Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-PASSAIC-NJ · Passaic, NJ 69,651 pop · income 30th 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 Passaic
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Passaic on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Camden · lowest
40,450
Camden · lowest
40,450 median HH income
28.0% of the leader · rank #1
Hardinsburg · near
56,774
Hardinsburg · near
56,774 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #2
Marseilles · near
56,777
Marseilles · near
56,777 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #3
Breckenridge · near
56,779
Breckenridge · near
56,779 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #4
Passaic · this city
56,780
Passaic · this city
56,780 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #5
Savannah · near
56,782
Savannah · near
56,782 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #6
Redondo Beach · highest
144,588
Redondo Beach · highest
144,588 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 Passaic 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: 69,651.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Passaic - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Passaic lands in the 30th percentile for household income and the 22nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
30th
percentile, household income
78th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
22nd
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: Passaic, NJ
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 69,651 residents in Passaic, a small city within New Jersey. Median household income here is $56,780 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 22.0%. Passaic's housing stock carries a median value of $406,500, and the median resident age is 30.9 years. Educational attainment runs 16.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 74 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Growing), up 19% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2556.6 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New Jersey's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). The average commute for Passaic workers runs 23.8 minutes, with 48.9% driving alone and 8.2% 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 Passaic'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Passaic, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history, 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 Passaic growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,024 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 74 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Passaic?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 48.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.8 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Passaic?
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 Lakewood (69,884 residents, $57,576 income); East Orange (69,183 residents, $59,872 income); Bayonne (70,468 residents, $81,285 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Yuba City, CA (69,545 residents); Walnut Creek, CA (69,790 residents); Redondo Beach, CA (69,814 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Passaic?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2556.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 12% higher 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Passaic?
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 21 public schools within the city match. 16.9% 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
22.0%
Bachelor's degree+
16.9%
Matched public schools
21
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Passaic?
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 7.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 22.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
7.2×
Home value
$406,500
Household income
$56,780
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 22.0% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
F
City profile score · Passaic, NJ
16/100
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 F
$56,780
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
22.0%
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 F
719 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Passaic profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 30/100 (F) · $56,780
Bachelor's+ share: 25/100 (F) · 16.9%
Poverty rate: 10/100 (F) · 22.0%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Violent crime: 5/100 (F) · 719 /100k
Where Passaic sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Passaic'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 - Passaic highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Passaic, NJ (this city): home $406,500, crime 2,557/100k
Yuba City, CA : home $405,900, crime 2,082/100k
Walnut Creek, CA : home $1,031,100, crime 3,178/100k
Redondo Beach, CA : home $1,225,400, crime 2,835/100k
West Des Moines, IA : home $286,300, crime 1,879/100k
St. Cloud, MN : home $212,800, crime 3,323/100k
Tulare, CA : home $301,200, crime 2,415/100k
East Orange, NJ : home $315,500, crime 2,439/100k
Vineland, NJ : home $218,200, crime 3,123/100k
How does Passaic compare to other US cities?
Here's how Passaic stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income30% higher than other cities
Home value78% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety22% 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, Passaic ranks #208 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 Passaic 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 Passaic near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Passaic ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Passaic only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#618 of 659
6th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#327 of 672
51st percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#27 of 680
96th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#631 of 686
8th 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
30th percentile nationally for median household income · 22nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Passaic's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Passaic'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 Passaic's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$406,50022nd percentilemore affordable than 22% 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
Passaic's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,741 of 15,516
More affordable than 5% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#658 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 7.2×, Passaic sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,741 of 15,516 and #658 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$56,780Passaic, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Passaic, 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 Passaic, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)22.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
69,651
Median Income
$56,780
Median Home Value
$406,500
Median Age
30.9
Poverty Rate
22.0%
Labor force participation
59.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2556.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
719.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1837.3
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
21
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Passaic's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
70,313 residents
2021
69,732 residents
2022
69,563 residents
2023
70,312 residents
2024
71,317 residents
2025
71,337 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
74
housing units authorized
Single-Family
22
detached homes
Multifamily
52
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
62
32
30
$3.3M
2020
105
18
87
$13.0M
2021
119
22
97
$13.8M
2022
101
20
81
$11.7M
2023
50
20
30
$8.9M
2024
74
22
52
$11.1M
Permit volume increased 19% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.8 minutes
Drive Alone
48.9%
Carpool
16.5%
Public Transit
13.0%
Walk
11.3%
Work from Home
8.2%
Other
2.1%
Based on 29,438 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 Passaic. 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 Passaic 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 Passaic sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Passaic 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.