Glen Ridge is a somewhat small borough located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 8,204 people and just one neighborhood, Glen Ridge is the 246th largest community in New Jersey. Much of the housing stock in Glen Ridge was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic boroughs in the country.
Glen Ridge home prices are not only among the most expensive in New Jersey, but Glen Ridge real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Glen Ridge is a decidedly white-collar borough, with fully 98.36% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Glen Ridge is a borough of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Glen Ridge who work in management occupations (29.75%), sales jobs (14.22%), and business and financial occupations (9.69%).
Also of interest is that Glen Ridge has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Of important note, Glen Ridge is also a borough of artists. Glen Ridge has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Glen Ridge’s character.
A relatively large number of people in Glen Ridge telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 34.28% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
In addition, Glen Ridge is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.
Because of many things, Glen Ridge is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Glen Ridge really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Glen Ridge perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
In Glen Ridge, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.85 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. In addition, the borough is also quite pedestrian-friendly, because many neighborhoods are very dense and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.
Even though Glen Ridge is a smaller borough, it has many people who hop on public transportation – mostly the train for their daily commute to work. Typically, these people are commuting to good jobs in the surrounding cities.
Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Glen Ridge. 81.41% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.
The per capita income in Glen Ridge in 2022 was $94,908, which is wealthy relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $379,632 for a family of four.
Glen Ridge is a very ethnically-diverse borough. The people who call Glen Ridge home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Glen Ridge residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Glen Ridge also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 10.80% of the borough’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Glen Ridge include Irish, Italian, English, German, and Scottish.
The most common language spoken in Glen Ridge is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in Glen Ridge, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
Wealth makes most things in life easier, and a few things harder. If you are wealthy and enjoy keeping up with the Jones', this neighborhood will interest you. In fact, according to NeighborhoodScout's research, the neighborhood is wealthier than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in the United States. Residents here are truly in a unique situation even when compared to other Americans, based on the sheer amount of wealth concentrated here. Even in times of economic downturn, residents of this neighborhood, as a group, suffered less and recovered more quickly. This is indeed a stand-out characteristic of this neighborhood. As one would expect in a considerably wealthy neighborhood such as this, also has one of the lowest ratings of child poverty in the nation.
In addition, if you're a regular supporter of the arts and enjoy outings to the theatre, weekend boutique-ing, or even a finely aged wine with dinner, than you're in good company with the people of the neighborhood. This neighborhood is uniquely immersed with more "urban sophisticates" than 99.8% of neighborhoods across the country. The people here truly stand out as a class among their own. They are an exclusive community characterized by refined tastes, cultural inclinations, and the means to live well. Urban sophisticates live a big city lifestyle, whether or not they live in or near a big city. They are educated executives or managers by week, and serial patrons of the arts by weekend. If this lifestyle pertains to you, than you'll certainly feel right at home in the neighborhood. In addition to being an excellent choice for urban sophisticates, this neighborhood is also a very good choice for highly educated executives and families with school-aged children.
Also, some neighborhoods have residents that are more educated than others. But in this neighborhood there is a dramatic difference. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that 44.1% of the adults here have earned a Masters degree, medical degree, Ph.D. or law degree. This is a higher rate of people with a graduate degree than is found in 98.0% of U.S. neighborhoods, where the average American neighborhood has 14.1% of its adults with a graduate degree. If you are highly educated, you may have much in common with many of your neighbors here.
In the neighborhood, 22.0% of people ride the train to work each day. This is a very high percentage compared to most places. In fact, NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this is a higher level of train ridership than in 97.8% of the neighborhoods in America.
Also, in the neighborhood, many people's commute means walking from the bedroom to the home office. NeighborhoodScout's analysis found that 34.3% of residents worked from home. This may not seem like a large number, but Scout's research shows that this is a higher percentage of people working from home than 95.5% of the neighborhoods in America. Often people who work from home are engaged in the creative or technological economy, such as is found in areas around Boston, and in Silicon Valley. Other times, people may be engaged in other businesses like trading stocks from home, or running a small beauty salon.
The neighborhood has a higher proportion of its residents employed as executives, managers and professionals than 96.4% of the neighborhoods in America. In fact, 73.0% of the employed people here make a living as an executive, a manager, or other professional. With such a high concentration, this truly shapes the character of this neighborhood, and to a large degree defines what this neighborhood is about.
Do you watch 'This Old House' on Public Television? Do you love the idea of fixing up a Colonial or Victorian era home, complete with the charm of yesteryear? Do you like to stroll or drive streets lined with gracious older residences? If you found yourself nodding yes to any of these questions, you are going to be interested in this unique neighborhood. The neighborhood stands out on a national scale for the sheer concentration of historic residences it contains: 81.1% of the residential real estate here was built from 1939 or earlier, some much earlier. This is a greater concentration of historic homes than 99.7% of the neighborhoods in the United States.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Scottish and Romanian ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 7.7% of this neighborhood's residents have Scottish ancestry and 1.8% have Romanian ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 1.5% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Greek at home. While this may seem like a small percentage, it is higher than 98.4% of the neighborhoods in America.
The freedom of moving to new places versus the comfort of home. How much and how often people move not only can create diverse and worldly neighborhoods, but simultaneously it can produce a loss of intimacy with one's surroundings and a lack of connectedness to one's neighbors. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive research has identified this neighborhood as unique with regard to the transience of its populace. More residents of the neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 96.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.
There are two complementary measures for understanding the income of a neighborhood's residents: the average and the extremes. While a neighborhood may be relatively wealthy overall, it is equally important to understand the rate of people - particularly children - who are living at or below the federal poverty line, which is extremely low income. Some neighborhoods with a lower average income may actually have a lower childhood poverty rate than another with a higher average income, and this helps us understand the conditions and character of a neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in Glen Ridge are wealthy, making it among the 15% highest income neighborhoods in America. NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis reveals that this neighborhood has a higher income than 99.3% of the neighborhoods in America. In addition, 0.0% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 100.0% of America's neighborhoods.
What we choose to do for a living reflects who we are. Each neighborhood has a different mix of occupations represented, and together these tell you about the neighborhood and help you understand if this neighborhood may fit your lifestyle.
In the neighborhood, 73.0% of the working population is employed in executive, management, and professional occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 16.9% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations (8.4%).
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is English, spoken by 82.1% of households. Some people also speak Spanish (11.2%).
Culture is shared learned behavior. We learn it from our parents, their parents, our houses of worship, and much of our culture – our learned behavior – comes from our ancestors. That is why ancestry and ethnicity can be so interesting and important to understand: places with concentrations of people of one or more ancestries often express those shared learned behaviors and this gives each neighborhood its own culture. Even different neighborhoods in the same city can have drastically different cultures.
In the neighborhood in Glen Ridge, NJ, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Irish (21.5%). There are also a number of people of Italian ancestry (17.9%), and residents who report English roots (12.3%), and some of the residents are also of German ancestry (12.1%), along with some Scottish ancestry residents (7.7%), among others. In addition, 10.3% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
Even if your neighborhood is walkable, you may still have to drive to your place of work. Some neighborhoods are located where many can get to work in just a few minutes, while others are located such that most residents have a long and arduous commute. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 45 minutes and one hour commuting one-way to work (29.0% of working residents), longer and tougher than most commutes in America.
Here most residents (33.3%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also take the train to get to work (22.0%) and 8.0% of residents also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors for their daily commute. In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.