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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-UNION-NJ · Union, NJ 3,284 pop · income 89th 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 Union
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Union on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Union Springs · lowest
25,828
Union Springs · lowest
25,828 median HH income
10.9% of the leader · rank #1
Buchanan · near
127,375
Buchanan · near
127,375 median HH income
53.7% of the leader · rank #2
Union · this city
127,411
Union · this city
127,411 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #3
Valley Stream · near
127,426
Valley Stream · near
127,426 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #4
St. John · near
127,449
St. John · near
127,449 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #5
Lake Shore · near
127,453
Lake Shore · near
127,453 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #6
Saddle River · highest
236,985
Saddle River · highest
236,985 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Union on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 3,284.
Nationally, Union sits in the 89th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
89th
percentile, household income
81st
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Union, NJ
New Jersey's Union is a small town, with 3,284 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Union report a median income of $127,411 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.3%. Typical homes in Union are valued around $451,500, and the median resident age is 47.0 years. About 34.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 65.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 10 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,132 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Jersey run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Union'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Union, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, 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 Union?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.3%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The NCES join finds 10 public schools within the city match. 34.9% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Union?
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Port Monmouth (3,285 residents, $106,677 income); Rio Grande (3,285 residents, $97,590 income); Hamburg (3,293 residents, $90,655 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lanai, HI (3,283 residents); Warrensburg, NY (3,285 residents); Union Springs, AL (3,287 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.
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
High income · poverty 11.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
C-
City profile score · Union, NJ
51/100
4 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 A
$127,411
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B-
34.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.3%
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 N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Union profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 89/100 (A) · $127,411
Bachelor's+ share: 66/100 (B-) · 34.9%
Poverty rate: 35/100 (F) · 11.3%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
How does Union compare to other US cities?
Here's how Union stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income89% higher than other cities
Home value81% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Union 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 Union near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Union ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Union only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#201 of 659
69th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#264 of 672
61st percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#82 of 680
88th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#419 of 686
39th 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
89th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Union's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$451,50019th percentilemore affordable than 19% 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
Union's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,155 of 15,516
More affordable than 41% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,372 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Union sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,155 of 15,516 and #7,372 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$127,411Union, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Union, 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 Union, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)34.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,284
Median Income
$127,411
Median Home Value
$451,500
Median Age
47.0
Poverty Rate
11.3%
Labor force participation
65.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
34.9%
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.8%
Carpool
9.9%
Public Transit
7.0%
Walk
2.7%
Work from Home
3.6%
Other
2.0%
Based on 1,938 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 Union. 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 Union 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 Union sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Union 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, NCES CCD, 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.