21st Century Cities Initiative

12/19/2025

Our third annual Portrait of Baltimore report is out, highlighting key findings from the 2025 Baltimore Area Survey, helping us to understand the experiences and perceptions of residents living in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Key findings from this year's Portrait of Baltimore report include:
-More survey respondents felt their personal safety had improved and fewer felt their safety had gotten worse than in the previous two years. About one in five area residents felt their safety had improved in 2025, up from one in eight in 2023.
-More than a third of employed residents worried about losing their jobs.
-Just under half of all employed residents worried about finding a job as good as their current one, compared to a third of employed residents two years ago.
-Nearly half of residents who experienced high transportation insecurity worried that the lack of reliable transportation would severely hinder a job search.
-Nearly half of Baltimore city residents were food insecure this year, and more than half of those people were very food insecure based on a measure defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More than 30% of county residents experienced food insecurity.
https://21cc.jhu.edu/research/a-portrait-of-baltimore-2025/

11/13/2025

News coverage of our new data report: "Even with federal food benefits in place, Baltimore-area residents who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are far more likely to go hungry than their neighbors, according to a new report from Johns Hopkins University’s Baltimore Area Survey.

The report, “SNAP Benefits and Food Insecurity in the Baltimore Area,” found that about two-thirds of SNAP recipients in Baltimore City and County experience food insecurity, defined as limited or uncertain access to adequate food, compared to less than 20% of residents who do not receive SNAP benefits."

The study revealed a surprising disparity between the city and its suburbs.

11/12/2025

Even with their benefits intact, SNAP recipients in Baltimore City and County are at a much higher risk of going hungry than other residents in the region. Our new data report examines the relationship between SNAP benefit recipients and food insecurity in the Baltimore area using data from the 2024 Baltimore Area Survey.

Other Key Findings for Baltimore city and county:
Two in 10 Baltimore-area residents receive SNAP benefits. Three in 10 Baltimore city residents receive SNAP benefits, while one in 10 county residents receive SNAP benefits.

In the Baltimore area, SNAP recipients are at higher risk of going hungry: About two-thirds are food insecure, compared to less than 20% of residents who do not receive SNAP. Nearly half (46%) have very low food security, meaning they are at high risk of experiencing hunger, compared to roughly 10% of residents who do not receive SNAP.

A larger share of SNAP recipients in Baltimore County are at risk of going hungry than those in Baltimore City. Food can be more expensive in the suburbs, grocery stores can be harder to access due to transportation issues, and charities are less dense in the county.

About one in four households with children receive SNAP benefits.

Even with their benefits intact, SNAP recipients in Baltimore City and County are at a much higher risk of going hungry than other residents in the region. This data report examines the relationship between SNAP benefit recipients and food insecurity in the Baltimore area using data from the 2024 Ba...

11/11/2025

The 21st Century Cities Initiative is once again requesting proposals from graduate students who may be interested in fielding questions on the 2026 Baltimore Area Survey. Our goal is to provide JHU graduate students an opportunity for students to gather original data from a representative sample of Baltimore-area residents that will support their graduate research such as dissertations. In addition, students with successful proposals receive a small award ($1,000) and are invited to learn about the process of gathering data using survey methods. Due December 5, 2025 at 11:59pm. https://21cc.jhu.edu/news-events/baltimore-area-survey-graduate-student-research-opportunity/

11/05/2025

Join us this Monday, November 10 for a talk with Megan Evans "Racialized Perceptions of Value: Interpreting Risk in the Housing Market". In person at 3505 N Charles Street and online at the QR code link.

09/18/2024

Learn more about the recent work of our Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative with updates from the air quality and atmospheric dynamics research teams.

September 18, 2024 research chat updates from the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative's air quality and atmospheric dynamic science teams. Presenter...

09/17/2024

Our new report examines differences in community exposure to drug overdose and addiction in Baltimore using results of the 2023 Baltimore Area Survey. https://21cc.jhu.edu/community-exposure-to-drug-overdose-and-addiction-in-baltimore/

Main findings include:

- Four out of 10 people with annual household incomes under $30,000 have lost loved ones to drug overdoses. Those same households are more than five times as likely to know multiple people addicted to drugs than are households that earn over $110,000 annually
- Respondents without high school diplomas are nearly four times more likely to have had someone close die of a drug overdose than are respondents with master’s or doctoral degrees and were six times more likely to know multiple people addicted to drugs.
- The percentages of Black and white residents familiar with fatal overdose victims are roughly the same, though white residents are less likely than Black residents to report knowing multiple people struggling with addiction.

More than half of Baltimore area adults who have not graduated from high school know someone who has died from a drug overdose—far more than any other socioeconomic group in the region. Our new report, based on data from the 2023 Baltimore Area Survey, offers deeper understanding of the families t...

09/12/2024

Join the the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins and the 2024 cohort of Summer Scholars for lunch, networking, and to learn about their innovation projects in the cities of Albany, Baltimore, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Raleigh, San Francisco, and Fortaleza, Brazil.

Join us for the Summer Scholars Showcase at JHU on September 20, 2024, and learn about the 2024 cohort's innovative projects in cities across the Americas.

03/26/2024

We are deeply grieved by the loss of the Key Bridge, an indelible symbol of Baltimore. We are keeping the families of those affected by this tragedy in our thoughts.

Search and rescue efforts have been underway since before daybreak.

02/29/2024

"A recent survey from Johns Hopkins 21st Century Cities Initiative found that one in five Baltimore area residents needed to “at least sometimes… reschedule an appointment, skipped going somewhere” or were otherwise inconvenienced by transportation in a 30 day window. That number jumped higher for Black residents, where about 43% of Black Baltimore area residents identified feeling some type of transportation insecurity."

South Baltimore residents grapple with spotty public transport and a lack of walkable infrastructure to handle life’s daily needs.