Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Newark's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Newark?
Your $100,000 in Newark has the same purchasing power as $80,231 in the average US city. You'd need $19,769 more here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Newark's cost index of 125, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Newark? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly lower-than-average crime numbers and you don't actually need a car, plus 1 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
Reported crime in Newark comes in around 2,351 per 100,000 — under the national baseline of about 3,500. Worth digging into specific neighborhoods before settling on one, but the city-level picture is on the safer side.
With a Walk Score of 88/100, Newark is in the category where car ownership becomes a real choice rather than the default. Errands work on foot, the city's built dense enough that things are actually close together, and the parking-and-gas budget can quietly disappear. Transit Score comes in at 77/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Average AQI in Newark comes in around 41, well into the "good" band. Clean air isn't a thing you appreciate until you've lived somewhere it wasn't — and this is the side of that line you want to be on.
Reasons are pulled from Newark's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
Yes, several times a winter. Newark's winter average of about 28°F sits right around freezing, so storms typically drop real snow that lingers a few days before slush sets in.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Newark averages roughly 28°F in winter, with the coldest mornings dipping into the single digits a few times a year and most days landing somewhere between "chilly" and "actually cold".
Reliably warm. Newark's summer averages around 84°F, the kind of heat where you remember to leave the house before noon for outdoor things and accept that the back of your shirt will be wet by lunchtime.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 8. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 8 or colder should survive a typical winter in Newark. (The estimate is derived from our winter-temperature data; the official USDA map uses station-level annual minimums and may differ by half a zone.)
Barely above the water. Newark is at about 13 feet (4 m) elevation, and parts of the city are essentially at sea level. Flood-zone maps are worth checking before buying a house.
Officially, Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, but most of the action lands between mid-August and mid-October. For Newark, that's when to keep half an eye on the National Hurricane Center forecast cone — and when an actual evacuation plan is worth having in the drawer if you're in a low-lying or coastal neighborhood.
Middle of the pack. Newark comes in around 2,351 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
More expensive than average — by enough to plan around. Newark's composite index is 125 versus 100 for the US, with rent and home prices driving most of the gap. Salaries in higher-paying industries usually move together, but the math still tightens for everyone else.
Newark scores 88/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. Transit Score is 77 out of 100. It's the kind of city where you don't think of going to the grocery store as "going" to the grocery store.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $87,248 to live in Newark the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Newark runs about $1,273/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.