07017East Orange, New Jersey

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 07017.

50out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 15% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5053rd of 6,210 published ZIP areas39
Schools3416th of 4,422 published ZIP areas30
Growth2817th of 5,428 published ZIP areas49
Housing affordability6007th of 6,685 published ZIP areas47
ClimateTop 48% of 6,789 published ZIP areas71
Physical resilience3871st of 6,709 published ZIP areas50
AccessTop 15% of 6,791 published ZIP areas99
Economic stability4165th of 6,742 published ZIP areas53
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 6.8% and the Opportunity signal places 07017 in the bottom 19%.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 6.4 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 28% of it.

A major airport is 6 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
40,910
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$58,853
Bottom 28% nationally
Density
18,086/sq mi
2.3 sq mi of land
Median age
36.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
East Orange
New Jersey
Metro area
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Nearest major airport
EWR
6 mi · Newark Liberty Intl
Median home value
$374,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.8% is lower than 3% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.9% over the past year, to 32,923 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,939$58,853Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,899$31,760Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.5%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute37.7 minTop 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.4%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment32,923Bottom 34%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.3%Top 46%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.9%Top 13%June 2026
Labor force35,340Bottom 35%June 2026
Labor force participation64.3%Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$86,310Top 13%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$61,430Top 15%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.8%Top 3%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202462k56k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $58,853 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 — New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides644,700$39,680
Retail Salespersons202,080$38,280
Registered Nurses197,740$119,720
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners183,030$42,840
General and Operations Managers177,850$157,000
Cashiers173,830$35,950

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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for East Orange, NJ, the city containing this ZIP code.

5% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
5.4%
Bottom 10% in New Jersey
Reading proficiency
37.5%
Bottom 40% in New Jersey
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
East Orange Campus High SchoolEast Orange School District1,79817.8
Cicely L. Tyson Community Middle/High SchoolEast Orange School District70111.33%47%
East Orange STEM Academy High SchoolEast Orange School District64617.512%77%
Edward T. Bowser Sr. School of ExcellenceEast Orange School District61217.04%26%
Cicely L. Tyson Community Elementary SchoolEast Orange School District48113.73%24%
East Orange Community Charter School · charterEast Orange Community Charter School41421.85%32%
Shelia Y. Oliver AcademyEast Orange School District41313.85%24%
Whitney E. Houston AcademyEast Orange School District38512.86%28%
John L. Costley Middle SchoolEast Orange School District33413.93%30%
Patrick F. Healy Middle SchoolEast Orange School District32216.1
Gordon Parks AcademyEast Orange School District26814.1
Sojourner Truth Middle SchoolEast Orange School District26413.9

18.5% 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 $1,376 takes 28% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.4 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
28.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,376
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$374,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.37Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate33.8%Bottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±77416,685Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$97$1,376Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$23,388$374,800Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income28.1%Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.6%Bottom 21%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
49/ 100
Ranks 2817 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

66% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 2.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
172
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.5
Bottom 46% nationally
Year over year
+12%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
66.3%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for East Orange, NJ, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 87°F and January a low of 26°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.6 inches, including 31.5 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NEWARK INTL AP, 6.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation46.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall31.5"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing45°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

50 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Inland floodingModerate
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, strong wind, winter weather, cold wave, tornado, lightning, hail, ice storm, coastal flooding, landslide, wildfire.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

Essex County records 3.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 5.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 24.6 per 100,000 residents in Essex County.

Homicide
3.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
5.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
24.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
5.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

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 Essex 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 07017 rather than 07017 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 6 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Newark Liberty IntlEWR6 mi9,999 ft
John F Kennedy IntlJFK24 mi14,511 ft
New York Stewart IntlSWF51 mi11,817 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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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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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.

07017 vs East Orange

How this ZIP area compares with East Orange as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

07017
East Orange
Median household income
$58,853
vs
$60,830
Per capita income
$31,760
vs
$33,200
Population density
18,086/sq mi
vs
17,844/sq mi
Median home value
$374,800
vs
$365,900
Median gross rent
$1,376
vs
$1,441
Homeownership rate
33.8%
vs
31.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher
21.4%
vs
22.7%
Poverty rate
16.5%
vs
16.4%
Median age
36.9
vs
37.4

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.