Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of Roselle works elsewhere
Transit is limited for a town this walkable: about 8.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident at the evening peak, against 43.7 in Jersey City. Roselle has 3,867 jobs, and 10,584 of its residents work somewhere. For jobs and income Roselle is better than 63% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns (A+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The four measures behind Roselle’s grade
Job access by car holds Roselle’s grade up (among the top U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (8.0%, 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, Roselle could be anywhere from B− to A−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Roselle
On a workday 10,159 residents head out to work, 425 work right here, and 3,442 people come in from elsewhere.
About 17,000 people are in Roselle on a workday afternoon, 29% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
10% of working residents work in New York City
Where Roselle clocks in
10% of workers
10% of workers
7% 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.
What Roselle’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Roselle, 2013 → 2023: 3,995 → 3,867. 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 Roselle’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 33 minutes each way for Roselle’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Roselle workers work from home, vs 17% across New Jersey. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 11,243 commuters (the 10% 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.
Where in the region Roselle works
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.
Roselle is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 12,529 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, 57% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 8.3 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 91% 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). 10.6% of Roselle households have no vehicle (New Jersey 11.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 11% of Roselle’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Roselle is 926th among 1,712 U.S. towns of 16,000 to 31,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Scotch Plains Township NJ | 25,437 | $184K | 2.5% | 3.2% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 46 | Cranford Township NJ | 24,725 | $156K | 2.5% | 3.6% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 52 | Ridgewood NJ | 26,527 | $208K | 4.2% | 3.4% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 924 | Villa Rica GA | 21,022 | $88K | 11.8% | 3.6% | 9% | B |
| 925 | New Hope MN | 20,807 | $78K | 10.7% | 5.0% | 6% | B |
| 926 | Roselle NJ | 23,261 | $93K | 9.5% | 8.0% | 4% | B |
| 927 | Elmwood Park NJ | 21,534 | $102K | 11.6% | 7.4% | 6% | B |
| 928 | Perry Township IN | 24,679 | $66K | 11.0% | 2.2% | 10% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,712 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Roselle, the top three, the last and three more from New Jersey.
Next door is work for 12% of Roselle
The biggest share goes to Elizabeth (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Roselle workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roselle | – | B | A+ | 33 min | $92,762 |
| Linden | 3% | B | A+ | 32 min | $92,915 |
| Cranford Township | 2% | A+ | A+ | 35 min | $155,972 |
| Elizabeth | 7% | C+ | A+ | 27 min | $66,555 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Roselle’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 Roselle: questions
What is the median household income in Roselle?
$92,762 (±$14,186) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,556 across New Jersey and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Roselle?
9.5%, against 9.7% across New Jersey and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Roselle?
33 minutes each way on average, against 31 across New Jersey and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Roselle work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New York City (10%, 17 mi), Newark (10%, 7 mi), Elizabeth (7%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Roselle walkable?
Roselle is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns (Walkability A+): an EPA walkability index of 14.3 out of 20, and 13% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Roselle without a car?
11% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. 57% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Roselle, from the people who make the trip.
More of Roselle
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.