ZIP 08876 vs ZIP 08869

This side-by-side compares ZIP 08876 (Somerville, NJ) and ZIP 08869 (Raritan, NJ) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 08876 has a population of 22,179 at 563 people per square mile, while ZIP 08869 has 6,881 at 1,333 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 08876 reports a median household income of $122,884 against $107,672 in ZIP 08869, with per-capita income of $64,937 vs $58,776. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 57.1% in 08876 and 44.5% in 08869. Poverty rate reads 5.1% vs 8.0%, and unemployment 4.5% vs 2.8% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $485,100 in 08876 versus $456,900 in 08869, with median rent of $1,840 and $2,112 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 61.1% vs 49.9%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.