Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Clifton's standout: it is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades C+, ranked 341st of 466 in New Jersey. Its weakest subject is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $609K, 6.1 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Clifton's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 93% of U.S. towns. Clifton’s property crime rate is 19.5 per 1,000 residents, against 7.4 in New Jersey’s towns and 9.9 across U.S. towns. Clifton has 4 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them U.S. Animal Quarantine Station and John and Anna Vreeland House.
Where Clifton beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Clifton is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 98% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 8%), so the C+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 11,869 in 1910, 90,296 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1785 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Clifton. Close and well known come first.
Big draw6 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw12 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw12 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw11 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw12 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw13 mi MuseumNational September 11 Memorial & MuseumMetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Madison 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 · Studio 54: Americasroof (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hugo Schneider, CC BY-SA 2.0 · National September 11 Memorial & Museum: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Clifton, 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 Clifton.
Clifton trades workers with New York City and other neighbors and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in New Jersey; it also has a long record of flood insurance claims.
Its public schools are run by the Clifton Public School District. Two of its 36 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodrow Wilson Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,255 | B− |
| Clifton High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 3,150 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 72% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
Clifton beats the New Jersey average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 16% of Clifton adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance.
| Clifton | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 36% | 32% | 33% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 75% | 78% | 79% |
| What stands out | Clifton | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 16% | 11.3% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 18.5% | 14.3% |
| More adults facing housing insecurity | 15.2% | 12.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
6.9 miles of trail in 37 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Rifle Camp Park, at 47 acres.
| Clifton | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 3.3% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.6 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Weasel Brook Park | 2.5 mi | 25 |
| 2. Main Memorial Park | 0.8 mi | 29 |
| 3. Anzaldi Park | 0.8 mi | 29 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
125 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 13 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 69% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 125 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Clifton.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Clifton has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 23° and about 28 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Clifton has about as many jobs (33,203) as working residents, but only 3,812 people both live and work here.
Most working residents leave Clifton for work: only 10% work in town. Jobs based in Clifton grew to 33,203 in 2023, 3,040 more than in 2013. The average trip to work in Clifton is 28 minutes.
| Clifton | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $98,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 28 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 13% | 17% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 9.8% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Clifton's reported crime rate is above New Jersey's. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. 149 violent crimes were reported in 2025.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the New Jersey average. 36% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Clifton.
| Clifton | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 36% | 45% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 20% | 21% | 22% |
| Aged 65 or older | 20% | 18% | 18% |
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±1 point. Across New Jersey, 50.8% of residents are women. Median age: women 41.9, men 41.4.
| Clifton | NJ | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.7% | 11.6% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8% | 10.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.6% | 8.4% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 14.5% | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.2% | 13.3% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.5% | 12.9% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 14.9% | 13.5% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 11.4% | 10% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.1% | 7.2% | 7% |
| No diploma | 10.4% | 9.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 30% | 25.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 16.7% | 15% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 7.4% | 6.7% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 23.9% | 26.1% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 11.7% | 17.6% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Clifton’s median rent is $1,711 a month. The typical Clifton home is worth about $609,000, up 3.8% in a year, 6% above the New Jersey typical home.
| Clifton | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 60% | 77% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,711 a month | $1,780 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
89 within 15 miles of the center of Clifton
About 7 of every 100 Clifton residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
4 places in Clifton on the National Register of Historic Places.
27 notable people were born in Clifton.
City in Passaic County, New Jersey, US
Clifton is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Criss-crossed by several major highways, the city is a regional commercial hub for North Jersey, and bedroom suburb of New York City, in the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city retained its position as the state's 11th-most-populous municipality, just behind tenth-ranked Trenton, and well ahead of Cherry Hill in twelfth place, with a population of 90,296, reflecting an overall increase of 6,160 (+7.3%) from the 2010 census count of 84,136, which in turn reflected an overall increase of 5,464 (+6.9%) from the 78,672 counted in the 2000 census. The Population Estimates Program calculate…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Clifton.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clifton | #341 | C+ | D | — | C− | B+ |
| Woodland Park | #264 | B− | D | B+ | C+ | B+ |
| Garfield | #382 | C− | D− | C+ | C+ | B− |
| Montclair State University | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Passaic | #457 | D− | C− | D | D | C− |
| Little Falls Township | #155 | A− | D | A− | B+ | A |
| Montclair Township | #126 | A | D− | B+ | B+ | A+ |
| Paterson | #460 | D− | C− | D | D | D |
Clifton reports no FBI crime data of its own. Montclair State University isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Clifton with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Clifton grades C+ overall, better than 36% of U.S. towns and #341 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades B+ for health 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.
27 notable people were born here, including Vera Farmiga and Matt Miazga.
_-_Full_(48124330357).jpg){kind=link}
_-_Central_Park,_NYC.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}