Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A city of 74,744, settled in 1861.
Bayonne's standout: few places in the country are easier to get around without a car. Overall it grades C, ranked 364th of 466 in New Jersey. Its weakest subject is cost of living: homes are expensive, about $588K for a typical one and 5.9 times the New York metro’s $99K median household income. 36% of households own their home in Bayonne, below both New Jersey’s towns (77%) and U.S. towns (73%). Bayonne's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 96% of U.S. towns. Bayonne has 6 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Hale-Whitney Mansion and Robbins Reef Light Station.
Where Bayonne beats most towns.
63,024 counted in 2010 and 71,686 in 2020; an estimated 74,744 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Bayonne is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 9%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 3,834 in 1870, 71,686 in 2020. The archive holds 11 old photos and papers going back to 1835 and 4 maps from 1947 on.
6 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bayonne. Close and well known come first.
Big draw9 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw11 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw6 mi MuseumNational September 11 Memorial & Museum
Big draw11 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw10 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw11 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a yearMadison Square Garden: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0 · Central Park: Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · National September 11 Memorial & Museum: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0 · MetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Studio 54: Americasroof (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hugo Schneider, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bayonne, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Bayonne.
Bayonne reports less crime than Jersey City or any other graded neighbor and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in New Jersey; it also has a long record of flood insurance claims.
8.7 miles of trail in 13 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Stephen R. Gregg Bayonne Park, 100 acres with 6.1 miles of trail.
| Bayonne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 2.6% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.8 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Stephen R. Gregg Bayonne Park | 6.1 mi | 100 |
| 2. Dennis P. Collins Park | 0.7 mi | 22 |
| 3. 16th Street Park | 0.2 mi | 26 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Bayonne School District. Three of its 16 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Shemin Midtown Community School #8Largest public elementary schoolGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 1,203 | C− |
| Bayonne High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,830 | B− |
| Nicholas Oresko Community SchoolTop results in townGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 388 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Most working residents leave Bayonne for work: only 15% work in town. The average trip to work in Bayonne is 34 minutes. Jobs based in Bayonne grew to 16,550 in 2023, 3,197 more than in 2013.
| Bayonne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 34 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 14% | 6% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 15% | 6.3% | 8% |
| Median household income | $84,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 76% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
Bayonne beats the New Jersey average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 11. 14% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in Bayonne.
| Bayonne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 16% | 23% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 11% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 22% | 25% |
| What stands out | Bayonne | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6.4% | 7.5% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 19.8% | 22.2% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 18% | 14.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Bayonne has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 26° and about 32 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Crime runs higher than in most U.S. towns, but its C+ tops all 3 graded towns on its borders; Jersey City (C−) comes closest. At 24.3 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 79% of New Jersey’s graded towns.
Bayonne’s violent crime rate is 2.8 per 1,000 residents.
| Bayonne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2.8 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 12.1 per 1,000 residents | 7.4 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
126 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 16 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 56% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 126 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Bayonne.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Only 36.2% of households own their home, against 63.8% across New Jersey.
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the New Jersey average. Bayonne has grown 4.3% since 2020, to 74,744 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. 40% of Bayonne adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Bayonne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 38.3 years | 42 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 40% | 45% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 23% | 21% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 16% | 18% | 18% |
50% women, 50% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±1.1 points. Across New Jersey, 50.8% of residents are women. Median age: women 38.8, men 37.6.
| Bayonne | NJ | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 14% | 11.6% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 9.1% | 10.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.9% | 8.4% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 14.5% | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 15.4% | 13.3% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12% | 12.9% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 12.5% | 13.5% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 10.1% | 10% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 5.6% | 7.2% | 7% |
| No diploma | 10% | 9.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 28.4% | 25.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 15.4% | 15% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 6.6% | 6.7% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 28.2% | 26.1% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11.4% | 17.6% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
The typical Bayonne home is worth about $588,000, up 2.4% in a year, close to the New Jersey typical home.
| Bayonne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,682 a month | $1,780 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 47% | 52% | 48% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
119 within 15 miles of the center of Bayonne
About 5 of every 100 Bayonne residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
Where Bayonne’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
6 places in Bayonne on the National Register of Historic Places.
60 notable people were born in Bayonne.
City in Hudson County, New Jersey, US
Bayonne ( bay-(Y)OHN) is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the Gateway Region on Bergen Neck, a peninsula between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east. At the 2020 United States census, it was the state's 15th-most-populous municipality, surpassing Passaic, with a population of 71,686, an increase of 8,662 (+13.7%) from the 2010 census count of 63,024, which in turn reflected an increase of 1,182 (+1.9%) from the 61,842 counted in the 2000 census. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 74,532 for 2024, making it the 517th-most populous municipality in the nation. Bayonne was formed…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Bayonne.
It grades higher overall than all 3 graded towns on its borders; Jersey City (C−) comes closest.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bayonne | #364 | C | D | C+ | C | B+ |
| Jersey City | #396 | C− | D− | C− | C− | A− |
| Elizabeth | #435 | D | D | D | C | C |
| Newark | #453 | D− | D | C− | D | D |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Bayonne grades C overall, better than 28% of U.S. towns and #364 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades B+ for health, C+ for safety and C for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
60 notable people were born here, including George R. R. Martin and Sandra Dee.
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