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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-GREAT-MEADOWS-NJ · Great Meadows, NJ 353 pop · income 55th 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 Great Meadows
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Great Meadows on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Zeba · lowest
42,500
Zeba · lowest
42,500 median HH income
37.9% of the leader · rank #1
Earlton · near
73,833
Earlton · near
73,833 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #2
Mowrystown · near
73,833
Mowrystown · near
73,833 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #3
Walker · near
73,835
Walker · near
73,835 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #4
Great Meadows · this city
73,836
Great Meadows · this city
73,836 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #5
Guilford · near
73,839
Guilford · near
73,839 median HH income
65.9% of the leader · rank #6
Goshen · highest
112,019
Goshen · highest
112,019 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 Great Meadows 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: 353.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Great Meadows places in the 55th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
55th
percentile, household income
75th
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: Great Meadows, NJ
353 people live in Great Meadows, New Jersey - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Great Meadows report a median income of $73,836 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 0.0%. Home values in Great Meadows run a median of $372,100, and the median resident age is 74.0 years. 17.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 49.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,132 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across New Jersey, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 90.8 out of 100 (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Great Meadows'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Great Meadows, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Great Meadows?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 17.4% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Great Meadows?
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 5.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Great Meadows?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 64.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Great Meadows?
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.
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Port Colden (357 residents, $54,170 income); New (366 residents, $108,661 income); Finesville (333 residents, $77,647 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Eckley, CO (353 residents); Hollister, ID (353 residents); Painesdale, MI (353 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.
Above median income · poverty 0.0% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
D
City profile score · Great Meadows, NJ
49/100
4 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.
Poverty rate A+
0.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C-
$73,836
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.4%
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Great Meadows profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 100/100 (A+) · 0.0%
Household income: 53/100 (C-) · $73,836
Bachelor's+ share: 27/100 (F) · 17.4%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
How does Great Meadows compare to other US cities?
Here's how Great Meadows stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income55% higher than other cities
Home value75% 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 Great Meadows 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 Great Meadows near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Great Meadows ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Great Meadows only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#557 of 659
15th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#374 of 672
44th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#540 of 680
0th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#624 of 686
9th 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
55th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Great Meadows's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$372,10025th percentilemore affordable than 25% 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
Great Meadows's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#12,957 of 15,516
More affordable than 16% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,799 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.0×, Great Meadows sits in the pressured band:
national rank #12,957 of 15,516 and #9,799 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$73,836Great Meadows, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Great Meadows, 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 Great Meadows, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
353
Median Income
$73,836
Median Home Value
$372,100
Median Age
74.0
Poverty Rate
0.0%
Labor force participation
49.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.4%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
64.6%
Carpool
0.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
35.4%
Based on 158 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 Great Meadows. 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 Great Meadows 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 Great Meadows sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Great Meadows 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.