Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0Prospect Park has higher unemployment (11.5%) than 97% of U.S. towns
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 3.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 43.7 in Jersey City. Jobs and income earn Prospect Park C−; getting around on foot earns it A. Household incomes here are lower than in 84% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Prospect Park, in a few figures
Commutes from Prospect Park are quick
The average trip to work takes 23 minutes, against 31 across New Jersey. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical New Jersey worker. Time on the road ↓
Prospect Park is a place people come home to
There are 615 jobs based in Prospect Park, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Prospect Park has about 4,200 people in it, 34% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Prospect Park
59% of Prospect Park residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 41% of the jobs based in Prospect Park pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 96% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Prospect Park earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Prospect Park is better than 23% of U.S. towns, #458 of 468 in New Jersey. Job access by car holds Prospect Park’s grade up (among the top U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Prospect Park could be anywhere from C− to B−.
A commute of about 23 minutes in Prospect Park
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prospect Park workers work from home, vs 17% across New Jersey. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,594 commuters (the 7% 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.
Prospect Park on a workday afternoon
On a workday 2,715 residents head out to work, 106 work right here, and 509 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,200 people are in Prospect Park on a workday afternoon, 34% fewer than live here.
0.22 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 2023, primary jobs.
In Prospect Park, services account for most jobs
615 jobs are based in Prospect Park.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prospect Park, 2013 → 2023: 526 → 615. 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 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Prospect Park’s own residents hold wherever they work.
11% of working residents work in Paterson
Where Prospect Park clocks in
11% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Prospect Park
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Walkable streets, thin transit: Prospect Park
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prospect Park is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #271 of 468 in New Jersey. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 13.2% across New Jersey.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,796 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 55% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 3.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 76% 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). 11.6% of Prospect Park households have no vehicle (New Jersey 11.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Prospect Park’s commuters take a bus or train.
Prospect Park next to U.S. towns of 4,500 to 8,700: 2,676th of 3,306 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Hainesport Township NJ | 6,197 | $143K | 2.1% | 0.0% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Mountain Lakes NJ | 4,649 | $250K | 1.3% | 2.4% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,674 | Wilmer TX | 6,768 | $60K | 32.7% | 14.4% | 2% | C− |
| 2,675 | Creston IA | 7,335 | $53K | 15.8% | 3.6% | 41% | C− |
| 2,676 | Prospect Park NJ | 6,450 | $53K | 28.3% | 11.5% | 4% | C− |
| 2,677 | Pollock Pines CA | 6,212 | $75K | 16.7% | 5.1% | 6% | C− |
| 2,678 | Inwood FL | 7,556 | $56K | 20.3% | 6.5% | 2% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,306 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Prospect Park, the top three, the last and three more from New Jersey.
Work next door: 14% of Prospect Park’s workers
The biggest share goes to Paterson (11%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Prospect Park workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prospect Park | – | C− | A | 23 min | $53,125 |
| Paterson | 11% | C | A+ | 23 min | $55,997 |
| Haledon | under 2% | B+ | A | 25 min | $95,870 |
| Hawthorne | 3% | A | A | 25 min | $110,237 |
| North Haledon | under 2% | A | A− | 31 min | $125,313 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Prospect Park’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 2023, 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 Prospect Park: questions
What is the median household income in Prospect Park?
$53,125 (±$10,222) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,556 across New Jersey and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prospect Park?
28.3%, against 9.7% across New Jersey and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prospect Park?
23 minutes each way on average, against 31 across New Jersey and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prospect Park work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Paterson (11%, 2 mi), New York City (6%, 23 mi), Wayne Township (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Prospect Park walkable?
Prospect Park is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 14.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prospect Park without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 12% of households have no car. 55% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Prospect Park, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prospect Park
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, 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.