Maryland Centroid- MDSOS Kids' Page

Maryland's Centroid

The idea of the center of population is balance point. That is, the center of population is the point at which an imaginary, weightless, rigid, and flat surface (toss mountains and low land points out of your thinking) of the State of Maryland would balance, if each person in Maryland weighed the same. That place, for Census 2000, is near Savage, Maryland in Howard County .

On October 10, 2001 Secretary of State John Willis and officials from Howard County and the U.S. Census Bureau participated in a ceremony to mark Maryland's Centroid. A picture of the marker and the place describing it is to the right.

The plaque says,

The survey point, set September 2001
marks the symbolic center of
population for the State of
Maryland. This point is where an
imaginary, flat, weightless and rigid
map of the State of Maryland would
balance perfectly if all of its 5,296,486
residents (based on the Census 2000) were
of identical weight.
For survey information, go to the
National Geodetic Survey web site at
www.ngs.noaa.gov

Above you see closeups of the marker and plaque shown at thetop of this page. Below are a group of children from Howard County who attended the ceremony.