Elizabeth vs Plainfield

A side-by-side comparison of Elizabeth and Plainfield: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Elizabeth has the higher population (135,887 vs 54,515 in Plainfield). Plainfield has the higher median household income ($80,334 vs $63,874 in Elizabeth). Elizabeth has the higher median home value ($393,500 vs $383,300 in Plainfield).

Population, income & housing

	Elizabeth	Plainfield
Population	135,887	54,515
Median age	35.8 yrs	33.0 yrs
Median household income	$63,874	$80,334
Median home value	$393,500	$383,300
Median gross rent	$1,463	$1,673
Housing units	48,940	17,149
Homeownership rate	25.4%	42.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.2%	22.8%
Unemployment rate	6.9%	9.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Elizabeth	Plainfield
Population	128,333 → 135,887 (+5.9%)	50,362 → 54,515 (+8.2%)
Median household income	$48,407 → $63,874 (+32.0%)	$56,339 → $80,334 (+42.6%)
Median home value	$282,700 → $393,500 (+39.2%)	$257,200 → $383,300 (+49.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,163 → $1,463 (+25.8%)	$1,212 → $1,673 (+38.0%)

Elizabeth

Population

128,333135,887

Median household income

$48,407$63,874

Median home value

$282,700$393,500

Median gross rent

$1,163$1,463

Plainfield

Population

50,36254,515

Median household income

$56,339$80,334

Median home value

$257,200$383,300

Median gross rent

$1,212$1,673

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Elizabeth	Plainfield
Under 5	7.5%	7.8%
5 to 17	18.0%	21.0%
18 to 24	9.7%	8.8%
25 to 34	13.1%	15.6%
35 to 44	15.2%	14.0%
45 to 54	13.3%	11.4%
55 to 64	11.9%	11.2%
65 to 74	6.7%	6.4%
75 and over	4.6%	3.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Elizabeth	Plainfield
White (non-Hispanic)	13.0%	7.7%
Black or African American	15.2%	32.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.7%	0.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.1%	1.7%
Two or more races	2.2%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	66.8%	55.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Elizabeth	Plainfield
No high school diploma	25.7%	27.8%
High school graduate	38.5%	29.4%
Some college or associate's	21.7%	20.0%
Bachelor's degree	9.8%	14.7%
Graduate or professional degree	4.4%	8.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Elizabeth	Plainfield
Drove alone	59.1%	60.7%
Carpooled	15.2%	5.8%
Public transit	11.5%	4.5%
Walked	4.7%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.2%
Worked from home	5.7%	6.5%
Other means	3.5%	20.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Elizabeth	Plainfield
1-unit, detached	13.3%	41.8%
1-unit, attached	5.5%	4.1%
2 to 4 units	47.1%	29.8%
5 to 19 units	14.6%	7.8%
20 or more units	19.3%	16.1%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Elizabeth	Plainfield
Poverty rate	15.3%	17.1%
Average household size	2.93	3.29
Mean commute (minutes)	27	30
Median year structure built	1955	1950