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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-PARAMUS-NJ · Paramus, NJ 26,500 pop · income 92nd 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 Paramus
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Paramus on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bridgeton · lowest
46,124
Bridgeton · lowest
46,124 median HH income
21.2% of the leader · rank #1
Levittown · near
139,696
Levittown · near
139,696 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #2
West Point · near
139,700
West Point · near
139,700 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #3
Paramus · this city
139,707
Paramus · this city
139,707 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #4
Signal Mounta… · near
139,714
Signal Mounta… · near
139,714 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #5
Freedom · near
139,722
Freedom · near
139,722 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #6
Ridgewood · highest
217,250
Ridgewood · highest
217,250 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 Paramus 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: 26,500.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Paramus - the verdict
Nationally, Paramus sits in the 92nd percentile for household income and the 4th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
92nd
percentile, household income
94th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
4th
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: Paramus, NJ
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 26,500 residents in Paramus, a small city within New Jersey. Median household income here is $139,707 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.1%. Paramus's housing stock carries a median value of $736,000, and the median resident age is 49.1 years. About 50.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 53.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 52 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 53% from five years earlier. Paramus's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4928.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,132 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across New Jersey, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 24.0 minutes, with 63.2% driving alone and 21.5% 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 Paramus'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 housing and income to population change to reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Paramus, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
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
How far does income reach against housing in Paramus?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.1%, 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. 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 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +8 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 52 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Paramus?
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 4928.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 116% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Paramus?
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Bridgeton (26,836 residents, $46,124 income); Ridgewood (26,076 residents, $217,250 income); Lodi (25,946 residents, $84,570 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Rosemount, MN (26,509 residents); Sanger, CA (26,515 residents); Jenks, OK (26,519 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.
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 Paramus?
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 63.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 24.0 minutes.
Public transit
7.8%
Work from home
21.5%
Drive alone
63.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 11,630 workers age 16+.
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 50.2% 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
8
Bachelor's degree+
50.2%
Poverty estimate
3.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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+
$139,707
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime A
30 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A-
50.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.1%
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.
Paramus profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 93/100 (A+) · $139,707
Violent crime: 89/100 (A) · 30 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 84/100 (A-) · 50.2%
Poverty rate: 78/100 (B+) · 3.1%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Paramus sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Paramus'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 - Paramus highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Paramus, NJ (this city): home $736,000, crime 4,928/100k
Rosemount, MN : home $406,100, crime 556/100k
Sanger, CA : home $346,000, crime 1,558/100k
Jenks, OK : home $285,600, crime 1,304/100k
Tumwater, WA : home $438,000, crime 2,274/100k
Auburn, NY : home $143,600, crime 1,588/100k
Bridgeton, NJ : home $134,400, crime 4,427/100k
Ridgewood, NJ : home $882,700, crime 629/100k
Lodi, NJ : home $449,200, crime 1,510/100k
Cliffside Park, NJ : home $577,200, crime 770/100k
Millville, NJ : home $199,300, crime 4,360/100k
Carteret, NJ : home $370,200, crime 1,576/100k
How does Paramus compare to other US cities?
Here's how Paramus stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income92% higher than other cities
Home value94% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety4% 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, Paramus ranks #230 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 Paramus 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 Paramus near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Paramus ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Paramus only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#160 of 659
76th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#84 of 672
87th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#342 of 680
49th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#260 of 686
62nd 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
92nd percentile nationally for median household income · 4th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Paramus's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Paramus'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 Paramus's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$736,0006th percentilemore affordable than 6% 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
Paramus's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,273 of 15,516
More affordable than 14% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,726 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.3×, Paramus sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,273 of 15,516 and #2,726 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$139,707Paramus, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Paramus, 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 Paramus, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)50.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
26,500
Median Income
$139,707
Median Home Value
$736,000
Median Age
49.1
Poverty Rate
3.1%
Labor force participation
53.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
50.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4928.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
29.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4898.1
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
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Paramus's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
26,715 residents
2021
26,464 residents
2022
26,532 residents
2023
26,576 residents
2024
26,760 residents
2025
26,723 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
52
housing units authorized
Single-Family
52
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
34
34
0
$19.4M
2020
41
41
0
$9.1M
2021
50
45
5
$54.5M
2022
33
33
0
$19.8M
2023
79
79
0
$25.9M
2024
52
52
0
$18.0M
Permit volume increased 53% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
24.0 minutes
Drive Alone
63.2%
Carpool
5.7%
Public Transit
7.8%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
21.5%
Based on 11,630 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 Paramus. 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 Paramus 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 Paramus sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Paramus 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.