Lakewood vs Toms River

A side-by-side comparison of Lakewood and Toms River: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Toms River has the higher population (93,915 vs 69,884 in Lakewood). Toms River has the higher median household income ($95,759 vs $57,576 in Lakewood). Lakewood has the higher median home value ($618,400 vs $377,800 in Toms River).

Population, income & housing

	Lakewood	Toms River
Population	69,884	93,915
Median age	17.3 yrs	41.6 yrs
Median household income	$57,576	$95,759
Median home value	$618,400	$377,800
Median gross rent	$1,647	$1,678
Housing units	14,534	39,153
Homeownership rate	37.0%	81.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	31.3%	35.2%
Unemployment rate	6.8%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lakewood	Toms River
Population	56,072 → 69,884 (+24.6%)	89,254 → 93,915 (+5.2%)
Median household income	$50,897 → $57,576 (+13.1%)	$79,889 → $95,759 (+19.9%)
Median home value	$474,400 → $618,400 (+30.4%)	$289,400 → $377,800 (+30.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,388 → $1,647 (+18.7%)	$1,410 → $1,678 (+19.0%)

Lakewood

Population

56,07269,884

Median household income

$50,897$57,576

Median home value

$474,400$618,400

Median gross rent

$1,388$1,647

Toms River

Population

89,25493,915

Median household income

$79,889$95,759

Median home value

$289,400$377,800

Median gross rent

$1,410$1,678

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lakewood	Toms River
Under 5	17.4%	5.9%
5 to 17	34.3%	16.5%
18 to 24	11.2%	7.3%
25 to 34	11.9%	12.4%
35 to 44	9.3%	11.7%
45 to 54	7.0%	13.3%
55 to 64	3.6%	14.1%
65 to 74	3.1%	10.6%
75 and over	2.2%	8.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lakewood	Toms River
White (non-Hispanic)	82.3%	76.1%
Black or African American	1.5%	5.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.7%	3.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.6%	0.3%
Two or more races	1.1%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	13.9%	11.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lakewood	Toms River
No high school diploma	10.4%	6.8%
High school graduate	29.0%	32.7%
Some college or associate's	29.3%	25.3%
Bachelor's degree	17.1%	23.1%
Graduate or professional degree	14.1%	12.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lakewood	Toms River
Drove alone	63.1%	76.5%
Carpooled	13.3%	8.2%
Public transit	2.2%	0.4%
Walked	5.2%	0.4%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.2%
Worked from home	14.8%	12.7%
Other means	1.2%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lakewood	Toms River
1-unit, detached	34.5%	77.4%
1-unit, attached	31.6%	5.1%
2 to 4 units	13.0%	2.9%
5 to 19 units	7.8%	6.8%
20 or more units	13.0%	4.3%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	3.5%

Poverty & households

	Lakewood	Toms River
Poverty rate	29.3%	6.3%
Average household size	4.89	2.62
Mean commute (minutes)	21	30
Median year structure built	1992	1978