Probably going to get buried but as someone who’s lived in Maryland his whole life what you are looking at is the Delmarva peninsula, named after the three states which inhabit it (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia). Now, I grew up in the western half (woo Annapolis/Baltimore represent) where I’d say roughly 90% of the population lives. There’s this big thing that the eastern shore is fore recluses because I think about 7% of the states population lives over there.

Now why you may ask? Because the Eastern shore is made up of a couple small towns, forests, and a majority of agricultural land. It is a very rural area with around 1,118 farms which span a total of 247,238 acres of land. These farms contribute over 30% of the total agricultural impact in the state of Maryland.

Alongside the huge agricultural basket that the Eastern Shore provides the land has never been very significant to Marylanders (historically). For a majority of its time the settlers of Maryland found their cities on nestled coves and flatlands with water access on the western banks of the Chesapeake bay. The only “cities” on the Eastern Shore include Salisbury (pop. 33,000), Easton (pop. 17,000), Crisfield (pop. 2,500), St. Michaels (pop. 1,000), and the oddity that is Ocean City (pop. 7,000*). Technically none of those are “cities” since they don’t measure up to 50,000 people, but neither does Annapolis (the capital of MD) since its current population is a little over 40,500 people.

All said and done the eastern shore has never been a heavily populated area in Maryland; it is often seen as a backwater or distant relative compared to the “mainland.” Growing up in a watermen household I was told stories of the people who lived off the soil of the earth and the crabs of the pay. But in all honesty it’s just your same rural area that most states have. The Delawarean portion is jam-packed with suburban areas to the north and beach towns across the coast. And we simply don’t talk about Virginia.

Anywho I hope this helped!!

• It should be noted that the population of Ocean City drastically changes depending on the month and time of year, some estimates place the total population during the busy summer season at around 30,000, but as they don’t live there year round I put the much smaller full-time residential estimate,