Cape May County vs Sussex County

A side-by-side comparison of Cape May County and Sussex County: population, income, housing, and more.

Cape May County and Sussex County are counties in New Jersey. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Sussex County has the higher population (145,117 vs 95,236 in Cape May County). Sussex County has the higher median household income ($114,316 vs $88,046 in Cape May County). Cape May County has the higher median home value ($395,000 vs $342,800 in Sussex County).

Population, income & housing

	Cape May County	Sussex County
Population	95,236	145,117
Median age	51.4 yrs	44.1 yrs
Median household income	$88,046	$114,316
Median home value	$395,000	$342,800
Median gross rent	$1,345	$1,503
Housing units	99,625	62,825
Homeownership rate	79.3%	84.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	37.4%	40.0%
Unemployment rate	6.0%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cape May County	Sussex County
Population	93,086 → 95,236 (+2.3%)	141,483 → 145,117 (+2.6%)
Median household income	$67,074 → $88,046 (+31.3%)	$94,520 → $114,316 (+20.9%)
Median home value	$300,500 → $395,000 (+31.4%)	$267,500 → $342,800 (+28.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,169 → $1,345 (+15.1%)	$1,314 → $1,503 (+14.4%)

Cape May County

Population

93,08695,236

Median household income

$67,074$88,046

Median home value

$300,500$395,000

Median gross rent

$1,169$1,345

Sussex County

Population

141,483145,117

Median household income

$94,520$114,316

Median home value

$267,500$342,800

Median gross rent

$1,314$1,503

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cape May County	Sussex County
Under 5	4.3%	4.7%
5 to 17	13.0%	14.9%
18 to 24	6.4%	7.6%
25 to 34	9.9%	11.5%
35 to 44	9.9%	12.2%
45 to 54	11.0%	14.0%
55 to 64	16.9%	16.7%
65 to 74	16.9%	11.6%
75 and over	11.7%	6.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cape May County	Sussex County
White (non-Hispanic)	84.4%	81.0%
Black or African American	3.1%	2.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.7%	1.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	0.5%
Two or more races	3.5%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	8.1%	11.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cape May County	Sussex County
No high school diploma	5.4%	4.6%
High school graduate	31.7%	27.7%
Some college or associate's	25.5%	27.8%
Bachelor's degree	23.3%	25.8%
Graduate or professional degree	14.1%	14.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cape May County	Sussex County
Drove alone	73.7%	77.4%
Carpooled	8.3%	6.2%
Public transit	0.7%	1.1%
Walked	3.9%	0.8%
Bicycle	1.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.9%	13.7%
Other means	2.5%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cape May County	Sussex County
1-unit, detached	52.3%	78.2%
1-unit, attached	25.5%	6.5%
2 to 4 units	9.9%	5.2%
5 to 19 units	5.1%	5.4%
20 or more units	4.2%	2.8%
Mobile home & other	3.1%	1.9%

Poverty & households

	Cape May County	Sussex County
Poverty rate	8.7%	5.4%
Average household size	2.11	2.50
Mean commute (minutes)	23	36
Median year structure built	1980	1972