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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-NORTH-PLAINFIELD-NJ · North Plainfield, NJ 22,667 pop · income 65th 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 North Plainfield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest North Plainfield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lindenwold · lowest
55,099
Lindenwold · lowest
55,099 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #1
Riverhead · near
83,521
Riverhead · near
83,521 median HH income
41.9% of the leader · rank #2
Carrollton · near
83,523
Carrollton · near
83,523 median HH income
41.9% of the leader · rank #3
Quail Creek · near
83,523
Quail Creek · near
83,523 median HH income
41.9% of the leader · rank #4
North Plainfi… · this city
83,529
North Plainfi… · this city
83,529 median HH income
42.0% of the leader · rank #5
Sussex · near
83,531
Sussex · near
83,531 median HH income
42.0% of the leader · rank #6
Summit · highest
199,107
Summit · highest
199,107 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 North Plainfield 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: 22,667.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
North Plainfield - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, North Plainfield lands in the 65th percentile for household income and the 42nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
65th
percentile, household income
72nd
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
42nd
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: North Plainfield, NJ
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 22,667 residents in North Plainfield, a small city within New Jersey. Median household income here is $83,529 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.9%. Home values in North Plainfield run a median of $350,700, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. 25.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 67.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in North Plainfield (No Permits), per Census BPS data. North Plainfield reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1612.4 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New Jersey's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). Workers in North Plainfield report an average commute of 29.0 minutes, with 68.1% driving alone and 7.9% working from home. 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 North Plainfield'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 work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For North Plainfield, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, 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
Is North Plainfield growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +134 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
What does the journey to work look like in North Plainfield?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 29.0 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.
How far does income reach against housing in North Plainfield?
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 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for North Plainfield?
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 Summit (22,512 residents, $199,107 income); Roselle (22,455 residents, $82,967 income); Hillsborough (22,302 residents, $142,275 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Avon, IN (22,683 residents); Crystal, MN (22,685 residents); Sun Valley, NV (22,697 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.
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 North Plainfield?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1612.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 29% lower 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
1612.4
Violent rate
151.7
Property rate
1460.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for North Plainfield?
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. 25.3% 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.
Poverty estimate
7.9%
Bachelor's degree+
25.3%
Matched public schools
6
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 7.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
D
City profile score · North Plainfield, NJ
46/100
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 C+
$83,529
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime C
152 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C-
25.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.9%
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.
North Plainfield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 63/100 (C+) · $83,529
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 152 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 50/100 (C-) · 25.3%
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 7.9%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where North Plainfield sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
North Plainfield'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 - North Plainfield highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
North Plainfield, NJ (this city): home $350,700, crime 1,612/100k
Avon, IN : home $300,600, crime 1,742/100k
Crystal, MN : home $280,500, crime 2,505/100k
Hialeah Gardens, FL : home $319,200, crime 1,083/100k
Corcoran, CA : home $220,500, crime 1,539/100k
Summit, NJ : home $969,900, crime 788/100k
Roselle, NJ : home $336,500, crime 1,311/100k
Glassboro, NJ : home $276,900, crime 1,230/100k
Lindenwold, NJ : home $168,300, crime 2,515/100k
How does North Plainfield compare to other US cities?
Here's how North Plainfield stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income65% higher than other cities
Home value72% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety42% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at New Jersey, North Plainfield ranks #168 of 238 New Jersey cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares North Plainfield 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 North Plainfield near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, North Plainfield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares North Plainfield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#487 of 659
26th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#412 of 672
39th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#140 of 680
79th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#531 of 686
23rd 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
65th percentile nationally for median household income · 42nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
North Plainfield's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
North Plainfield'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 North Plainfield's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$350,70028th percentilemore affordable than 28% 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
North Plainfield's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,235 of 15,516
More affordable than 28% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,138 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.2×, North Plainfield sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,235 of 15,516 and #2,138 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
$83,529North Plainfield, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context North Plainfield, 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 North Plainfield, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
22,667
Median Income
$83,529
Median Home Value
$350,700
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
7.9%
Labor force participation
67.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1612.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
151.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1460.7
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
North Plainfield's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
22,745 residents
2021
22,715 residents
2022
22,695 residents
2023
22,723 residents
2024
22,928 residents
2025
22,879 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
4
4
0
$2.4M
2021
6
6
0
$0.4M
2022
8
8
0
$0.6M
2023
1
1
0
$0.3M
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
29.0 minutes
Drive Alone
68.1%
Carpool
11.1%
Public Transit
5.0%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
7.9%
Other
7.2%
Based on 11,992 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 North Plainfield. 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 North Plainfield 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 North Plainfield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How North Plainfield 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.