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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-PERTH-AMBOY-NJ · Perth Amboy, NJ 55,278 pop · income 33rd 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 Perth Amboy
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Perth Amboy on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Valdosta · lowest
45,849
Valdosta · lowest
45,849 median HH income
25.9% of the leader · rank #1
Lamar · near
58,487
Lamar · near
58,487 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #2
Union Point · near
58,487
Union Point · near
58,487 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #3
Perth Amboy · this city
58,490
Perth Amboy · this city
58,490 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #4
Lismore · near
58,490
Lismore · near
58,490 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #5
St. Francis · near
58,490
St. Francis · near
58,490 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #6
Hoboken · highest
176,943
Hoboken · highest
176,943 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 Perth Amboy 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: 55,278.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Perth Amboy - the verdict
Perth Amboy ranks in the 33rd percentile for household income and the 38th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
33rd
percentile, household income
70th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
38th
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: Perth Amboy, NJ
55,278 people live in Perth Amboy, New Jersey - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $58,490 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 18.1%. Typical homes in Perth Amboy are valued around $339,200, and the median resident age is 36.3 years. Educational attainment runs 15.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1 residential building permits were authorized in Perth Amboy (Construction Slowdown), down 99% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Perth Amboy reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1760.4 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures 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. 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. The average commute for Perth Amboy workers runs 23.8 minutes, with 59.1% driving alone and 4.0% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 90.8 out of 100 (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Perth Amboy'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 reported crime to schools and households to work and mobility to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Perth Amboy, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history.
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
What can the FBI record say about safety in Perth Amboy?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1760.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 23% 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.
What does the education layer cover for Perth Amboy?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 15.2% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Perth Amboy?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 59.1%. 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 Perth Amboy?
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 New Brunswick (55,744 residents, $60,248 income); Plainfield (54,515 residents, $80,334 income); Hoboken (58,340 residents, $176,943 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Valdosta, GA (55,222 residents); Chicopee, MA (55,213 residents); South Whittier, CA (55,201 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.
Population change
Is Perth Amboy growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,379 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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.
2020 estimate
55,360
2025 estimate
56,739
Period change
+2.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Perth Amboy?
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 5.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 18.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
5.8×
Home value
$339,200
Household income
$58,490
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 18.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
F
City profile score · Perth Amboy, NJ
21/100
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
$58,490
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
392 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
18.1%
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.
Perth Amboy profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 32/100 (F) · $58,490
Violent crime: 23/100 (F) · 392 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 21/100 (F) · 15.2%
Poverty rate: 17/100 (F) · 18.1%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Perth Amboy sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Perth Amboy'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 - Perth Amboy highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Perth Amboy, NJ (this city): home $339,200, crime 1,760/100k
Valdosta, GA : home $165,300, crime 4,634/100k
Chicopee, MA : home $251,800, crime 2,327/100k
Tigard, OR : home $585,700, crime 3,781/100k
West Haven, CT : home $265,200, crime 1,343/100k
Smyrna, TN : home $326,700, crime 2,665/100k
New Brunswick, NJ : home $316,800, crime 3,325/100k
Plainfield, NJ : home $383,300, crime 2,021/100k
Hoboken, NJ : home $872,100, crime 1,972/100k
West New York, NJ : home $410,200, crime 1,760/100k
Vineland, NJ : home $218,200, crime 3,123/100k
Hackensack, NJ : home $370,300, crime 2,271/100k
How does Perth Amboy compare to other US cities?
Perth Amboy measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income33% higher than other cities
Home value70% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety38% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just New Jersey and the picture shifts: Perth Amboy ranks #172 of 238 New Jersey cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Perth Amboy 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 Perth Amboy near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Perth Amboy ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Perth Amboy only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#613 of 659
7th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#433 of 672
36th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#37 of 680
95th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#640 of 686
7th 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
33rd percentile nationally for median household income · 38th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Perth Amboy's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Perth Amboy'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 Perth Amboy's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$339,20030th 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
Perth Amboy's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,911 of 15,516
More affordable than 10% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#554 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 5.8×, Perth Amboy sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,911 of 15,516 and #554 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
$58,490Perth Amboy, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Perth Amboy, 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 Perth Amboy, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)18.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
55,278
Median Income
$58,490
Median Home Value
$339,200
Median Age
36.3
Poverty Rate
18.1%
Labor force participation
58.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1760.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
391.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1368.6
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Perth Amboy's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
55,360 residents
2021
55,378 residents
2022
55,402 residents
2023
55,847 residents
2024
56,381 residents
2025
56,739 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
122
122
0
$17.7M
2020
13
4
9
$1.6M
2021
100
5
95
$14.4M
2022
4
4
0
$0.6M
2023
240
2
238
$18.7M
2024
1
1
0
$0.3M
Permit volume decreased 99% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.8 minutes
Drive Alone
59.1%
Carpool
13.7%
Public Transit
3.8%
Walk
7.2%
Work from Home
4.0%
Other
12.2%
Based on 24,494 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 Perth Amboy. 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 Perth Amboy 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 Perth Amboy sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Perth Amboy 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.