08861Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 08861.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5059th of 6,210 published ZIP areas39
Schools3567th of 4,422 published ZIP areas27
Housing affordability6169th of 6,685 published ZIP areas44
ClimateTop 48% of 6,789 published ZIP areas71
Physical resilience4337th of 6,709 published ZIP areas45
AccessTop 25% of 6,791 published ZIP areas97
Economic stability3717th of 6,742 published ZIP areas57
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 6.2% and the Opportunity signal places 08861 in the bottom 19%.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 31% of median household income and the median home is 5.8 times it.

A major airport is 13 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
59,351
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,491
Bottom 38% nationally
Density
11,640/sq mi
5.1 sq mi of land
Median age
38.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Perth Amboy
New Jersey
Metro area
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Nearest major airport
EWR
13 mi · Newark Liberty Intl
Median home value
$370,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 6.2% is lower than 7% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 0.6% over the past year, to 26,004 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,876$64,491Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,482$28,740Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.3%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.9 minBottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.4%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment26,004Bottom 27%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.2%Top 47%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.6%Top 17%June 2026
Labor force27,716Bottom 27%June 2026
Labor force participation67.2%Top 24%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)-2.5%Bottom 1%June 2026
Unemployment rate6.2%Top 7%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,491 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 Perth Amboy, NJ, the city containing this ZIP code.

6% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 26% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
14
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
5.6%
Bottom 12% in New Jersey
Reading proficiency
25.7%
Bottom 16% in New Jersey
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Perth Amboy High SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District2,76914.8
William C. McGinnis Middle SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District98412.36%29%
Samuel E. Shull Middle SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District94113.16%37%
Rose M. Lopez Elementary SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District79315.08%17%
Middlesex County STEM Charter School · charterMiddlesex County STEM Charter School73917.214%33%
Edward J. Patten Elementary SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District64912.23%22%
Herbert N. Richardson 21st Century SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District63211.53%22%
Robert N. Wilentz Elementary SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District61612.83%20%
James J. Flynn Elementary SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District59911.35%30%
Ignacio Cruz Early Childhood CenterPerth Amboy Public School District5779.3
Anthony V. Ceres Elementary SchoolPerth Amboy Public School District55911.63%14%
Edmund Hmieleski Early Childhood CenterPerth Amboy Public School District34210.7

75.2% 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 $1,675 takes 31% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.8 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
31.2%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,675
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$370,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.75Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate37.5%Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±83821,166Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$61$1,675Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,566$370,900Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income31.2%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.7%Bottom 11%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, 12.4 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

45 / 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. 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.

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 08861 rather than 08861 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 13 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Newark Liberty IntlEWR13 mi9,999 ft
John F Kennedy IntlJFK27 mi14,511 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL68 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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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)
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.

08861 vs Perth Amboy

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

08861
Perth Amboy
Median household income
$64,491
vs
$61,977
Per capita income
$28,740
vs
$27,021
Population density
11,640/sq mi
vs
11,981/sq mi
Median home value
$370,900
vs
$370,600
Median gross rent
$1,675
vs
$1,688
Homeownership rate
37.5%
vs
35.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher
16.4%
vs
15.7%
Poverty rate
19.3%
vs
20.2%
Median age
38.3
vs
37.9

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.