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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-CLIFFSIDE-PARK-NJ · Cliffside Park, NJ 25,580 pop · income 74th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Cliffside Park
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cliffside Park on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Inkster · lowest
39,632
Inkster · lowest
39,632 median HH income
18.2% of the leader · rank #1
Paradise · near
94,934
Paradise · near
94,934 median HH income
43.7% of the leader · rank #2
Lake Helen · near
94,952
Lake Helen · near
94,952 median HH income
43.7% of the leader · rank #3
University Pl… · near
94,952
University Pl… · near
94,952 median HH income
43.7% of the leader · rank #4
Johnstown · near
94,955
Johnstown · near
94,955 median HH income
43.7% of the leader · rank #5
Cliffside Park · this city
94,960
Cliffside Park · this city
94,960 median HH income
43.7% of the leader · rank #6
Ridgewood · highest
217,250
Ridgewood · highest
217,250 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Cliffside Park on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 25,580.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cliffside Park - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Cliffside Park lands in the 74th percentile for household income and the 74th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
74th
percentile, household income
88th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
74th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Cliffside Park, NJ
25,580 people live in Cliffside Park, New Jersey - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $94,960 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.6%. Home values in Cliffside Park run a median of $577,200, and the median resident age is 41.0 years. Educational attainment runs 42.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 60.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 60 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Slowing), down 20% from five years earlier. Cliffside Park reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 770.0 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
New Jersey carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 108.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,132 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across New Jersey, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Cliffside Park workers runs 28.7 minutes, with 46.1% driving alone and 17.6% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 90.8 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cliffside Park's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cliffside Park, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cliffside Park?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 770.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 66% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
What does the journey to work look like in Cliffside Park?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 46.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 28.7 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
How far does income reach against housing in Cliffside Park?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cliffside Park?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Lodi (25,946 residents, $84,570 income); Carteret (25,187 residents, $87,553 income); Ridgewood (26,076 residents, $217,250 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Nocatee, FL (25,581 residents); South Bradenton, FL (25,585 residents); Happy Valley, OR (25,572 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Population change
Is Cliffside Park growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +885 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 60 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
25,654
2025 estimate
26,539
Period change
+3.4%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Cliffside Park?
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 42.4% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
7.6%
Bachelor's degree+
42.4%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 7.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
C
City profile score · Cliffside Park, NJ
55/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share B+
42.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B
$94,960
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime C+
126 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
7.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
108.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Cliffside Park profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 77/100 (B+) · 42.4%
Household income: 74/100 (B) · $94,960
Violent crime: 64/100 (C+) · 126 /100k
Poverty rate: 49/100 (D) · 7.6%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Cliffside Park sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cliffside Park's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Cliffside Park highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Cliffside Park, NJ (this city): home $577,200, crime 770/100k
Moses Lake, WA : home $278,100, crime 4,631/100k
Inkster, MI : home $75,700, crime 2,941/100k
Xenia, OH : home $147,300, crime 1,739/100k
Lodi, NJ : home $449,200, crime 1,510/100k
Carteret, NJ : home $370,200, crime 1,576/100k
Ridgewood, NJ : home $882,700, crime 629/100k
Paramus, NJ : home $736,000, crime 4,928/100k
Bridgeton, NJ : home $134,400, crime 4,427/100k
South Plainfield, NJ : home $443,900, crime 2,048/100k
How does Cliffside Park compare to other US cities?
Here's how Cliffside Park stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income74% higher than other cities
Home value88% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety74% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just New Jersey and the picture shifts: Cliffside Park ranks #93 of 238 New Jersey cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cliffside Park against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to New Jersey only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
New Jersey-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Cliffside Park near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cliffside Park ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cliffside Park only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#411 of 659
38th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#164 of 672
76th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#147 of 680
78th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#346 of 686
49th percentile in New Jersey
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within New Jersey only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
74th percentile nationally for median household income · 74th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cliffside Park's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cliffside Park's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Cliffside Park's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$577,20012th percentilemore affordable than 12% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Cliffside Park's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,158 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,980 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.1×, Cliffside Park sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,158 of 15,516 and #2,980 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$94,960Cliffside Park, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cliffside Park, NJ median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Cliffside Park, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)42.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
25,580
Median Income
$94,960
Median Home Value
$577,200
Median Age
41.0
Poverty Rate
7.6%
Labor force participation
60.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
42.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
770.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
126.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
643.6
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cliffside Park's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
25,654 residents
2021
25,656 residents
2022
25,594 residents
2023
25,762 residents
2024
26,051 residents
2025
26,539 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
60
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
52
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
75
24
51
$12.8M
2020
49
22
27
$10.1M
2021
58
14
44
$12.6M
2022
113
16
97
$20.0M
2023
45
8
37
$10.2M
2024
60
8
52
$14.3M
Permit volume decreased 20% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
28.7 minutes
Drive Alone
46.1%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
17.6%
Walk
5.3%
Work from Home
17.6%
Other
3.0%
Based on 12,705 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
New Jersey statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $275
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across New Jersey at $275 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $60 ).
These are New Jersey statewide averages, not a meter reading for Cliffside Park. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
New Jersey's BEA cost-of-living index is 108.8 (Well Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Cliffside Park is $2,132/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to New Jersey statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 90.8 / 100 (Very High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a New Jersey statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Cliffside Park sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cliffside Park compares to similar-size New Jersey cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.