In addition, Ridgewood is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates". Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness'. But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.
Because of many things, Ridgewood is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Ridgewood really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Ridgewood perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic nightlife, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.
In Ridgewood, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 32.89 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit.
Like elsewhere in America, most people in Ridgewood use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of Ridgewood‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding the train. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.
Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Ridgewood, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Ridgewood is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 78.64% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84%.
The per capita income in Ridgewood in 2022 was $93,733, which is wealthy relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $374,932 for a family of four.
Ridgewood is a very ethnically-diverse village. The people who call Ridgewood home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ridgewood residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Ridgewood include Irish, Italian, German, English, and Polish.
Ridgewood also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 19.61%.
The most common language spoken in Ridgewood is English. Other important languages spoken here include Korean and Spanish.
