1. The lowest elevation is sea level along the Chesapeake Bay.
  Cecil County is primarily rural, with denser development around the county seat of Elkton and along U.S. Route 40.  The county is bisected from east to west by the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which connects the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay by way of the Elk River.  The canal passes through the town of Chesapeake City, where a high-level bridge facilitates the passage of large ships beneath Maryland Route 213.
  Cecil County is also bisected east-to-west by Interstate 95, known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway in Maryland.  The highway provides a major artery for traffic between the Baltimore-Washington area to the southwest and the Philadelphia and New York/New Jersey regions to the northeast.  The Office of Management and Budget has designated Cecil County as part of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area.
caption: Farmland near Fair Hill in northeastern Cecil County
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone SE", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "12.1", "Image DateTime": "2019:05:25 16:49:25", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "204", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[39, 42, 1517/50]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[75, 53, 238/25]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "556745/5567", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[20, 49, 2499/100]", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "0", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "T", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "342053/1969", "GPS GPSDestBearingRef": "T", "GPS GPSDestBearing": "342053/1969", "GPS GPSDate": "2019:05:25", "GPS Tag 0x001F": "5", "Image GPSInfo": "1678", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2082", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8435", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1672", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "25", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2019:05:25 16:49:25", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2019:05:25 16:49:25", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "51225/4784", "EXIF ApertureValue": "193685/85136", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "104471/9514", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "83/20", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[2015, 1511, 2217, 1330]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "252", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "252", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4032", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3024", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "29", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[83/20, 83/20, 11/5, 11/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone SE back camera 4.15mm f/2.2"}