Housing
35.9%
Homeownership Rate
About one in three Trenton households owns their home, compared with roughly 65% nationally. Ownership remains one of the most direct routes to household wealth.
U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 via Data USA →Data & Insights
A Shared
Evidence Base
for Trenton.
Alignment breaks down when everyone brings their own numbers. This page is being built as a central knowledge resource for the city: community indicators, research, needs assessments, briefs, surveys, dashboards, and maps — sourced, dated, and open to partners.
Community indicatorsCity of Trenton
The Starting Baseline.
Four publicly available indicators that describe the conditions most of our work runs into. Every figure links to its source. These describe conditions, not causes — and they are city-level, which means they hide neighborhood variation we are working to surface.
Income
$47K
Median Household Income
The MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates roughly $53,800 a year as the minimum for a single adult in this metro — above what the typical Trenton household earns.
ACS 2023 via Data USA → MIT Living Wage →Education
63%
Four-Year Graduation Rate
Roughly 27 points below the New Jersey statewide average of about 90%. Graduation reflects years of upstream attendance, literacy, and support conditions.
NJDOE graduation rates → NCES via Public School Review →Poverty
22.4%
Below the Poverty Line
More than double New Jersey’s statewide rate of about 9.2%, and among the highest rates in the state.
ACS 2024 via Census Reporter →All figures last reviewed March 2026 · sources are public government or verified institutional data
Indicator watchlistTracked alongside the baseline
Additional Indicators
We Track.
These figures shape how we scope initiatives. They are compiled from public sources and are being re-verified against the most recent releases as part of building the indicator set; where a source has updated, we will update the figure and the review date.
| Figure | Indicator | Why it matters | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61% | Renter households that are cost-burdened | Spending more than 30% of income on rent, leaving little margin for savings or emergencies. | U.S. Census Bureau ACS |
| 8.6% | Unemployment rate | Above state and national rates; understates residents working below their skill level or hours. | U.S. Census Bureau ACS |
| 58% | Workers earning under $35,000 per year | A majority of the working population earns below the estimated single-adult living wage for this metro. | U.S. Census Bureau ACS |
| 38% | Children assessed kindergarten-ready at entry | Gaps present at school entry compound through the elementary years. | NJDOE / district reporting |
| 7% | Students proficient in math | District-level proficiency on state assessments. | NJDOE assessment results |
| 11% | Students proficient in reading | District-level proficiency on state assessments. | NJDOE assessment results |
Have a correction or a better source? Tell us — we would rather be corrected than confident.
Knowledge libraryBeing built in public
What Will Live Here.
This library is being built deliberately rather than launched all at once. Each item below shows its honest status. Nothing appears as finished until it is finished, and nothing is published without a source.
Resource In development
Community Data
Citywide and, over time, neighborhood-level indicators with named sources and review dates.
First indicator set published
Resource Planned
Research
Existing research on Trenton and relevant evidence from comparable cities, summarized for practitioners.
Collection underway
Resource Planned
Needs Assessments
Issue- and neighborhood-level assessments combining resident input with service and public data.
First assessment in design
Resource Planned
Data Briefs
Short, plain-language briefs on a single question, written to be read in one sitting.
Format being drafted
Resource In development
Surveys
Resident survey instruments, methodology notes, and results returned to the community that answered them.
Instruments in design
Resource Planned
Reports
Progress reports on shared goals, including where indicators have not moved.
Tied to initiative cycles
Resource Planned
Dashboards
Live views of shared measures for partners working on the same outcome.
Requires shared definitions first
Resource Planned
Maps
Geographic views of conditions, services, and investment across Trenton neighborhoods.
Scoping data sources
Resource In development
Community Insights
What residents told us, in their words, alongside what we did about it.
Listening cycle in design
Data practices
How We Handle
Data.
A shared evidence base only works if people trust it — both the residents who provide the data and the organizations that rely on it.
Our commitment to residents
If you answer our questions, you will see what we learned. Results go back to the community that produced them, in plain language, whether or not they are flattering.
01
Sources are named
Every figure we publish carries its source and the date it was reviewed. If we cannot source it, we do not publish it.
02
Aggregate by default
Community data is reported in aggregate. Individual-level information is only ever handled with consent and under written agreement with the organization that holds it.
03
Uncertainty is stated
Small samples, dated releases, and known limitations are disclosed alongside the number rather than buried in a footnote.
04
Partners keep ownership
Data shared with us stays the partner’s. Use is limited to the purpose agreed, and partners see how their data is represented before it is published.
05
Interpretation is shared
Numbers are read with the people they describe. Residents and frontline staff often explain a pattern that the dataset alone cannot.
Need Data You
Cannot Get?
If there is a question about Trenton that your organization cannot answer — or data you hold that others should be able to use — that is exactly the conversation to start.