Linden vs Plainfield

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

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

Plainfield has the higher population (54,515 vs 43,614 in Linden). Linden has the higher median household income ($91,036 vs $80,334 in Plainfield). Linden has the higher median home value ($387,200 vs $383,300 in Plainfield).

Population, income & housing

	Linden	Plainfield
Population	43,614	54,515
Median age	39.8 yrs	33.0 yrs
Median household income	$91,036	$80,334
Median home value	$387,200	$383,300
Median gross rent	$1,677	$1,673
Housing units	16,142	17,149
Homeownership rate	61.2%	42.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.3%	22.8%
Unemployment rate	8.5%	9.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Linden	Plainfield
Population	42,222 → 43,614 (+3.3%)	50,362 → 54,515 (+8.2%)
Median household income	$73,386 → $91,036 (+24.1%)	$56,339 → $80,334 (+42.6%)
Median home value	$281,800 → $387,200 (+37.4%)	$257,200 → $383,300 (+49.0%)
Median gross rent	$1,313 → $1,677 (+27.7%)	$1,212 → $1,673 (+38.0%)

Linden

Population

42,22243,614

Median household income

$73,386$91,036

Median home value

$281,800$387,200

Median gross rent

$1,313$1,677

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)

	Linden	Plainfield
Under 5	5.9%	7.8%
5 to 17	14.9%	21.0%
18 to 24	8.3%	8.8%
25 to 34	14.7%	15.6%
35 to 44	13.0%	14.0%
45 to 54	14.3%	11.4%
55 to 64	14.6%	11.2%
65 to 74	9.0%	6.4%
75 and over	5.2%	3.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Linden	Plainfield
White (non-Hispanic)	31.0%	7.7%
Black or African American	27.2%	32.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	3.6%	0.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.8%	1.7%
Two or more races	1.9%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	35.6%	55.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Linden	Plainfield
No high school diploma	14.7%	27.8%
High school graduate	33.3%	29.4%
Some college or associate's	28.7%	20.0%
Bachelor's degree	16.0%	14.7%
Graduate or professional degree	7.3%	8.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Linden	Plainfield
Drove alone	69.9%	60.7%
Carpooled	12.0%	5.8%
Public transit	7.1%	4.5%
Walked	2.4%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.2%
Worked from home	6.2%	6.5%
Other means	2.3%	20.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Linden	Plainfield
1-unit, detached	46.7%	41.8%
1-unit, attached	5.0%	4.1%
2 to 4 units	33.5%	29.8%
5 to 19 units	4.7%	7.8%
20 or more units	9.7%	16.1%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Linden	Plainfield
Poverty rate	9.0%	17.1%
Average household size	2.84	3.29
Mean commute (minutes)	31	30
Median year structure built	1957	1950