Elizabeth is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 134,283 people and 31 associated neighborhoods, Elizabeth is the fourth largest community in New Jersey.Because occupations involving physical labor dominate the local economy, Elizabeth is generally considered to be a blue-collar town. 42.23% of the Elizabeth workforce is employed in blue-collar occupations, compared to the national average of 27.7%. Overall, Elizabeth is a city of transportation and shipping workers, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Elizabeth who work in office and administrative support (11.45%), sales jobs (7.64%), and maintenance occupations (6.08%). Elizabeth 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. Like elsewhere in America, most people in Elizabeth use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of Elizabeth‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding taxis. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.In terms of college education, the citizens of Elizabeth rank slightly lower than the national average. 14.08% of adults 25 and older in Elizabeth have a bachelor's degree or advanced degree, while 21.84% of adults have a 4-year degree or higher in the average American community. The per capita income in Elizabeth in 2022 was $26,633, which is low income relative to New Jersey, and lower middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $106,532 for a family of four. However, Elizabeth contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Elizabeth is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth, accounting for 65.56% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Elizabeth residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Elizabeth include Portuguese, Haitian, Italian, Brazilian, and Irish. Foreign born people are also an important part of Elizabeth's cultural character, accounting for 49.24% of the city’s population. The most common language spoken in Elizabeth is Spanish. Other important languages spoken here include English and Portuguese.
