Biohazard Cleanup Near Chesterbrook McLean, VA

McLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, located between the Potomac River and the town of Vienna in the Washington metropolitan area — it has no city government of its own.

The community of McLean was established in 1910, when the neighboring communities of Lewinsville and Langley merged.

McLean had a population of 50,773 at the 2020 census, up from 48,115 in 2010.

Census Bureau QuickFacts survey data for 2020–2024 counts about 17,147 households in McLean averaging 2.88 people each, with an owner-occupied housing rate of 86.1% and a median owner-occupied home value of $1,412,700.

McLean's Langley area is home to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency — the George Bush Center for Intelligence, opened in 1961 and renamed in 1999 — which is why 'Langley' is used around the world as a metonym for the CIA.

McLean also hosts the headquarters of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which opened there in 2004, and the Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, which opened in 1950.

McLean is home to many diplomats, members of Congress and high-ranking government officials, and it is the location of Hickory Hill, the former home of Ethel Kennedy, and of Salona, the former home of Light-Horse Harry Lee.

McLean was identified in American Community Survey data as the third-wealthiest place in the United States, based on a median household income of $190,258 and a poverty rate of just 2.6%.

Major corporations headquartered in McLean include Capital One, Mars, Hilton Worldwide, Freddie Mac and Booz Allen Hamilton, and many businesses in neighboring Tysons carry McLean mailing addresses.

McLean students attend Fairfax County Public Schools, including Langley High School, which opened in 1965, and McLean High School, and the community's Clemyjontri Park is a playground designed to be accessible to children of all abilities.