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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-ELIZABETH-NJ · Elizabeth, NJ 135,887 pop · income 41st pct · 120 tracts
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 Elizabeth
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Elizabeth on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Camden · lowest
40,450
Camden · lowest
40,450 median HH income
37.6% of the leader · rank #1
Shelley · near
63,864
Shelley · near
63,864 median HH income
59.4% of the leader · rank #2
Garber · near
63,869
Garber · near
63,869 median HH income
59.4% of the leader · rank #3
Elizabeth · this city
63,874
Elizabeth · this city
63,874 median HH income
59.4% of the leader · rank #4
Gulfcrest · near
63,875
Gulfcrest · near
63,875 median HH income
59.4% of the leader · rank #5
Mountain View · near
63,882
Mountain View · near
63,882 median HH income
59.4% of the leader · rank #6
Stamford · highest
107,474
Stamford · highest
107,474 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 Elizabeth 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: 135,887.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Elizabeth - the verdict
Nationally, Elizabeth sits in the 41st percentile for household income and the 15th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
41st
percentile, household income
77th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
15th
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: Elizabeth, NJ
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 135,887 residents in Elizabeth, a mid-sized U.S. city within New Jersey. Elizabeth households earn a median of $63,874 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.6%. Elizabeth's housing stock carries a median value of $393,500, and the median resident age is 35.8 years. 14.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 119 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 78% from five years earlier. Elizabeth's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 3066.4 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, above the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,132 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Jersey run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 25.5 minutes, with 59.1% driving alone and 5.7% 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 Elizabeth'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 population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Elizabeth, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Elizabeth growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +5,066 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 119 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.
What does the education layer cover for Elizabeth?
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 10 public schools within the city match. 14.2% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Elizabeth?
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 Paterson (157,660 residents, $53,766 income); Toms River (93,915 residents, $95,759 income); Trenton (89,966 residents, $47,102 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Stamford, CT (135,806 residents); Victorville, CA (135,983 residents); Miramar, FL (135,986 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.
What can 120 Census tracts reveal inside Elizabeth?
PlainCities matches 120 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Elizabeth?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 59.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.5 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. 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.
Drive alone
59.1%
Work from home
5.7%
Public transit
11.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 63,429 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Elizabeth?
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 6.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
6.2×
Home value
$393,500
Household income
$63,874
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Elizabeth?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3066.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% higher 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.
Total reported rate
3066.4
Violent rate
408.7
Property rate
2657.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 11.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
F
City profile score · Elizabeth, NJ
26/100
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.
Household income D
$63,874
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
409 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Elizabeth profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 40/100 (D) · $63,874
Poverty rate: 33/100 (F) · 11.6%
Violent crime: 22/100 (F) · 409 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 18/100 (F) · 14.2%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Elizabeth sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Elizabeth'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 - Elizabeth highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Elizabeth, NJ (this city): home $393,500, crime 3,066/100k
Stamford, CT : home $614,300, crime 1,383/100k
Victorville, CA : home $342,500, crime 3,145/100k
Pasadena, CA : home $1,045,000, crime 3,177/100k
Dayton, OH : home $93,200, crime 5,673/100k
Kent, WA : home $537,500, crime 4,261/100k
Paterson, NJ : home $335,400, crime 3,330/100k
Trenton, NJ : home $122,500, crime 3,315/100k
Clifton, NJ : home $444,300, crime 2,431/100k
How does Elizabeth compare to other US cities?
Elizabeth measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income41% higher than other cities
Home value77% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety15% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to New Jersey alone, Elizabeth ranks #214 of 238 New Jersey cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Elizabeth ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Elizabeth only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#602 of 659
9th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#342 of 672
49th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#80 of 680
88th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#645 of 686
6th 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
41st percentile nationally for median household income · 15th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Elizabeth's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Elizabeth'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 Elizabeth's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$393,50023rd percentilemore affordable than 23% 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
Elizabeth's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,217 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#590 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 6.2×, Elizabeth sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,217 of 15,516 and #590 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$63,874Elizabeth, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Elizabeth, 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 Elizabeth, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.6%
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
135,887
Median Income
$63,874
Median Home Value
$393,500
Median Age
35.8
Poverty Rate
11.6%
Labor force participation
62.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3066.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
408.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2657.8
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
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Elizabeth's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
136,609 residents
2021
135,424 residents
2022
136,121 residents
2023
139,052 residents
2024
141,555 residents
2025
141,675 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
119
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
118
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
550
14
536
$43.2M
2020
509
26
483
$27.9M
2021
92
4
88
$9.1M
2022
181
0
181
$10.0M
2023
133
0
133
$9.2M
2024
119
1
118
$14.2M
Permit volume decreased 78% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.5 minutes
Drive Alone
59.1%
Carpool
15.2%
Public Transit
11.5%
Walk
4.7%
Work from Home
5.7%
Other
3.8%
Based on 63,429 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 Elizabeth. 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 Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Elizabeth 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.