Forked River, NJ population, income and ZIP codes

Forked River CDP is a small town in New Jersey, with 4,988 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #293 of 700 ranked by population — larger than 58% of them. The median age here is 48.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Forked River CDP earn a median of $87,455 a year, 11.4% above the national figure of $78,538 and 18% below the $106,926 median for the 543 New Jersey cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 9.7% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Forked River CDP is valued at $404,600, 33.4% above the national figure and within a couple of points of the $412,500 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,071 a month, 47.3% above the national figure, or roughly $24,852 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 28.4% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 91.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.