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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-ISELIN-NJ · Iselin, NJ 19,151 pop · income 84th 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 Iselin
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Iselin on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Winchester · lowest
57,653
Winchester · lowest
57,653 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #1
Ball Ground · near
112,585
Ball Ground · near
112,585 median HH income
68.2% of the leader · rank #2
Jackson · near
112,609
Jackson · near
112,609 median HH income
68.3% of the leader · rank #3
Iselin · this city
112,615
Iselin · this city
112,615 median HH income
68.3% of the leader · rank #4
El Sobrante C… · near
112,622
El Sobrante C… · near
112,622 median HH income
68.3% of the leader · rank #5
Stoneham · near
112,635
Stoneham · near
112,635 median HH income
68.3% of the leader · rank #6
Lakeway · highest
164,978
Lakeway · highest
164,978 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 Iselin 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: 19,151.
Iselin ranks in the 84th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
84th
percentile, household income
77th
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: Iselin, NJ
New Jersey's Iselin is a small town, with 19,151 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Iselin households earn a median of $112,615 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.0%. Typical homes in Iselin are valued around $394,200, and the median resident age is 38.4 years. 55.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.6% 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: the state registers 108.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,132 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New Jersey's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). 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 Iselin'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 schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Iselin, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Iselin?
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 Point Pleasant (19,158 residents, $108,713 income); Tinton Falls (19,252 residents, $113,844 income); Hawthorne (19,472 residents, $118,093 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ferndale, MI (19,156 residents); Dixon, CA (19,158 residents); Cinco Ranch, TX (19,139 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.
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 6 public schools within the city match. 55.0% 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 Iselin?
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.
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 5.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Iselin?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 53.4%. 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.
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 A
55.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A-
$112,615
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B-
5.0%
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).
Iselin profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 88/100 (A) · 55.0%
Household income: 82/100 (A-) · $112,615
Poverty rate: 65/100 (B-) · 5.0%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
How does Iselin compare to other US cities?
Here's how Iselin stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income84% higher than other cities
Home value77% 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 Iselin 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 Iselin near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Iselin ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Iselin only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#284 of 659
57th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#340 of 672
49th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#231 of 680
65th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#218 of 686
68th 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
84th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Iselin's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$394,20023rd 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
Iselin'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
#8,966 of 15,516
More affordable than 42% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,487 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.5×, Iselin sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,966 of 15,516 and #1,487 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
$112,615Iselin, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Iselin, 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 Iselin, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)55.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
19,151
Median Income
$112,615
Median Home Value
$394,200
Median Age
38.4
Poverty Rate
5.0%
Labor force participation
62.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
55.0%
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
53.4%
Carpool
6.7%
Public Transit
14.4%
Walk
4.4%
Work from Home
17.8%
Other
3.3%
Based on 9,529 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 Iselin. 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 Iselin 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 Iselin sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Iselin 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.