Paterson is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of New Jersey. With a population of 149,222 people and 33 constituent neighborhoods, Paterson is the third largest community in New Jersey.

When you are in Paterson, you'll notice that it is more blue-collar than most other communities in America. 35.4% of Paterson's employed work in blue-collar jobs, while America averages only 24.7% that do. Overall, Paterson is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Paterson who work in office and administrative support jobs (18.20%), sales jobs (9.45%), and building maintenance and grounds keeping (6.25%).

Paterson Information and Demographics

The population of Paterson has a very low overall level of education: only 8.19% of people over 25 hold a 4-year college degree or higher.

The per capita income in Paterson in 2000 was $13,257, which is low income relative to New Jersey and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $53,028 for a family of four.

Paterson is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Paterson home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Paterson, accounting for 50.17% of the city's residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The most prevalent race in Paterson is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Paterson include Italian and Jamaican.

In addition, Paterson has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (32.79%).

The most common language spoken in Paterson is Spanish. Some people also speak English.