Princeton, New Jersey

Area Profile

30,756 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Princeton, in Mercer County.

70out of 100
Area Score
Top 19% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 7% of 3,904 published cities81
SchoolsTop 1% of 2,668 published cities97
GrowthTop 33% of 2,973 published cities59
Housing affordability2497th of 4,223 published cities75
Climate2218th of 4,223 published cities70
Physical resilience2942nd of 4,182 published cities37
Access3115th of 4,226 published cities83
Economic stabilityTop 38% of 4,226 published cities66
The quick read

Princeton ranks in the top 7% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.7% and median household income of $192,079.

160 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 14% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, hurricane and strong wind.

At a glance

Population
30,756
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$192,079
Top 2% nationally
Density
1,714/sq mi
17.9 sq mi of land
Median age
28.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Mercer County
New Jersey
Metro area
Trenton-Princeton, NJ
Nearest major airport
EWR
35 mi · Newark Liberty Intl
Median home value
$1,050,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 74% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 15,342 employed residents.

85% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 99% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 98% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$24,402$192,079Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,236$87,301Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.1%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.0 minBottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher84.7%Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,342Bottom 15%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.3%Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 23%June 2026
Labor force15,930Bottom 15%June 2026
Labor force participation63.3%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$82,560Top 17%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$63,490Top 10%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.61.8
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 3.7% 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
2021202220232024192k165k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $192,079 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 — Trenton-Princeton, NJ
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Business Operations Specialists, All Other5,570$89,370
Registered Nurses5,180$99,990
Home Health and Personal Care Aides4,920$37,760
Cashiers4,800$34,710
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand4,460$37,560
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,300$34,720

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.

56% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 74% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 10.8 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
10.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
55.6%
Top 5% in New Jersey
Reading proficiency
73.7%
Top 1% in New Jersey
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Princeton High SchoolPrinceton Public School District1,51811.9
Princeton Middle SchoolPrinceton Public School District79412.047%82%
Princeton Charter School · charterPrinceton Charter School42310.680%80%
Littlebrook SchoolPrinceton Public School District3749.667%75%
Johnson Park SchoolPrinceton Public School District3609.544%61%
Community Park SchoolPrinceton Public School District31611.345%61%
Riverside SchoolPrinceton Public School District3067.855%71%

13.6% 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 $2,636 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.5 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
16.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,636
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$1,050,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.47Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate55.4%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3889,906Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$281$2,636Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$46,184$1,050,600Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income16.5%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.1%Bottom 34%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
59/ 100
Top 33% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, 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 3% since 2020, reaching 31,445 in 2024.

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

At 5.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
160
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.2
Top 28% nationally
Year over year
−14%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
34.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202431k30k
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
2020202120222023202420252050.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+1143%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 45.6 inches, including 26.6 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station TRENTON MERCER CO AP, 9.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation45.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall26.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high86°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing44°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

37 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Strong windHigh
Inland floodingElevated
Ice stormModerate
HurricaneElevated
EarthquakeElevated
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, heat wave, lightning, cold wave, tornado, wildfire, coastal flooding, landslide, 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.

Mercer County records 4.5 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 5.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.8 per 100,000 residents in Mercer County.

Homicide
4.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
5.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
23.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
7.3
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 Mercer 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 Princeton rather than Princeton 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 35 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Newark Liberty IntlEWR35 mi9,999 ft
Philadelphia IntlPHL45 mi12,000 ft
John F Kennedy IntlJFK51 mi14,511 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 Trenton-Princeton, NJ

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
TrentonMercer County90,33844vs Princeton
MercervilleMercer County13,535vs Princeton
Hamilton SquareMercer County11,622vs Princeton
White HorseMercer County10,507vs Princeton

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

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 Princeton

3 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
0854050,388$176,98372
085444,392
085422,533$105,52461