Metro Life Score
Salisbury, MD
Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C, 24th percentile of the national corpus.
- 43.9
- Life Score / 100
- C
- Grade (curved)
- #294
- of 387 metros
- 24%
- composite percentile
Data updated August 2026
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The verdict
Salisbury is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #294 of 387 (43.9/100, grade C, 24th percentile). Carried by rent at 70/100; held back most by childcare at 17/100.
- 24th
- composite percentile
- #294
- of 387 peers
- 40th
- cost dimension percentile
- 62nd
- wages dimension percentile
Life Score shape · LOWER · BALANCED · signature composite
Salisbury: bottom-third composite — where the drag concentrates
Salisbury sits in the bottom third of the metro corpus on composite (#294 of 387, 43.9/100, 24th percentile). Stamps LOWER · BALANCED; Childcare at 17/100 is the main drag; Rent (70/100) keeps the floor. Cost/wage marks DEAR/MID. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Salisbury, MD ranks #294 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #234 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.
BEA RPP 95.6 (rent-RPP 87.2). BLS median salary $66,497, 46,370 jobs (Retail Salespersons, Registered Nurses, Fast Food and Counter Workers). HUD 2BR FMR $1,167/mo (studio $901).
FBI UCR (MD): 425 violent, 2074 property/100K. NCES: 14.0:1 ratio, 3.5% charter. DOL infant childcare $14,631/yr. EPA: 26 Superfund sites (MD).
Where Salisbury sits among all US metros
Composite Life Score vs the national field
44 24th percentile higher than 24% of 387 US metros
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026
How the 43.9 is built
Salisbury's Life Score, decomposed
Dimension detail
How Salisbury scores, dimension by dimension
Score Breakdown
Dimension Scores
Key Data Points
Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are MD state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.
Compare Salisbury With...
Ranking Context
Salisbury outranks 24% of U.S. metros.
| Rank | Metro | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| #291 | North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL | 44.0 | C |
| #292 | Merced, CA | 44.0 | C |
| #293 | St. George, UT | 44.2 | C |
| #294 | Salisbury, MD | 43.9 | C |
| #295 | Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | 43.9 | C |
| #296 | Ann Arbor, MI | 43.8 | C |
| #297 | Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT | 43.8 | C |
Quality vs. Affordability
Salisbury, MD is bottom 24% lowest-quality nationally and also bottom 40% least affordable -- a rarer combination among its composite-quality peers, where overall rank and affordability rank usually diverge more than this.
MD Metro Scores
Read with Salisbury
Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Salisbury (LOWER · BALANCED · DEAR/MID), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ
ABS(composite) peer at 43.9 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · BALANCED · DEAR/MID.
Ann Arbor, MI
ABS(composite) peer at 43.8 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · BALANCED · DEAR/MID.
Merced, CA
ABS(composite) peer at 44.0 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · BALANCED · DEAR/MID.
North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL
ABS(composite) peer at 44.0 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · BALANCED · DEAR/MID.
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood, MI (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 40/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.
Helena, MT (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 39/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.
Salisbury, MD relocation guide
Stamp-branched guide for LOWER · BALANCED · DEAR/MID - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.
Using Salisbury's bottom-third Life Score
Salisbury scores 43.9/100 overall, but Rent (70.5) and Childcare (16.8) sit 53.7 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.
- Rent is the strongest of Salisbury's seven dimensions (weighted 15% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
- Childcare is the weakest (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
- Hagerstown is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Hagerstown
A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.