Fort Lee, New Jersey

Area Profile

40,067 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Fort Lee, in Bergen County.

70out of 100
Area Score
Top 18% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 2% of 3,904 published cities86
SchoolsTop 3% of 2,668 published cities90
Growth1606th of 2,973 published cities48
Housing affordability2803rd of 4,223 published cities70
ClimateTop 47% of 4,223 published cities71
Physical resilience2586th of 4,182 published cities47
AccessTop 36% of 4,226 published cities95
Economic stability2154th of 4,226 published cities60
The quick read

Fort Lee ranks in the top 2% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.3% and median household income of $107,274.

Rent takes 25% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.2 times that income.

A major airport is 15 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
40,067
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$107,274
Top 15% nationally
Density
15,912/sq mi
2.5 sq mi of land
Median age
46.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Bergen County
New Jersey
Metro area
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Nearest major airport
EWR
15 mi · Newark Liberty Intl
Median home value
$448,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 89% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.5% over the past year, to 21,115 employed residents.

66% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 95% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,993$107,274Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,006$69,104Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate7.8%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute38.7 minTop 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher65.8%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment21,115Bottom 27%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.8%Top 38%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.5%Top 7%June 2026
Labor force21,833Bottom 26%June 2026
Labor force participation62.0%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$86,310Top 17%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$61,430Top 19%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 7%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.3%Bottom 11%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.52.3
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.3% 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
2021202220232024107k92k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $107,274 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.

52% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 64% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
51.9%
Top 8% in New Jersey
Reading proficiency
63.8%
Top 13% in New Jersey
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Lewis F. Cole Middle SchoolFort Lee School District1,22712.645%67%
Fort Lee High SchoolFort Lee School District1,17013.4
School No. 1Fort Lee School District54010.869%67%
School No. 4Fort Lee School District37712.257%57%
School No. 2Fort Lee School District3629.549%59%
School No. 3Fort Lee School District33010.349%60%

24.7% 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 $2,270 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
25.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,270
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$448,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.18Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate55.4%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±68619,679Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$112$2,270Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$44,780$448,000Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.4%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.1%Bottom 38%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
48/ 100
Ranks 1606 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 40,566 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 1.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
46
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.1
Bottom 34% nationally
Year over year
+59%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202441k40k
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
20202021202220232024202517833
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−64%).

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 46.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 40, in the Good band, and about 10 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station TETERBORO AP, 4.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index63.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation46.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low26°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high87°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100102024 calendar year
Median air quality index40.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
40
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
63
90th percentile index
Days above 100
10
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

47 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Coastal floodingHigh
Inland floodingModerate
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneModerate
DroughtModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. 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.

Bergen County records 0.9 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 1.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.4 per 100,000 residents in Bergen County.

Homicide
0.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
1.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
4.9
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 Bergen 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 Fort Lee rather than Fort Lee 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 15 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Newark Liberty IntlEWR15 mi9,999 ft
John F Kennedy IntlJFK18 mi14,511 ft
New York Stewart IntlSWF46 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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Area Score
70
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Other cities in New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
New YorkNew York County8,483,84464vs Fort Lee
NewarkEssex County310,17849vs Fort Lee
Jersey CityHudson County294,07861vs Fort Lee
YonkersWestchester County209,97862vs Fort Lee
PatersonPassaic County158,73543vs Fort Lee
ElizabethUnion County137,30253vs Fort Lee
Toms RiverOcean County94,956vs Fort Lee
CliftonPassaic County89,37961vs Fort Lee
New RochelleWestchester County82,76966vs Fort Lee
Mount VernonWestchester County72,42756vs Fort Lee
BayonneHudson County71,55354vs Fort Lee
East OrangeEssex County70,09050vs Fort Lee

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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.

ZIP codes in Fort Lee

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0702440,024$107,39670