07036Linden, New Jersey

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 07036.

59out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 47% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 46% of 6,210 published ZIP areas56
Schools2767th of 4,422 published ZIP areas42
Growth2951st of 5,428 published ZIP areas48
Housing affordability3983rd of 6,685 published ZIP areas74
ClimateTop 48% of 6,789 published ZIP areas71
Physical resilience3987th of 6,709 published ZIP areas49
AccessTop 15% of 6,791 published ZIP areas99
Economic stabilityTop 25% of 6,742 published ZIP areas73
The quick read

Unemployment is 5.0% and median household income $91,882, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

In the public schools here, 11% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 12.2 students for every teacher.

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

At a glance

Population
45,671
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$91,882
Top 25% nationally
Density
4,202/sq mi
10.9 sq mi of land
Median age
40.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Linden
New Jersey
Metro area
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Nearest major airport
EWR
6 mi · Newark Liberty Intl
Median home value
$417,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 28% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.9% over the past year, to 22,997 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,701$91,882Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,244$41,112Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.5%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.3 minTop 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.2%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment22,997Bottom 23%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.3%Top 46%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.9%Top 13%June 2026
Labor force24,206Bottom 23%June 2026
Labor force participation70.6%Top 13%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)-1.3%Bottom 4%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 28%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202492k79k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $91,882 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 Linden, NJ, the city containing this ZIP code.

11% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 34% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
10.7%
Bottom 28% in New Jersey
Reading proficiency
34.4%
Bottom 32% in New Jersey
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Linden High SchoolLinden Public School District1,93413.610%30%
Myles J. McManus MIddle SchoolLinden Public School District71112.18%52%
Joseph E. Soehl Middle SchoolLinden Public School District71011.88%42%
Number 2Linden Public School District60210.06%23%
Number 1Linden Public School District45412.312%30%
Number 4Linden Public School District44714.08%27%
Number 8Linden Public School District33412.411%32%
Number 6Linden Public School District32013.912%31%
Number 5Linden Public School District31912.311%35%
Number 9Linden Public School District31110.025%41%
Number 10Linden Public School District29913.024%45%
Winfield TownshipWinfield Township1417.810%30%

69.7% 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 $1,668 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,668
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$417,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.55Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate57.7%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±46616,925Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$75$1,668Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,054$417,900Top 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.8%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.1%Bottom 18%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 2951 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.

At 1.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
57
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.3
Bottom 31% nationally
Year over year
+50%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
35.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Linden, 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.

Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

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, 5.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
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
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index43.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
43
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

49 / 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: strong wind, winter weather, lightning, heat wave, ice storm, tornado, cold wave, coastal flooding, landslide, hail, 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.

Union County records 1.7 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 3.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 16.1 per 100,000 residents in Union County.

Homicide
1.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
3.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
16.1
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 Union 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 07036 rather than 07036 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 IntlSWF61 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
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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
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.

07036 vs Linden

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

07036
Linden
Median household income
$91,882
vs
$92,915
Per capita income
$41,112
vs
$41,092
Population density
4,202/sq mi
vs
4,135/sq mi
Median home value
$417,900
vs
$419,700
Median gross rent
$1,668
vs
$1,731
Homeownership rate
57.7%
vs
59.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher
23.2%
vs
23.3%
Poverty rate
9.5%
vs
9.6%
Median age
40.3
vs
40.1

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.