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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-PATERSON-NJ · Paterson, NJ 157,660 pop · income 25th pct · 203 tracts
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 Paterson
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Paterson on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Camden · lowest
40,450
Camden · lowest
40,450 median HH income
35.6% of the leader · rank #1
Paterson · this city
53,766
Paterson · this city
53,766 median HH income
47.3% of the leader · rank #2
Scranton · near
53,767
Scranton · near
53,767 median HH income
47.3% of the leader · rank #3
New Haven · near
53,771
New Haven · near
53,771 median HH income
47.3% of the leader · rank #4
Southern View · near
53,774
Southern View · near
53,774 median HH income
47.3% of the leader · rank #5
Thibodaux · near
53,775
Thibodaux · near
53,775 median HH income
47.3% of the leader · rank #6
Alexandria · highest
113,638
Alexandria · highest
113,638 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 Paterson 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: 157,660.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Paterson - the verdict
Paterson ranks in the 25th percentile for household income and the 12th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
25th
percentile, household income
70th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
12th
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: Paterson, NJ
157,660 people live in Paterson, New Jersey - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Paterson brings in $53,766 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 20.9%. Home values in Paterson run a median of $335,400, and the median resident age is 33.3 years. About 12.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 56.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 366 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 24% from five years earlier. Paterson's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3329.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. 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. Workers in Paterson report an average commute of 22.0 minutes, with 62.4% driving alone and 4.8% 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 Paterson'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 work and mobility to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Paterson, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Paterson?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 62.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.0 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.
Is Paterson growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,517 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 366 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Paterson?
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 Elizabeth (135,887 residents, $63,874 income); Toms River (93,915 residents, $95,759 income); Trenton (89,966 residents, $47,102 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Murfreesboro, TN (157,547 residents); Alexandria, VA (156,788 residents); Macon-Bibb County, GA (156,543 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 203 Census tracts reveal inside Paterson?
PlainCities matches 203 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Paterson?
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 6.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 20.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
6.2×
Home value
$335,400
Household income
$53,766
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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. 12.5% 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
20.9%
Bachelor's degree+
12.5%
Matched public schools
6
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Paterson?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3329.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 46% 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.
Total reported rate
3329.7
Violent rate
978.6
Property rate
2351.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 20.9% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
F
City profile score · Paterson, NJ
13/100
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
$53,766
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
20.9%
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.
Violent crime F
979 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Paterson profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 25/100 (F) · $53,766
Bachelor's+ share: 13/100 (F) · 12.5%
Poverty rate: 12/100 (F) · 20.9%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 979 /100k
Where Paterson sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Paterson'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 - Paterson highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Paterson, NJ (this city): home $335,400, crime 3,330/100k
Murfreesboro, TN : home $365,100, crime 2,442/100k
Alexandria, VA : home $696,800, crime 2,859/100k
Corona, CA : home $656,500, crime 1,973/100k
Lakewood, CO : home $548,200, crime 5,881/100k
Killeen, TX : home $196,000, crime 1,910/100k
Elizabeth, NJ : home $393,500, crime 3,066/100k
Trenton, NJ : home $122,500, crime 3,315/100k
Clifton, NJ : home $444,300, crime 2,431/100k
How does Paterson compare to other US cities?
Where Paterson sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income25% higher than other cities
Home value70% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety12% 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, Paterson ranks #221 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 Paterson 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 Paterson near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Paterson ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Paterson only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#626 of 659
5th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#439 of 672
35th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#31 of 680
95th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#653 of 686
5th 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
25th percentile nationally for median household income · 12th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Paterson's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Paterson'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 Paterson's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$335,40030th percentilemore affordable than 30% 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
Paterson's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,291 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#599 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 6.2×, Paterson sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,291 of 15,516 and #599 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
$53,766Paterson, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Paterson, 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 Paterson, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)20.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
157,660
Median Income
$53,766
Median Home Value
$335,400
Median Age
33.3
Poverty Rate
20.9%
Labor force participation
56.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3329.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
978.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2351.1
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Paterson's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
159,276 residents
2021
158,074 residents
2022
157,410 residents
2023
159,570 residents
2024
161,737 residents
2025
161,793 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
366
housing units authorized
Single-Family
53
detached homes
Multifamily
313
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
483
21
462
$16.0M
2020
590
11
579
$42.0M
2021
665
15
650
$42.7M
2022
437
23
414
$21.8M
2023
370
56
314
$21.1M
2024
366
53
313
$20.8M
Permit volume decreased 24% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.0 minutes
Drive Alone
62.4%
Carpool
17.1%
Public Transit
8.0%
Walk
5.8%
Work from Home
4.8%
Other
1.9%
Based on 65,472 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 Paterson. 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 Paterson 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 Paterson sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Paterson 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.