City · Essex County, New Jersey

East Orange, New Jersey

East Orange is a city in Essex County, New Jersey, part of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area. It has 70,090 residents. East Orange, New Jersey has a quality-of-life score of 35 out of 100 (low), ranking #10,185 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within New Jersey it ranks #526 of 552 cities and towns. It ranks best on distance to an emergency room (low), distance to an airport (low) and public transit commuters (high). It ranks worst on effective property tax rate (high), average commute time (high) and child care cost burden (high).

35Low

Quality-of-life score: #10,185 of 15,651 cities and towns
New Jersey: #526 of 552 in NJ
Population: 70,090 (2020-2024)
Land area: 4 mi²
Density: 17,845.5 /mi²
FIPS code: 3419390

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 76 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety48#8,102/15,637
Economy27#11,462/15,631
Housing1#14,761/14,977
Health56#6,938/15,609
Healthcare62#5,989/15,650
Environment50#7,779/15,453
Education43#8,883/15,649
Infrastructure35#10,191/15,650
Community41#9,218/15,651
Leisure & amenities59#6,440/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where East Orange, New Jersey ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Essex County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Distance to an emergency room · low1.5 mi
100/100New Jersey 3.9 miUnited States 5.5 miJul 2026Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesEssex County value
Distance to an airport · low6 mi
100/100New Jersey 21 miUnited States 33 mi2025Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauEssex County value
Public transit commuters · high20.4%
100/100New Jersey 8.1%United States 3.2%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08301
Distance to an Amtrak station · low4 mi
98/100New Jersey 11 miUnited States 43 mi2026Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauEssex County value
Access to exercise opportunities · high99.5%
98/100New Jersey 95.9%United States 84.5%2022 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteEssex County value
Depression · low15.4%
98/100New Jersey 15.6%United States 20.7%2023Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate

Weaknesses

Effective property tax rate · high2.46%
2/100New Jersey 1.88%United States 0.94%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25090
Average commute time · high35.4 min
2/100New Jersey 30.5 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013
Child care cost burden · high41.0%
7/100New Jersey 34.2%United States 27.9%2023 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteEssex County value
Lack of reliable transportation · high15.6%
7/100New Jersey 7.8%United States 8.3%2023Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate
Food insecurity · high30.7%
8/100New Jersey 15.0%United States 15.6%2023Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate
Rent-burdened households · high58.0%
10/100New Jersey 51.6%United States 51.1%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25070

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
64,374 (2015-2019) → 70,090 (2020-2024)
+8.9%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
New homes permittedWorsening
3.6 /1k (2021) → 1.7 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
−53%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
79.9% (2015-2019) → 89.1% (2020-2024)
+9.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Rent-burdened householdsWorsening
50.7% (2015-2019) → 58.0% (2020-2024)
+7.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Home price to income ratioWorsening
4.6× (2015-2019) → 6.0× (2020-2024)
+32%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×
Median household incomeImproving
$48,072 (2015-2019) → $60,830 (2020-2024)
+27%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, East Orange, New Jersey improved on 5 of 15 measures with a comparison and declined on 4. 6 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved5

Property tax−1.1 points3.54% → 2.46%
Unemployment−3.5 points12.6% → 9.2%
Broadband+9.2 points79.9% → 89.1%
Bachelor's++3 points19.7% → 22.7%
Household income+27%$48,072 → $60,830

Declined4

Price / income+1.5×4.6× → 6.0×
Rent / income+4 points30.3% → 34.3%
Transit use−5.2 points25.5% → 20.3%
Rent burden+7.2 points50.7% → 58.0%

All 15 measures

Change of every measure of East Orange, New Jersey between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	33.2 min2015-2019	35.4 min2020-2024	+2.2 min	Within the margin of error	26%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.7%2015-2019	22.7%2020-2024	+3 points	Improved	51%
Broadband subscriptions	79.9%2015-2019	89.1%2020-2024	+9.2 points	Improved	56%
Child poverty rate	24.6%2015-2019	23.2%2020-2024	−1.4 points	Within the margin of error	52%
Effective property tax rate	3.54%2015-2019	2.46%2020-2024	−1.1 points	Improved	99%
High school diploma or higher	87.2%2015-2019	85.8%2020-2024	−1.4 points	Within the margin of error	19%
Home price to income ratio	4.6×2015-2019	6.0×2020-2024	+1.5×	Declined	10%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4522015-2019	0.4632020-2024	+0.010	Within the margin of error	41%
Median household income	$48,0722015-2019	$60,8302020-2024	+27%	Improved	48%
Poverty rate	18.0%2015-2019	16.4%2020-2024	−1.6 points	Within the margin of error	59%
Public transit commuters	25.5%2015-2019	20.3%2020-2024	−5.2 points	Declined	6%
Rent as share of income	30.3%2015-2019	34.3%2020-2024	+4 points	Declined	27%
Rent-burdened households	50.7%2015-2019	58.0%2020-2024	+7.2 points	Declined	31%
Unemployment rate	12.6%2015-2019	9.2%2020-2024	−3.5 points	Improved	91%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	13.6%2015-2019	14.0%2020-2024	+0.5 points	Within the margin of error	40%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like East Orange, New Jersey five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of East Orange, New Jersey in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, East Orange, New Jersey itself moved −6.4 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

