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The Eastern Shore Heritage Area lies within four counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore:
- Caroline
- Kent
- Queen Anne’s
- Talbot
These counties offer similar heritage tourism experiences resulting from their common history and
unifying themes. After three centuries of life on the water, among the marshes, and across the fields, communities of the upper Eastern Shore have forged a unique identity. Their social and economic differences are
minor compared to the shared psychology and history of the area.
While the four counties cover a large geographic area, more than a thousand square miles, the
population is relatively small, fewer than 120,000 people. Compared to other Maryland heritage areas, this is not a large number.
The largest segment of the population are young to early middle-aged (ages 20 to 44). As a
result, the Eastern Shore is noticeably family oriented. The majority of the population (almost 84%) is of European descent and probably largely descended from the early English settlers.
Among the counties, the demographic break down reveals slight differences in historical economic
development. Kent County has the smallest population on the Shore. In 1995, there were just under 19,000 people living in the county, fewer than 5,000 in Chestertown. Queen Anne’s County has the largest
population. In 1995, more than 37,000 people lived in the county, just under 13,000 on Kent Island. One possible cause of this difference is the presence of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which lands upon the
Eastern Shore at Kent Island.
The median household income is about $40,000 a year, which is $7,000 less than the median for the
state. The median household income in Queen Anne’s County was $46,200 in 1995. This was the highest on the Upper Eastern Shore but still lower than the state median. The lowest median household
income was $32,000, in Caroline County.
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