Paramus, New Jersey

Area Profile

26,568 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Paramus, in Bergen County.

66out of 100
Area Score
Top 32% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 8% of 3,904 published cities79
SchoolsTop 16% of 2,668 published cities78
Growth1676th of 2,973 published cities47
Housing affordability3498th of 4,223 published cities57
ClimateTop 47% of 4,223 published cities71
Physical resilience2586th of 4,182 published cities47
AccessTop 43% of 4,226 published cities94
Economic stabilityTop 36% of 4,226 published cities67
The quick read

Paramus ranks in the top 8% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.9% and median household income of $144,349.

Residential permitting has slowed: 65 units authorized over the past twelve months, 28% below the prior year.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.6 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 25% of it.

At a glance

Population
26,568
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$144,349
Top 6% nationally
Density
2,544/sq mi
10.4 sq mi of land
Median age
49.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Bergen County
New Jersey
Metro area
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Nearest major airport
EWR
18 mi · Newark Liberty Intl
Median home value
$813,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 66% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 1.5% over the past year, to 12,261 employed residents.

52% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 94% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$16,221$144,349Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,488$58,552Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate4.7%Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.6 minTop 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher51.8%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment12,261Bottom 7%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.5%Top 41%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)1.5%Top 7%June 2026
Labor force12,756Bottom 7%June 2026
Labor force participation59.8%Bottom 47%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)-1.0%Bottom 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 34%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.62.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.9% 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
2021202220232024144k130k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $144,349 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.

40% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 51% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 8.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
19
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
8.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
40.0%
Top 23% in New Jersey
Reading proficiency
51.4%
Top 33% in New Jersey
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Paramus High SchoolParamus Public School District1,15311.3
East Brook Middle SchoolParamus Public School District5559.932%49%
West Brook Middle SchoolParamus Public School District5008.935%57%
Applied Technology High SchoolBergen County Vocational Technical School District34817.4
Ridge Ranch Elementary SchoolParamus Public School District33813.552%52%
Parkway Elementary SchoolParamus Public School District29711.443%44%
Memorial Elementary SchoolParamus Public School District28913.144%49%
Bergen County Technical High School - ParamusBergen County Vocational Technical School District2886.3
Stony Lane Elementary SchoolParamus Public School District22311.744%47%
Midland Elementary SchoolParamus Public School District20010.042%63%
Autistic ContinuumBergen County Special Services School District1993.1
Deaf and Hard of Hearing ContinuumBergen County Special Services School District1346.1

18.9% 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 $3,032 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.6 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
25.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$3,032
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$813,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.64Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate82.6%Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3528,813Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$340$3,032Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$22,884$813,900Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.2%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.0%Bottom 24%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
47/ 100
Ranks 1676 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 26,786 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 2.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
65
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.4
Top 49% nationally
Year over year
−28%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202427k26k
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
2020202120222023202420259833
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+139%).

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.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station TETERBORO AP, 6.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation46.3"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

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.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Newark Liberty IntlEWR18 mi9,999 ft
John F Kennedy IntlJFK26 mi14,511 ft
New York Stewart IntlSWF39 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
66
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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 Paramus
NewarkEssex County310,17849vs Paramus
Jersey CityHudson County294,07861vs Paramus
YonkersWestchester County209,97862vs Paramus
PatersonPassaic County158,73543vs Paramus
ElizabethUnion County137,30253vs Paramus
Toms RiverOcean County94,956vs Paramus
CliftonPassaic County89,37961vs Paramus
New RochelleWestchester County82,76966vs Paramus
Mount VernonWestchester County72,42756vs Paramus
BayonneHudson County71,55354vs Paramus
East OrangeEssex County70,09050vs Paramus

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)
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.

ZIP codes in Paramus

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0765226,568$144,34966