Photo: Rickyrab at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Fair Lawn are higher than in 94% of U.S. towns
Poverty touches 6.1% of residents, against 9.7% across New Jersey. For jobs and income Fair Lawn is better than 84% of U.S. towns (A−); for walkability it is among the most walkable U.S. towns (A+). Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 7.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 43.7 in Jersey City.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Fair Lawn, in brief
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Fair Lawn
Job access by car holds Fair Lawn’s grade up (among the top U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (6.2%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Fair Lawn could be anywhere from B+ to A.
21% of working residents work in New York City
Where Fair Lawn clocks in
21% of workers
5% of workers
3% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Fair Lawn by day and by night
On a workday 16,407 residents head out to work, 1,330 work right here, and 10,355 people come in from elsewhere.
About 31,000 people are in Fair Lawn on a workday afternoon, 16% fewer than live here.
0.66 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
What work there is in Fair Lawn: 11,685 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Fair Lawn, 2014 → 2024: 11,761 → 11,685. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Fair Lawn’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The trip to work from Fair Lawn: about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Fair Lawn workers work from home, vs 17% across New Jersey. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 13,828 commuters (the 20% who work from home are left out). Across New Jersey: 75% drive alone, 10% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
How far it is to work from Fair Lawn
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Fair Lawn is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Fair Lawn is among the most walkable U.S. towns, #46 of 468 in New Jersey. Both inputs place Fair Lawn near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 17,333 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 96% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 50% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 7.5 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 90% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.5% of Fair Lawn households have no vehicle (New Jersey 11.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 12% of Fair Lawn’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,162 U.S. towns of 26,000 to 50,000, Fair Lawn comes 341st on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| 2 | McLean VA | 49,627 | $250K | 2.9% | 2.3% | 6% | A+ |
| 3 | Southlake TX | 31,175 | $250K | 1.5% | 2.7% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 17 | Westfield NJ | 32,595 | $233K | 1.8% | 3.6% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 31 | Ridgewood NJ | 26,527 | $208K | 4.2% | 3.4% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 54 | Livingston Township NJ | 32,223 | $230K | 2.3% | 4.3% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 339 | Oakleaf Plantation FL | 32,070 | $109K | 8.8% | 1.8% | 2% | A− |
| 340 | Apollo Beach FL | 33,355 | $128K | 4.6% | 4.2% | 5% | A− |
| 341 | Fair Lawn NJ | 37,128 | $145K | 6.1% | 6.2% | 7% | A− |
| 342 | Trumbull CT | 38,075 | $163K | 5.3% | 5.6% | 9% | A− |
| 343 | Center Township IN | 41,028 | $102K | 7.3% | 2.9% | 19% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,162 | Bullhead City AZ | 43,987 | $51K | 18.7% | 11.5% | 25% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Fair Lawn, the top three, the last and three more from New Jersey.
How Fair Lawn compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Paramus (5%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Fair Lawn workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair Lawn | – | A− | A+ | 31 min | $144,574 |
| Paramus | 5% | A− | A+ | 31 min | $144,349 |
| Paterson | 3% | C | A+ | 23 min | $55,997 |
| Glen Rock | under 2% | A | A+ | 37 min | $215,096 |
| Saddle Brook Township | under 2% | A | A+ | 24 min | $129,073 |
| Elmwood Park | under 2% | B | A+ | 27 min | $101,740 |
| Hawthorne | under 2% | A | A | 25 min | $110,237 |
| Rochelle Park Township | under 2% | A− | A+ | 27 min | $110,380 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Fair Lawn’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Fair Lawn: questions
What is the median household income in Fair Lawn?
$144,574 (±$12,614) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,556 across New Jersey and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Fair Lawn?
6.1%, against 9.7% across New Jersey and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Fair Lawn?
31 minutes each way on average, against 31 across New Jersey and 26 nationally. 20% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Fair Lawn work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New York City (21%, 21 mi), Paramus (5%, 3 mi), Hackensack (3%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Fair Lawn walkable?
Fair Lawn is among the most walkable U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 15.1 out of 20, and 14% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Fair Lawn without a car?
12% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 50% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Fair Lawn, from the people who make the trip.
More of Fair Lawn
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.