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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-WOODCLIFF-LAKE-NJ · Woodcliff Lake, NJ 6,097 pop · income 98th 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 Woodcliff Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Woodcliff Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Blackwell · lowest
50,104
Blackwell · lowest
50,104 median HH income
22.7% of the leader · rank #1
Pleasant Vall… · near
211,071
Pleasant Vall… · near
211,071 median HH income
95.6% of the leader · rank #2
South Barring… · near
211,083
South Barring… · near
211,083 median HH income
95.6% of the leader · rank #3
Woodcliff Lake · this city
211,233
Woodcliff Lake · this city
211,233 median HH income
95.7% of the leader · rank #4
Hebron · near
211,364
Hebron · near
211,364 median HH income
95.7% of the leader · rank #5
Mission Canyon · near
211,375
Mission Canyon · near
211,375 median HH income
95.8% of the leader · rank #6
Little Silver · highest
220,746
Little Silver · highest
220,746 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 Woodcliff Lake 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: 6,097.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Woodcliff Lake - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Woodcliff Lake lands in the 98th percentile for household income and the 75th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
98th
percentile, household income
96th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
75th
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: Woodcliff Lake, NJ
6,097 people live in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Woodcliff Lake report a median income of $211,233 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.3%. Woodcliff Lake's housing stock carries a median value of $901,800, and the median resident age is 45.2 years. About 77.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 55.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 9 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 68% from five years earlier. Woodcliff Lake reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 735.3 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts New Jersey at 108.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,132 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Jersey run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy 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 Woodcliff Lake'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change 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 Woodcliff Lake, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, 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.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Woodcliff Lake?
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 60.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Woodcliff Lake?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.3%, 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Woodcliff Lake?
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Little Silver (6,096 residents, $220,746 income); Packanack Lake (6,126 residents, $196,343 income); Laurence Harbor (6,130 residents, $89,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Gas City, IN (6,097 residents); Kennett Square, PA (6,096 residents); Battlefield, MO (6,095 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.
Is Woodcliff Lake growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +72 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 9 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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 Woodcliff Lake?
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 77.4% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Matched public schools
2
Bachelor's degree+
77.4%
Poverty estimate
1.3%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Woodcliff Lake?
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 735.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 68% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
735.3
Violent rate
0.0
Total reported rate
735.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Top-decile income · poverty 1.3% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
A-
City profile score · Woodcliff Lake, NJ
80/100
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 A+
$211,233
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
77.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate A+
1.3%
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.
Woodcliff Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $211,233
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 77.4%
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Poverty rate: 91/100 (A+) · 1.3%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Woodcliff Lake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Woodcliff Lake'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 - Woodcliff Lake highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Woodcliff Lake, NJ (this city): home $901,800, crime 735/100k
Gas City, IN : home $122,800, crime 658/100k
Kennett Square, PA : home $347,700, crime 713/100k
Battlefield, MO : home $207,100, crime 636/100k
Blackwell, OK : home $77,000, crime 2,585/100k
Maquoketa, IA : home $126,800, crime 2,239/100k
Little Silver, NJ : home $870,700, crime 630/100k
Oceanport, NJ : home $685,800, crime 421/100k
How does Woodcliff Lake compare to other US cities?
Here's how Woodcliff Lake stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income98% higher than other cities
Home value96% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety75% 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: Woodcliff Lake ranks #85 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 Woodcliff Lake 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 Woodcliff Lake near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Woodcliff Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Woodcliff Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#39 of 659
94th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#50 of 672
93rd percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#480 of 680
28th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#31 of 686
95th 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
98th percentile nationally for median household income · 75th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Woodcliff Lake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Woodcliff Lake'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 Woodcliff Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$901,8004th percentilemore affordable than 4% 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
Woodcliff Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,443 of 15,516
More affordable than 26% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,837 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.3×, Woodcliff Lake sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,443 of 15,516 and #8,837 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
$211,233Woodcliff Lake, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Woodcliff Lake, 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 Woodcliff Lake, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)77.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,097
Median Income
$211,233
Median Home Value
$901,800
Median Age
45.2
Poverty Rate
1.3%
Labor force participation
55.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
77.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
735.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
735.3
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Woodcliff Lake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,121 residents
2021
6,086 residents
2022
6,095 residents
2023
6,139 residents
2024
6,188 residents
2025
6,193 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
9
housing units authorized
Single-Family
9
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
28
20
8
$6.2M
2020
19
19
0
$5.0M
2021
22
19
3
$7.2M
2022
4
4
0
$2.1M
2023
1
1
0
$0.6M
2024
9
9
0
$3.3M
Permit volume decreased 68% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
60.1%
Carpool
4.2%
Public Transit
6.3%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
23.9%
Other
4.8%
Based on 2,694 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 Woodcliff Lake. 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 Woodcliff Lake 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 Woodcliff Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Woodcliff Lake 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.