The population was 6,844 at the 2020 U.S. census, although during summer weekends the city hosts between 320,000 and 345,000 vacationers and up to eight million visitors annually.

In the summer, businesses and government agencies are augmented with approximately 1000 plus seasonal police officers, plus extra firefighters and other workers.

[4] The land on which the city was built and much of the surrounding area was obtained by Thomas Fenwick, an Englishman, from the Indigenous peoples of the region.

Soon after, other simple boarding houses were built on the strip of sand, with the activity attracting prominent businessmen from the Maryland Eastern Shore, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Wilmington, Delaware.

By 1881, a line was completed across Sinepuxent Bay to the shore, bringing rail passengers on the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic Railroad directly into the town to a train station on Philadelphia Avenue and returning to larger city markets with locally caught fish from Ocean City.

In 1930, Ocean City Beach Patrol was formed in order to better protect the bathers that frequented the shoreline.

[7] The Ocean City Inlet was formed during a significant hurricane in 1933, which also destroyed the train tracks across the Sinepuxent Bay.

The Army Corps of Engineers took advantage of nature's intervention and made permanent the inlet at the south end of Ocean City.

In the late 1930s, the Army Corps of Engineers dredged a new channel on the bayside of Ocean City to allow larger boats to have access to Sinepuxent Bay.

[8] Ocean City has undergone a fairly rapid expansion that took place during the post-World War II boom.

In 1952, with the completion of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Ocean City became easily accessible to people in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area.

[10] There was a small water park and giant walk-through haunted house with live actors near the end of the pier and a New Orleans-style Hollywood in Wax Museum on the boardwalk side.

In the mid 1990s, the wax museum closed[11] and was turned into a Photon laser tag arena[citation needed].

In addition to a statue of a firefighter, the monument incorporates a piece of steel beam from one of the towers destroyed at the World Trade Center.

The prominence of the Outer Banks of North Carolina to the south means direct hits from tropical storms and hurricanes are rare, although they sometimes brush the area.

The Atlantic hurricane season extends from June 1 through November 30, sharply peaking from late August through September.

During the winter months, Ocean City has cool weather with an average high of 45 F (7.5 C), however periods of mild temperatures in the 50 to 60 F range are common.

As of the 2020 census, 6,844 (estimated at 6.900 as of 2022) people resided full time in the Town of Ocean City, with 3,723 households.

The strip now supports hotels, motels, apartment houses, shopping centers, residential communities, and condominiums.

In early August, the White Marlin Open, one of the larger fishing tournaments in the world, is held.

The aftermath of Hurricane Gloria led to the first phase of extensive beach replenishment projects in Ocean City.

Also located in South Ocean City is Trimper's Rides, a historic amusement park founded in 1893 as The Windsor Resort.

[23] Located in Midtown are the Jolly Roger Amusement Park and the Roland E. Powell Convention Center.

This area also features the Seacrets entertainment complex on 49th Street, one of the highest-grossing bars in the country, known for bringing in hundreds of coconut palms and other tropical plants in the summer.

Due to time, wear and the current needs of skaters, the original bowl and steel halfpipe ramp were torn down in the Fall of 1997 and the newly constructed skatepark opened in July 1998 on the same site.

[37] WOCM broadcasts from studios located at the popular restaurant, nightclub, distillery, and entertainment venue Seacrets.

Music Ocean City is mentioned in the Car Seat Headrest song “Beach Life-In-Death”.

Ocean City has a single major north−south thoroughfare, Maryland Route 528, known as the Coastal Highway for most of its length.