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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-FAIR-LAWN-NJ · Fair Lawn, NJ 35,153 pop · income 94th 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 Fair Lawn
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fair Lawn on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Atlantic City · lowest
36,220
Atlantic City · lowest
36,220 median HH income
17.0% of the leader · rank #1
Artois · near
147,902
Artois · near
147,902 median HH income
69.5% of the leader · rank #2
Cave Springs · near
147,917
Cave Springs · near
147,917 median HH income
69.5% of the leader · rank #3
Hanover · near
147,944
Hanover · near
147,944 median HH income
69.6% of the leader · rank #4
Fair Lawn · this city
147,952
Fair Lawn · this city
147,952 median HH income
69.6% of the leader · rank #5
Hicksville · near
148,008
Hicksville · near
148,008 median HH income
69.6% of the leader · rank #6
Westfield · highest
212,700
Westfield · highest
212,700 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 Fair Lawn 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: 35,153.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Fair Lawn - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Fair Lawn lands in the 94th percentile for household income and the 65th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
94th
percentile, household income
86th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
65th
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: Fair Lawn, NJ
35,153 people live in Fair Lawn, New Jersey - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Fair Lawn households earn a median of $147,952 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.9%. Home values in Fair Lawn run a median of $532,700, and the median resident age is 39.2 years. About 64.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 65.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 218 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Growing), up 12% from five years earlier. Fair Lawn reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 981.4 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts New Jersey at 108.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Above Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,132 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Jersey run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Fair Lawn workers runs 25.3 minutes, with 62.6% driving alone and 18.9% 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 Fair Lawn'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to population change to housing and income to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fair Lawn, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
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
Which cities make useful reference points for Fair Lawn?
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Garfield (32,502 residents, $75,701 income); Long Branch (32,184 residents, $73,381 income); Atlantic City (38,486 residents, $36,220 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mason, OH (35,148 residents); Redmond, OR (35,161 residents); Chillum, MD (35,163 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the journey to work look like in Fair Lawn?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 62.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.3 minutes.
Is Fair Lawn growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,259 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 218 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Fair Lawn?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.9%, 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Fair Lawn?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 981.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 57% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
937.7
Violent rate
43.7
Total reported rate
981.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Fair Lawn?
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 64.2% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
9
Bachelor's degree+
64.2%
Poverty estimate
3.9%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Top-decile income · poverty 3.9% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
B
City profile score · Fair Lawn, NJ
72/100
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 A+
$147,952
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
64.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime A
44 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B
3.9%
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.
Fair Lawn profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 96/100 (A+) · $147,952
Bachelor's+ share: 94/100 (A+) · 64.2%
Violent crime: 85/100 (A) · 44 /100k
Poverty rate: 72/100 (B) · 3.9%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Fair Lawn sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Fair Lawn'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 - Fair Lawn highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Fair Lawn, NJ (this city): home $532,700, crime 981/100k
Mason, OH : home $397,900, crime 565/100k
Redmond, OR : home $435,000, crime 2,563/100k
West Hollywood, CA : home $969,900, crime 6,375/100k
Garfield, NJ : home $454,300, crime 1,950/100k
Long Branch, NJ : home $519,000, crime 1,869/100k
Atlantic City, NJ : home $189,600, crime 8,017/100k
Westfield, NJ : home $930,500, crime 572/100k
Fort Lee, NJ : home $422,200, crime 1,231/100k
Princeton, NJ : home $1,040,400, crime 765/100k
How does Fair Lawn compare to other US cities?
Here's how Fair Lawn stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income94% higher than other cities
Home value86% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety65% 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: Fair Lawn ranks #114 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 Fair Lawn 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 Fair Lawn near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fair Lawn ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fair Lawn only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#135 of 659
80th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#193 of 672
71st percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#289 of 680
56th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#128 of 686
81st 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
94th percentile nationally for median household income · 65th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Fair Lawn's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Fair Lawn'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 Fair Lawn's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$532,70014th percentilemore affordable than 14% 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
Fair Lawn's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,364 of 15,516
More affordable than 40% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,585 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.6×, Fair Lawn sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,364 of 15,516 and #1,585 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
$147,952Fair Lawn, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fair Lawn, 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 Fair Lawn, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)64.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
35,153
Median Income
$147,952
Median Home Value
$532,700
Median Age
39.2
Poverty Rate
3.9%
Labor force participation
65.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
64.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
981.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
43.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
937.7
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
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Fair Lawn's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
34,869 residents
2021
35,176 residents
2022
35,408 residents
2023
35,770 residents
2024
36,273 residents
2025
37,128 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
218
housing units authorized
Single-Family
36
detached homes
Multifamily
182
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
6.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
194
61
133
$25.5M
2020
172
107
65
$16.0M
2021
222
162
60
$11.0M
2022
217
78
139
$22.3M
2023
413
34
379
$14.6M
2024
218
36
182
$11.4M
Permit volume increased 12% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.3 minutes
Drive Alone
62.6%
Carpool
5.0%
Public Transit
11.4%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
18.9%
Other
1.5%
Based on 17,228 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 Fair Lawn. 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 Fair Lawn 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 Fair Lawn sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fair Lawn 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.