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 4.0Surf City’s household incomes are higher than in 88% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Surf City A−; getting around on foot earns it A. 4.5% of residents live below the poverty line, where New Jersey as a whole has 9.7%. Working from home is the commute for 34% of workers (New Jersey 17%).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Surf City
Home offices are common in Surf City
34% of Surf City workers work from home, against 17% across New Jersey. Time on the road ↓
Surf City’s workforce skews older
42% of Surf City’s working residents are 55 or older. That’s about two in five. The jobs ↓
A longer commute than the towns next door
Surf City averages 35 minutes each way, more than any bordering town (27 to 31 minutes). Next door ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 436 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Surf City: the grade in detail
On income, poverty and job access, Surf City is better than 81% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Surf City’s grade up ($118,750, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 40% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (5.3%) is left out: Surf City’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Surf City could be anywhere from B+ to A.
A commute of about 35 minutes in Surf City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 11.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Surf City workers work from home, vs 17% across New Jersey. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 300 commuters (the 34% 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.
Inside Surf City’s 589 jobs
589 jobs are based in Surf City.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Surf City, 2014 → 2024: 456 → 589. 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 Surf City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Surf City fills up on a workday
On a workday 406 residents head out to work, 30 work right here, and 559 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Surf City on a workday afternoon, 12% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.35 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Stafford Township
Where Surf City clocks in
12% of workers
5% 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.
Short hops and long hauls from Surf City
About 29% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
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.
In Surf City, walking beats the bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Surf City is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Surf City 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 452 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% 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). 4.1% of Surf City households have no vehicle (New Jersey 11.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Surf City’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800, Surf City ranks 514th of 5,400 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Alpine NJ | 1,759 | $247K | 6.2% | 6.4% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 94 | Allentown NJ | 1,741 | $121K | 4.4% | 3.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 120 | Chester NJ | 1,689 | $172K | 6.4% | 2.8% | 7% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 512 | Stem NC | 1,023 | $96K | 3.0% | 1.1% | 0% | A− |
| 513 | Cade LA | 1,710 | $73K | 6.0% | 1.5% | 1% | A− |
| 514 | Surf City NJ | 1,305 | $119K | 4.5% | 5.3% | 7% | A− |
| 515 | Deer Creek Township IL | 1,392 | $108K | 6.5% | 0.8% | 5% | A− |
| 516 | Mississippi Township IL | 1,699 | $85K | 2.3% | 6.9% | <1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 1% | 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 Surf City, the top three, the last and three more from New Jersey.
21% of Surf City works in a town next door
The biggest share goes to Stafford Township (12%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Surf City workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surf City | – | A− | A | 35 min | $118,750 |
| Stafford Township | 12% | A− | B | 31 min | $117,612 |
| Long Beach Township | 4% | B− | A | 29 min | $113,224 |
| Ship Bottom | 5% | A− | A | 27 min | $108,750 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Surf City’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 Surf City: questions
What is the median household income in Surf City?
$118,750 (±$20,339) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $103,556 across New Jersey and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Surf City?
4.5%, against 9.7% across New Jersey and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Surf City?
35 minutes each way on average, against 31 across New Jersey and 26 nationally. 34% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Surf City work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stafford Township (12%, 6 mi), Toms River Township (5%, 23 mi), Ship Bottom (5%, 1 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Surf City walkable?
Surf City is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Surf City without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Surf City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Surf City
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.