Paterson is a relatively large city located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 156,661 people and 40 associated neighborhoods, Paterson is the third largest community in New Jersey.When you are in Paterson, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 38.44% of Paterson’s employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 27.7% that do. Overall, Paterson is a city of service providers, sales and office workers, and transportation and shipping workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Paterson who work in office and administrative support (11.33%), sales jobs (9.97%), and healthcare suport services (6.90%). Paterson has a lot of people who ride the bus to and from work. In fact, for its size, Paterson has quite a high level of public transit users. Paterson’s need for inexpensive transportation options for its citizens is quite high.The rate of college-level education in Paterson is quite a bit lower than the national average among all cities of 21.84%: just 12.64% of people here over 25 have a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree. The per capita income in Paterson in 2022 was $23,035, which is low income relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $92,140 for a family of four. However, Paterson contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Paterson is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Paterson home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Paterson, accounting for 63.05% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Paterson residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Paterson include African, Jamaican, Italian, Irish, and Jordanian. In addition, Paterson has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (43.67%). The most common language spoken in Paterson is Spanish. Other important languages spoken here include English and Arabic.
