Fort Lee vs Garfield

A side-by-side comparison of Fort Lee and Garfield: population, income, housing, and more.

Fort Lee and Garfield are places in New Jersey. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Fort Lee has the higher population (39,818 vs 32,502 in Garfield). Fort Lee has the higher median household income ($105,535 vs $75,701 in Garfield). Garfield has the higher median home value ($454,300 vs $422,200 in Fort Lee).

Population, income & housing

	Fort Lee	Garfield
Population	39,818	32,502
Median age	47.2 yrs	39.0 yrs
Median household income	$105,535	$75,701
Median home value	$422,200	$454,300
Median gross rent	$2,255	$1,612
Housing units	19,764	12,234
Homeownership rate	57.5%	45.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	64.8%	24.3%
Unemployment rate	5.0%	5.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fort Lee	Garfield
Population	37,430 → 39,818 (+6.4%)	31,645 → 32,502 (+2.7%)
Median household income	$83,767 → $105,535 (+26.0%)	$62,939 → $75,701 (+20.3%)
Median home value	$324,600 → $422,200 (+30.1%)	$338,400 → $454,300 (+34.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,923 → $2,255 (+17.3%)	$1,326 → $1,612 (+21.6%)

Fort Lee

Population

37,43039,818

Median household income

$83,767$105,535

Median home value

$324,600$422,200

Median gross rent

$1,923$2,255

Garfield

Population

31,64532,502

Median household income

$62,939$75,701

Median home value

$338,400$454,300

Median gross rent

$1,326$1,612

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fort Lee	Garfield
Under 5	5.2%	6.0%
5 to 17	12.2%	13.7%
18 to 24	4.7%	9.6%
25 to 34	10.6%	14.6%
35 to 44	14.7%	15.4%
45 to 54	14.0%	14.3%
55 to 64	13.5%	11.9%
65 to 74	12.4%	9.0%
75 and over	12.8%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fort Lee	Garfield
White (non-Hispanic)	38.0%	44.4%
Black or African American	2.4%	5.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	44.0%	3.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.5%	0.9%
Hispanic or Latino	12.4%	45.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fort Lee	Garfield
No high school diploma	5.0%	15.6%
High school graduate	14.8%	36.9%
Some college or associate's	15.3%	23.2%
Bachelor's degree	35.2%	15.4%
Graduate or professional degree	29.6%	8.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fort Lee	Garfield
Drove alone	47.0%	68.9%
Carpooled	7.4%	8.8%
Public transit	20.7%	6.8%
Walked	3.8%	4.9%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.6%
Worked from home	19.6%	6.8%
Other means	0.9%	3.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fort Lee	Garfield
1-unit, detached	13.7%	21.5%
1-unit, attached	6.6%	7.3%
2 to 4 units	9.9%	58.4%
5 to 19 units	8.0%	6.2%
20 or more units	61.3%	6.4%
Mobile home & other	0.5%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Fort Lee	Garfield
Poverty rate	8.4%	14.2%
Average household size	2.15	2.81
Mean commute (minutes)	35	28
Median year structure built	1970	1954