70,090 residents (±73)

Men
Women

80 and over
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

28,328 households (±1,215)

East Orange, New Jersey
New Jersey share

Under $25k24%6,750
$25k–50k17%4,844
$50k–75k18%5,148

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

28,328 households (±1,215)

East Orange, New Jersey
New Jersey share

Own31%8,791
Rent69%19,537

Biggest shift since 2015–2019: Own (+5.4 points).

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

32,274 workers (±1,190)

East Orange, New Jersey
New Jersey share

Drive alone55%17,868
Carpool5.9%1,901
Public transit20%6,567

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Essex County, the county holding most of East Orange's residents.

Essex County has 19,392 employer establishments, 223 for every 10,000 residents (0.90× the US rate of 248; 0.88× New Jersey's), with 295,575 paid employees at an average annual pay of $75,582. The Census Bureau also counts 92,261 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 19,392; 92,261 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 223; US 248 · New Jersey 253
Paid employees: 295,575
Average annual pay: $75,582; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Essex County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	1,941	22.3	1.07×About typical	20,823	$65,526	4,826
Restaurants and other eating places	1,460	16.8	0.91×About typical	17,661	$27,354	624
Specialty trade contractors	954	11	0.71×Fewer than typical	7,789	$77,484	3,580
Lessors of real estate	924	10.6	0.86×About typical	4,340	$61,328	9,842
Construction of buildings	753	8.6	1.14×About typical	3,198	$70,189	2,615
Offices of physicians	743	8.5	1.32×More than typical	6,049	$104,182	826
Limited-service restaurants	626	7.2	0.90×About typical	7,551	$23,151	239
Full-service restaurants	622	7.1	0.93×About typical	8,361	$32,364	265
Personal care services	587	6.7	1.41×More than typical	2,965	$26,829	4,342
Legal services	574	6.6	1.23×About typical	5,890	$150,118	976
Truck transportation	501	5.8	1.14×About typical	4,080	$60,198	2,692
Management, scientific and technical consulting	470	5.4	0.80×About typical	2,922	$104,779	3,541

Rank places for an industry Open Essex County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 871,153 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $39.9M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in East Orange, New Jersey: $569 per resident (US $1,995).

Obligations: $39.9M; −9.7% vs FY2025
Per resident: $569; US $1,995
Sole-source: 23%; US 30%
Single offer: 11%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Department of Veterans Affairs$39.1M98%
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service$749.5K1.9%
Agricultural Research Service$43.7K0.1%
U.S. International Development Finance Corporation$39.5K0.1%
Department of the Navy$13.7K0.0%
Defense Logistics Agency$6670.0%

Top recipients

M WILKINSON CONSTRUCTION COMPANY$7.8M19%
HVM ASSOCIATES LLC$3.1M7.7%
PROGRESSIVE RADIOLOGY LLC$2M5.0%
RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY$1.9M4.7%
UNIQUE CLEANING SERVICE, INC.$1.7M4.4%

Spending by fiscal year

36.2MFY2017
29.9MFY2018
40.1MFY2019
55.9MFY2020
59MFY2021
24.1MFY2022
38.4MFY2023
42.6M

Top industries (NAICS)

Building equipment contractors · 2382$9.6M24%
Facilities support services · 5612$3M7.6%
Other transit and ground passenger transportation · 4859$2.6M6.5%
Colleges, universities, and professional schools · 6113$2.5M6.3%
Electronic and precision equipment repair and maintenance · 8112$2.3M5.8%

Part of this section could not be loaded in time.

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 7, 2026, loaded Oct 7, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in East Orange, New Jersey, so they do not add up across cities.

East Orange, New Jersey's figures are part of those of Essex County, NJ ($771.4M in FY2026), never added to them: 5.2% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: East Orange is mostly in Essex County.

See federal money in Essex County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

East Orange, New Jersey is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

Senate

Andy KimD-

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Essex County63100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ68

Other cities and towns in Essex County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/3419390

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends