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State of Maryland
Flag of Maryland Seal Nickname(s): Old Line State; Free State Motto(s): Fatti maschii, parole femine (Manly deeds, womanly words)
Official language(s)	None (English, de facto)
Capital	Annapolis
Largest city	Baltimore
Largest metro area	Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area
Area	Ranked 42nd
- Total	12,407 sq mi (32,133 km²)
- Width	101 miles (145 km)
- Length	249 miles (400 km)
- % water	21
- Latitude	37° 53′ N to 39° 43′ N
- Longitude	75° 03′ W to 79° 29′ W
Population	Ranked 19th
- Total	5,600,388
- Density	541.9/sq mi  209.2/km² (5th)
- Median income	$65,144[5][6] (1st)
Elevation
- Highest point	Hoye Crest[7] 3,360 ft  (1,024 m)
- Mean	344 ft  (105 m)
- Lowest point	Atlantic Ocean[7] 0 ft  (0 m)
Admission to Union	April 28, 1788 (7th)
Governor	Martin O'Malley (D)
U.S. Senators	Barbara Mikulski (D) Ben Cardin (D)
Congressional Delegation	List
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Abbreviations	MD US-MD
Web site	www.maryland.gov

Maryland (IPA: /ˈmɛrələnd/) is a state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States of America. It is comparable in size to the European country of Belgium. According to the most recent information provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, as of August 2007, Maryland is now the wealthiest state in the United States, with a median household income of $65,144, ahead of New Jersey which had previously held that title.^[8]

It was the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution and bears two nicknames, the Old Line State and the Free State. Its history as a border state has led it to exhibit characteristics of both the Northern and Southern regions of the United States. As a general rule, the rural areas of Maryland, such as Western, Southern, and Eastern Maryland, are more Southern in culture, while densely-populated Central Maryland — areas in the Baltimore and the Washington Beltway Regions — exhibit more Northern characteristics.

Maryland is a life sciences hub with over 350 biotechnology firms, making it the third-largest such cluster in the nation.^[9] Institutions and agencies located throughout Maryland include University System of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Geography

Physical geography

See also: List of islands in Maryland and List of rivers in Maryland

Maryland possesses a great variety of topography, hence its nickname, "America in Miniature."^[10] It ranges from sandy dunes dotted with seagrass in the east, to low marshlands teeming with water snakes and large bald cypress near the bay, to gently rolling hills of oak forest in the Piedmont Region, and mountain pine groves in the west.

Tidal wetlands of the Chesapeake Bay, largest freshwater estuary in the world and the largest physical feature in Maryland.

Maryland is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, on the west by West Virginia, on the east by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south, across the Potomac River, by West Virginia and Virginia. The mid-portion of this border is interrupted on the Maryland side by Washington, DC, which sits on land originally part of Maryland. The Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state, and the counties east of the bay are known collectively as the Eastern Shore. Most of the state's waterways are part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, with the exception of a portion of Garrett County drained by the Youghiogheny River, as part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, the eastern half of Worcester County, which drains into Maryland's Atlantic Coastal Bays, and a small portion of the state's northeast corner which drains into the Delaware River watershed. So prominent is the Chesapeake in Maryland's geography and economic life that there has been periodic agitation to change the state's official nickname to the "Bay State," a name currently used by Massachusetts.

The highest point in Maryland is Hoye Crest on Backbone Mountain, which is in the southwest corner of Garrett County, near the border with West Virginia and near the headwaters of the North Branch of the Potomac River. Maryland's only ski area, Wisp, is located close to Backbone Mountain. In western Maryland, about two-thirds of the way across the state, is a point at which the state is only about 1-mile (2 km) wide. This geographical curiosity, which makes Maryland the narrowest state, is located near the small town of Hancock, and results from Maryland's northern and southern boundaries being marked by the Mason-Dixon Line and the north-arching Potomac River, respectively.

Portions of Maryland are included in a number of official and unofficial geographic regions. For example, the Delmarva Peninsula comprises the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland, the entire state of Delaware, and the two counties that make up the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and the westernmost counties of Maryland are considered part of Appalachia. Much of the Baltimore-Washington corridor lies in the rolling hills of the Appalachian Piedmont.

