Who lives in Clifton, New Jersey?
New Jersey · Northeast · 89K residents · Suburban
Key signals
vs. national baselineWho they are
Clifton fits about 89,451 people into roughly eleven square miles of Passaic County, one of New Jersey's most tightly settled cities, a bedroom community for Manhattan that doubles as a commercial hub for the north of the state. The defining fact is its immigrant grain. About 38% of residents are Hispanic against under 19% nationally, a share built up alongside the Polish bakeries of Athenia, the Arab and Latino blocks of Lakeview, and the Italian families who stayed after the silk and wool mills of Botany Village closed.
Religion tracks that mix more than the surrounding region does. Evangelical Protestants are scarce here, roughly 9% versus about 26% across the country, the footprint of a city sorted into Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim congregations instead. The age curve is otherwise unremarkable, sitting close to the national middle with a slight thickening in the 55-to-64 years.
Gender split
vs. national baselineAge distribution
audience % · vs. national baselineHow they think
Personality in Clifton sits within a point or two of the national center on every dimension, so temperament is not where this city separates itself. Curiosity, discipline, sociability, and warmth all land near the national center, and the small uptick in worry-proneness is too slight to build a story on.
Decision-making and risk appetite are similarly even-keeled, neither rushed nor especially guarded. The real distance in this profile is not in how people are wired but in how they handle money and their own bodies, which is where the immigrant, work-first character of the place actually surfaces.
Decision psychology
audience % · vs. national baselineDecision speed
Clifton decides at close to the national pace, with a slight tilt toward making the quick call over the drawn-out one. This is not an audience won with manufactured countdowns or false scarcity, which a steady buyer sees through. Lead instead with clear substantiation and a side-by-side that lets a careful shopper confirm the choice and commit in one sitting.
Risk appetite mirrors the country almost point for point, so this is not a place to win on big upside or novelty bets alone. Read against the debt-averse, aggressive-saving posture elsewhere in the profile, that flat middle reflects households that simply prefer not to gamble with hard-won equity. Guarantees, easy returns, and protection of what they already have carry more weight here than promises of a larger payoff.
Risk tolerance
Personality fingerprint
Big Five (OCEAN) · 0–50–100 scaleAudience score on each Big Five axis. Dashed outline = national average.
Appetite for the new sits right at the national mark. Clifton will try the unfamiliar but feels no special pull toward novelty for its own sake, so showing that a thing works carries further here than selling it as the latest idea.
Follow-through and planning land just under the national center. There is no unusual hunger for elaborate systems or premium organization, so keep offers concrete and the next step obvious rather than asking people to opt into a routine.
Social energy matches the national middle almost exactly. This is neither a crowd that lives out loud nor one that retreats, so talk to them as ordinary, busy neighbors and skip messaging that assumes either extreme.
Warmth and willingness to extend trust sit right at national. Good-faith framing earns its keep here as much as anywhere, and a straight, respectful pitch will not be read as either cold or naive.
Emotional steadiness is essentially average, a hair more wound than the country but not meaningfully so. Stress here tracks real pressures like cost of living and the commute, not a jumpy temperament, so calm and practical reassurance reads as honest while fear-based selling lands as noise.
What they care about
Clifton carries a quiet environmental streak. The share that shrugs off green concerns sits several points below national while the active and activist postures both run above, so credible sustainability claims are not wasted here. Ethical sourcing leans the same way, with the buy-nothing-special crowd thinner than average and committed ethical buyers a touch above.
Trust in big companies and preference for local shops both track the country closely, which fits a place where national chains and family storefronts have long shared the same avenue. Proof and plain dealing matter, but there is no special reflex to favor the small business over the brand.
Environmental priority
how much they prioritize sustainability when buying
Corporate skepticism
distrust of big-company motives and messaging
Local business preference
bias toward small/local over national chains
Ethical consumption
whether they actually act on ethical buying preferences
How to reach them
Reach in Clifton is broad and conventional. Facebook carries the widest base and Instagram holds a solid second, both close to national, with TikTok and Reddit drawing slightly more than the country at large, a tell of a household mix that spans recent arrivals and settled families.
Format preference is mixed, with short video edging ahead and no single channel dominating. Given the city's languages, creative that works in Spanish and Arabic alongside English will clear more of the map than an English-only push, delivered on phone-friendly video where most of the attention sits.
Where attention lives
social platformFormat mix
content formatHow they spend
Money in Clifton is handled with a careful, debt-wary hand. Roughly 26% of residents are debt averse against about 20% nationally, and the non-saver share drops to about 21% from roughly 27% across the country, so more households here keep something set aside. Aggressive savers run above the national rate, a discipline you would expect from immigrant families building equity in expensive Bergen-border real estate.
That caution carries into credit, where the excellent-credit bucket sits several points above national. Buying itself is price-and-quality led and runs on a fairly regular monthly cadence, with status purchases rare. Offers that respect a budget and reward good standing land better than anything that asks people to stretch.
Purchase motivation
Purchase frequency
Savings behavior
How they live
This is where Clifton is most itself. Preventive healthcare is the standout habit, about 48% of residents against roughly 42% nationally, the posture of households that get the checkup and fill the prescription rather than wait for trouble. The flip side is that the medically indifferent share is well below the national rate, so health is something people here actively tend to.
That upkeep is steady rather than performative. The aware and proactive bands on health awareness both run above national while the obsessive end stays modest, the rhythm of families managing wellness as routine maintenance. Sleep, mental-wellness openness, and the rest of the lifestyle picture sit near the national middle.
Health consciousness
audience % · vs. national baselineMental wellness openness
audience % · vs. national baselineHow this profile was built
This profile draws on a population of 10M+ statistically modeled U.S. adults, calibrated against Census ACS data, BLS employment statistics, CDC BRFSS (N>400K), and peer-reviewed personality and consumer research. The traits most distinctive to Clifton, New Jersey (race ethnicity, religion, and healthcare style) are primarily derived from the peer-reviewed and federal sources listed below.
References
- 1.U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey — Demographic Tables (B01001, B15003, B19001, B23025, C24050)
- 2.Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics / Current Employment Statistics
- 3.Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024). Consumer Expenditure Surveys
- 4.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (N=400,000)
- 5.Pew Research Center (2016). Technology Adoption by Baby Boomers (and Everybody Else) (N=1,520)
Need these insights for your own audiences?
Get full distributions on every audience in the library plus custom audience queries with your own filters.