Cape May County, NJ

County Profile

94,941 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cape May County, NJ.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

56out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 28% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity798th of 1,255 counties49
SchoolsTop 42% of 973 counties57
Growth701st of 1,226 counties46
Housing affordability953rd of 1,255 counties80
ClimateTop 45% of 1,254 counties70
Physical resilience981st of 1,255 counties36
AccessTop 43% of 1,255 counties84
Economic stability866th of 1,255 counties49
The quick read

Unemployment is 5.8% and median household income $91,128, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

In the public schools here, 20% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 9.9 students for every teacher.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, coastal flooding and hurricane.

At a glance

Population
94,941
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$91,128
Top 9% nationally
Density
377/sq mi
251.5 sq mi of land
Median age
51.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Cape May County
New Jersey
Metro area
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ
Nearest major airport
ACY
29 mi · Atlantic City Intl
Median home value
$434,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.8% is lower than 8% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Unemployment has been falling for 4 consecutive months, most recently 5.8%.

Employment fell 0.2% over the past year, to 43,629 employed residents.

39% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US locations.

Household income is higher than at least 91% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,274$91,128Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,721$55,694Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.7%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.6 minBottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher39.0%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment43,629Top 49%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-3.0%Bottom 15%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.2%Top 36%June 2026
Labor force46,292Top 48%June 2026
Labor force participation57.5%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 4%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.8%Top 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/06123.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.8% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202491k76k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $91,128 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Waiters and Waitresses6,070$38,160
Cashiers5,790$34,100
Fast Food and Counter Workers5,510$33,270
Home Health and Personal Care Aides4,250$37,840
Retail Salespersons3,580$35,360
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners3,440$39,520

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

20% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 44% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 9.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
32
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
9.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
19.9%
Bottom 42% in New Jersey
Reading proficiency
43.5%
Top 47% in New Jersey
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Ocean City High SchoolOcean City School District1,1068.8
Middle Township High SchoolMiddle Township Public School District82112.1
Lower Cape May Regional High SchoolLower Cape May Regional School District71712.25%35%
Middle Township Elementary #1Middle Township Public School District68810.9
Cape May County Technical High SchoolCape May County Technical High School District5878.8
Middle Township Elementary #4Middle Township Public School District54412.717%57%
Middle Township Elementary #2Middle Township Public School District52210.714%31%
Upper Township Elementary SchoolUpper Township School District47712.643%60%
Upper Township Primary SchoolUpper Township School District46013.5
Carl T. Mitnick SchoolLower Township Elementary School District42810.7
Upper Township Middle SchoolUpper Township School District41912.717%62%
Richard M. Teitelman Middle SchoolLower Cape May Regional School District39410.417%47%

43.9% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against New Jersey’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,360 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.8 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,360
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$434,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.77Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate80.3%Top 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±8599,599Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$96$1,360Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,304$434,600Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.9%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate54.9%Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
46/ 100
Ranks 701 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 93,875 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 1% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 8.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
814
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.6
Top 12% nationally
Year over year
−6%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
1.2%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202496k94k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202020212022202320242025932680
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+26%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 43.4 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MILLVILLE MUNI AP, 22.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation43.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing43°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

36 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, coastal flooding and hurricane.

Coastal floodingHigh
Strong windHigh
HurricaneElevated
Inland floodingModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, winter weather, wildfire, earthquake, lightning, cold wave, ice storm, tornado, landslide, hail.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Cape May County records 2.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 7.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 30.7 per 100,000 residents in Cape May County.

Homicide
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
30.7
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
18.0
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Cape May County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Cape May County rather than Cape May County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 29 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Atlantic City IntlACY29 mi10,001 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL58 mi12,000 ft
Baltimore/Washington Intl Thurgood MarshallBWI98 mi10,503 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
56
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Cape May County, NJ