Old Bridge, New Jersey

Area Profile

28,236 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Old Bridge, in Middlesex County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
SchoolsTop 25% of 2,668 published cities71
Housing affordabilityTop 43% of 4,223 published cities85
ClimateTop 48% of 4,223 published cities71
Physical resilience2679th of 4,182 published cities46
Access2217th of 4,226 published cities91
Economic stabilityTop 20% of 4,226 published cities74
The quick read

In the public schools here, 28% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 11.6 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 16% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.3 times that income.

A typical July reaches 87°F and a typical January falls to 26°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
28,236
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$111,996
Top 13% nationally
Density
3,587/sq mi
7.9 sq mi of land
Median age
42.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Middlesex County
New Jersey
Metro area
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Nearest major airport
EWR
22 mi · Newark Liberty Intl
Median home value
$485,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

38% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 80% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,705$111,996Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,204$52,827Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.9%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute36.3 minTop 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher38.2%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation67.3%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$86,310Top 17%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$61,430Top 19%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024112k100k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $111,996 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.

28% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 53% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 11.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
10
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
11.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
28.5%
Top 37% in New Jersey
Reading proficiency
53.3%
Top 30% in New Jersey
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Carl Sandburg Middle SchoolOld Bridge Township School District92611.328%55%
Jonas Salk Middle SchoolOld Bridge Township School District88611.527%57%
James A. McDivitt Elementary SchoolOld Bridge Township School District53611.724%51%
Raymond E. Voorhees Elementary SchoolOld Bridge Township School District42410.933%56%
William A. Miller Elementary SchoolOld Bridge Township School District31415.035%46%
Alan B. Shepard Elementary SchoolOld Bridge Township School District27612.527%50%
Walter M. Schirra Elementary SchoolOld Bridge Township School District26811.741%58%
Southwood Elementary SchoolOld Bridge Township School District2659.119%45%
M. Scott Carpenter Elementary SchoolOld Bridge Township School District22411.827%51%
Virgil I. Grissom Elementary SchoolOld Bridge Township School District21113.230%53%

25.5% 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 $1,459 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,459
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$485,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.34Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate73.9%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±53910,627Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$70$1,459Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,134$485,800Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.6%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.4%Bottom 17%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

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 36, in the Good band, and about 5 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 NEWARK INTL AP, 21.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index58.02024 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 10052024 calendar year
Median air quality index36.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
36
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
58
90th percentile index
Days above 100
5
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

46 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windHigh
Ice stormModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate
EarthquakeElevated
HurricaneModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
DroughtModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, tornado, cold wave, lightning, 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.

Middlesex County records 2.0 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 3.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 10.2 per 100,000 residents in Middlesex County.

Homicide
2.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
3.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
10.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.3
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 Middlesex 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 Old Bridge rather than Old Bridge 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 22 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Newark Liberty IntlEWR22 mi9,999 ft
John F Kennedy IntlJFK34 mi14,511 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL60 mi12,000 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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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 Old Bridge
NewarkEssex County310,17849vs Old Bridge
Jersey CityHudson County294,07861vs Old Bridge
YonkersWestchester County209,97862vs Old Bridge
PatersonPassaic County158,73543vs Old Bridge
ElizabethUnion County137,30253vs Old Bridge
Toms RiverOcean County94,956vs Old Bridge
CliftonPassaic County89,37961vs Old Bridge
New RochelleWestchester County82,76966vs Old Bridge
Mount VernonWestchester County72,42756vs Old Bridge
BayonneHudson County71,55354vs Old Bridge
East OrangeEssex County70,09050vs Old Bridge

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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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 Old Bridge

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0885740,891$109,312