By: Kimberly Redmond

What’s your town’s unemployment rate? Or the average commute length of people who live in your community? Or how many residents are over the age of 65?

The answer to those questions – and many more – are at your fingertips, thanks to the Morris County Economic Development Corporation and Morris County Office of Planning and Preservation.

In a press release announcing their newly-completed initiative, the agencies said they compiled profiles for all 39 towns in Morris County “for marketing purposes as part of its continuing effort to bring new businesses and jobs to the county or help keep existing employers here.”

Each four-page profile includes sections on demographics, land use, school district enrollment, housing, economic indicators, education and crime. Data was pulled from various sources, such as the U.S. Census, County Health Department and New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, according to the sheets.

The sheets can be accessed by visiting www.planning.morriscountynj.gov/data and scrolling down to “Municipal Profile Sheets.”

Countywide and statewide data was also compiled, to allow residents and businesses to compare and contrast across Morris, as well as with the rest of New Jersey.

Just a few of the key numbers reported include:

• Morris median housing price: $438,100
• State’s median housing price: $321,100

• Morris average residential property tax: $10,262
• State average residential property tax: $8,960

• Morris median household income: $107,034
• State median household income: $76,475

• Morris average commute length: 30.9 minutes
• State average commute length: 31.5 minutes

• Morris percentage of residents below poverty level: 4.6
• State percentage of residents below poverty level: 10.7

• Morris total crime rate: 8.8 percent
• State total crime rate: 17.9 percent

• Percentage of Morris County residents who use public transportation: 5.4
• Percentage of New Jersey residents who use public transportation: 11.5

• Morris average family size: 3.19 people
• State average family size: 3.22 people

Other Morris numbers of note

Of the county’s 257,135 member workforce, about 57 percent work in Morris.  About nine percent travel to Essex County everyday, 5.5 percent to New York City and 5.2 percent to Bergen County.

Of that number, 80 percent commute using their own car each day. Some of the lengthiest commutes are made by residents in Chatham Borough (39.3 minutes), Chester Township (39.8 minutes), Jefferson (37 minutes) and Mount Arlington (37.6 minutes).

The county’s top employers include Picatinny Arsenal, with 6,400 full-time employees, followed by Atlantic Health System with 6,350 employees and Novartis, with 4,607 employees.

Of the county’s 347,344 residents age 25 and older, 106,544 have earned bachelor’s degrees, making Morris one of the most educated places in the state. Of that number, 76,125 have received a master’s degree or higher.

Within Morris, towns with the highest concentration of residents with master’s degrees include Denville, Madison, Montville, Morris Township, Morristown, Parsippany, Randolph and Rockaway Township.

The county’s population has grown from 492,276 in 2010 to 499,693, a 1.5 percent increase. Towns that reported gains include: Hanover (6.9 percent), Mountain Lakes (4.4 percent), Mount Arlington (16.2 percent), Mount Olive (4.0 percent), Riverdale (19.3 percent) and Rockaway Township (5.5 percent).

Population declines were reported since 2010 in Victory Gardens (-0.3 percent), Pequannock (-0.8 percent), Parsippany (-0.1 percent), Mine Hill (-1.6 percent), Mendham Township (-0.4 percent), Mendham Borough (-0.1 percent), Lincoln Park (-0.5 percent), Kinnelon (-0.3 percent), Chatham Township (-0.2 percent), Chatham Borough (-0.4 percent) and Netcong (-0.1 percent).

The county’s birth rate, like the statewide one, has also generally declined since 2007. In Morris, the 2017 birth rate was 4,680, down from 5,501 a decade earlier. The most births that year occurred in Dover, Jefferson, Morristown, Rockaway Township, Mount Olive and Morris Township.