South Amboy is a medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 10,549 people and three associated neighborhoods, South Amboy is the 208th largest community in New Jersey. South Amboy has a large stock of pre-World War II architecture, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

Also of interest is that South Amboy has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 11.26% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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.

South Amboy is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

In South Amboy, a lot of people use the train to get to work every day though South Amboy is a relatively small city. Those that ride the train are primarily traveling out of town to good jobs in other cities.

The percentage of people in South Amboy who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 21.84%: 28.18% of adults in South Amboy have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in South Amboy in 2022 was $44,424, which is lower middle income relative to New Jersey, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $177,696 for a family of four. However, South Amboy contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

South Amboy is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call South Amboy home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of South Amboy residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. South Amboy also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 22.73% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in South Amboy include Irish, Italian, Polish, German, and Russian.

Foreign born people are also an important part of South Amboy's cultural character, accounting for 18.24% of the city’s population.

The most common language spoken in South Amboy is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Polish.