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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-COLONIA-NJ · Colonia, NJ 18,294 pop · income 91st 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 Colonia
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Colonia on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
East St. Louis · lowest
30,992
East St. Louis · lowest
30,992 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #1
Mantua · near
134,239
Mantua · near
134,239 median HH income
71.4% of the leader · rank #2
Greenbriar · near
134,284
Greenbriar · near
134,284 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #3
Colonia · this city
134,301
Colonia · this city
134,301 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #4
Collierville · near
134,319
Collierville · near
134,319 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #5
Trooper · near
134,338
Trooper · near
134,338 median HH income
71.5% of the leader · rank #6
Syosset · highest
187,936
Syosset · highest
187,936 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Colonia on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 18,294.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Colonia places in the 91st percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
91st
percentile, household income
83rd
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Colonia, NJ
New Jersey's Colonia is a small town, with 18,294 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $134,301 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Typical homes in Colonia are valued around $473,200, and the median resident age is 43.3 years. About 46.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 62.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 6 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
New Jersey carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, New Jersey scores 108.8 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,132 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New Jersey's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). Commute times here average 28.6 minutes, with 75.7% driving alone and 13.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 90.8 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Colonia'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 schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Colonia, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Colonia?
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 46.5% 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Colonia?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Which cities make useful reference points for Colonia?
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Dover (18,420 residents, $70,519 income); Dumont (18,072 residents, $125,585 income); Preakness (18,538 residents, $133,168 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lake Ronkonkoma, NY (18,289 residents); Niles, OH (18,301 residents); Fairmont, WV (18,303 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.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Colonia?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 28.6 minutes.
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.
Household income A+
$134,301
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A-
46.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Colonia profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 91/100 (A+) · $134,301
Bachelor's+ share: 81/100 (A-) · 46.5%
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
How does Colonia compare to other US cities?
Where Colonia sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income91% higher than other cities
Home value83% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Colonia 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 Colonia near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Colonia ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Colonia only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#176 of 659
73rd percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#242 of 672
64th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#317 of 680
52nd percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#297 of 686
57th 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
91st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Colonia's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$473,20017th percentilemore affordable than 17% 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
Colonia's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,064 of 15,516
More affordable than 42% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,519 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.5×, Colonia sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,064 of 15,516 and #1,519 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$134,301Colonia, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Colonia, 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 Colonia, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)46.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
18,294
Median Income
$134,301
Median Home Value
$473,200
Median Age
43.3
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
62.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
46.5%
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
28.6 minutes
Drive Alone
75.7%
Carpool
5.9%
Public Transit
2.6%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
13.8%
Other
1.3%
Based on 9,170 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 Colonia. 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 Colonia 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 Colonia sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Colonia 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, NCES CCD, 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.