A quirk of Maryland's geography is that the state contains no natural lakes.^[11] During the last Ice Age, glaciers did not reach as far south as Maryland, and therefore did not carve out deep natural lakes as exist in northern states. There are numerous man-made lakes, the largest being Deep Creek Lake, a reservoir in Garrett County. The lack of glacial history also accounts for Maryland's soil, which is more sandy and muddy than the rocky soils of New England

Human geography

Maryland counties

See also: List of counties in Maryland, List of incorporated places in Maryland, and List of census-designated places in Maryland

The majority of Maryland's population is concentrated in the cities and suburbs surrounding Washington, DC and Maryland's most populous city, Baltimore. Historically, these cities and many others in Maryland developed along the fall line, the point at which rivers are no longer navigable from sea level due to the presence of rapids or waterfalls. Maryland's capital, Annapolis, is one exception to this rule, lying along the Severn River close to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Other major population centers include suburban hubs Columbia in Howard County, Silver Spring, Rockville and Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Frederick in Frederick County and Hagerstown in Washington County. The eastern, southern, and western portions of the state tend to be more rural, although they are dotted with cities of regional importance such as Salisbury and Ocean City on the Eastern Shore, Lexington Park in Southern Maryland, and Cumberland in Western Maryland.

Climate

Maryland has wide array of climates for a state of its size. It depends on numerous variables, such as proximity to water, elevation, and protection from northern weather due to downslope winds.

The eastern half of Maryland lies on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, with very flat topography and very sandy or muddy soil. This region has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with hot, humid summers and a short, mild to cool winter. This region includes the cities of Salisbury, Annapolis, Ocean City, and southern and eastern greater Baltimore.

Sunset over a marsh at Cardinal Cove, on the Patuxent River.

Beyond this region lies the Piedmont which lies in the transition between the humid subtropical climate zone and the humid continental climate zone (Köppen Dfa), with hot, humid summers and moderately cold winters where significant snowfall and significant subfreezing temperatures are an annual occurrence. This region includes Frederick, Hagerstown, Westminster, Gaithersburg and northern and western greater Baltimore.

Extreme western Maryland, in the higher elevations of Allegany County and Garrett County lie completely in the Humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa) due to elevation (more typical of inland New England and the Midwestern U.S.) with milder summers and cold, snowy winters. Some parts of extreme western Maryland possess the cool summer Humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), with summer average temperatures below 71 °F.^{[12][citation needed]}

Precipitation in the state is very generous, as it is on most of the East Coast. Annual rainfall ranges from 40-45 inches (1000-1150 mm) in virtually every part of the state, falling very evenly. Nearly every part of Maryland receives 3.5-4.5 inches (95-110 mm) per month of precipitation. Snowfall varies from 9 inches (23 cm) in the coastal areas to over 100 inches (250 cm) a winter in the western mountains of the state.^[13]

Because of its location near the Atlantic Coast, Maryland is somewhat vulnerable to tropical cyclones, although the Delmarva Peninsula, and the outer banks of North Carolina to the south provide a large buffer, such that a strike from a major hurricane (category 3 or above) is not very likely. More often, Maryland might get the remnants of a tropical system which has already come ashore and released most of its energy. Maryland averages around 30-40 days of thunderstorms a year, and averages around 6 tornado strikes annually.^[14]

Flora and fauna

The 2003 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map for the state of Maryland

As is typical of states on the East Coast, Maryland's plant life is abundant and healthy. A good dose of annual precipitation helps to support many types of plants, including seagrass and various reeds at the smaller end of the spectrum to the gigantic Wye Oak, a huge example of White oak, the state tree, which can grow in excess of 70 feet (20 m) tall. Maryland also possesses an abundance of pines and maples among its endemic tree life. Many foreign species are cultivated in the state, some as ornamentals, others as novelty species. Included among these are the Crape Myrtle, Italian Cypress, live oak in the warmer parts of the state, and even hardy palm trees in the warmer central and eastern parts of the state. USDA plant hardiness zones in the state range from Zone 5 in the extreme western part of the state to 6 and 7 in the central part, and Zone 8 around the southern part of the coast, the bay area, and most of metropolitan Baltimore. Large areas of Maryland have problems with kudzu, an invasive plant species that chokes out growth of endemic plant life.^{[citation needed]}

The state harbors a great number of deer, particularly in the woody and mountainous west of the state, and overpopulation can become a problem from year-to-year. The Chesapeake Bay provides the state with its huge cash crop of blue crabs, and the southern and eastern portion of Maryland is warm enough to support a