Plainfield vs Westfield

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

Plainfield and Westfield 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 30,760 in Westfield). Westfield has the higher median household income ($212,700 vs $80,334 in Plainfield). Westfield has the higher median home value ($930,500 vs $383,300 in Plainfield).

Population, income & housing

	Plainfield	Westfield
Population	54,515	30,760
Median age	33.0 yrs	41.0 yrs
Median household income	$80,334	$212,700
Median home value	$383,300	$930,500
Median gross rent	$1,673	$2,211
Housing units	17,149	11,093
Homeownership rate	42.4%	80.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.8%	76.7%
Unemployment rate	9.3%	3.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Plainfield	Westfield
Population	50,362 → 54,515 (+8.2%)	29,877 → 30,760 (+3.0%)
Median household income	$56,339 → $80,334 (+42.6%)	$170,798 → $212,700 (+24.5%)
Median home value	$257,200 → $383,300 (+49.0%)	$743,400 → $930,500 (+25.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,212 → $1,673 (+38.0%)	$1,608 → $2,211 (+37.5%)

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

Westfield

Population

29,87730,760

Median household income

$170,798$212,700

Median home value

$743,400$930,500

Median gross rent

$1,608$2,211

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Plainfield	Westfield
Under 5	7.8%	7.8%
5 to 17	21.0%	21.1%
18 to 24	8.8%	5.5%
25 to 34	15.6%	7.3%
35 to 44	14.0%	13.2%
45 to 54	11.4%	16.9%
55 to 64	11.2%	13.5%
65 to 74	6.4%	8.9%
75 and over	3.9%	5.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Plainfield	Westfield
White (non-Hispanic)	7.7%	76.5%
Black or African American	32.6%	1.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	0.8%	8.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.7%	0.7%
Two or more races	1.6%	3.6%
Hispanic or Latino	55.6%	8.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Plainfield	Westfield
No high school diploma	27.8%	2.2%
High school graduate	29.4%	9.5%
Some college or associate's	20.0%	11.7%
Bachelor's degree	14.7%	39.5%
Graduate or professional degree	8.1%	37.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Plainfield	Westfield
Drove alone	60.7%	49.7%
Carpooled	5.8%	1.5%
Public transit	4.5%	12.3%
Walked	1.7%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	6.5%	33.9%
Other means	20.6%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Plainfield	Westfield
1-unit, detached	41.8%	77.7%
1-unit, attached	4.1%	2.5%
2 to 4 units	29.8%	12.7%
5 to 19 units	7.8%	2.0%
20 or more units	16.1%	5.0%
Mobile home & other	0.3%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Plainfield	Westfield
Poverty rate	17.1%	2.1%
Average household size	3.29	2.86
Mean commute (minutes)	30	36
Median year structure built	1950	1954