Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 7,371, settled in 1903.
Few places in the country grade higher. Emerson earns an A+, ranked 19th of 466 in New Jersey. It reports less crime per resident than 99% of U.S. towns, residents are healthier than 98% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates, and the median household earns $156K. The exception is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $784K, 7.9 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Emerson’s median household income is $156,000, above both the New Jersey town median ($113,000) and the median of U.S. towns ($80,000). Emerson is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns. Only 9 of New Jersey’s 530 towns score lower on history.
Where Emerson beats most towns.
Where Emerson’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Emerson is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for safety (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 8%), so the A+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 456 in 1900, 7,290 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 2008 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Emerson. Close and well known come first.
Big draw14 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw16 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw12 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw15 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw14 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw11 mi Stadium & arenaYankee StadiumCentral Park: Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Madison Square Garden: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, 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 · Yankee Stadium: Matt Boulton, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Emerson, 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 Emerson.
Emerson reports less crime than Oradell or any other graded neighbor and carries less natural-hazard risk than most of New Jersey (mostly inland flooding), but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of New Jersey.
| Emerson | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.8 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.8% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Centennial Park | 0.1 mi | 1 |
| 2. Ackerman Park | — | 1 |
| 3. Washington Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Emerson Public School District. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Emerson Jr Sr High, with 440 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memorial SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–3 | Grades PK–3 | 374 | B− |
| Emerson Jr Sr HighLargest public high schoolGrades 7–12 | Grades 7–12 | 440 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Its A+ tops all 6 graded towns on its borders; Oradell (A+) comes closest. Reported crimes fell from 16 to 6 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The property crime rate in Emerson is 0.8 per 1,000 residents.
| Emerson | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.8 per 1,000 residents | 7.5 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Its widest gap with New Jersey is food insecurity: 6.9% of its 5,755 adults worry about having enough food, against 14.3% statewide.
24% of adults have obesity in Emerson. Emerson beats the New Jersey average on 16 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 7.3% of adults smoke cigarettes in Emerson.
| Emerson | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 28% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 7.3% | 11% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 9.7% | 12% | 14% |
| What stands out | Emerson | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 6.9% | 14.3% |
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 5.2% | 9.6% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.1% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
At 7.9 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $784K) costs more against local pay than in 79% of New Jersey towns; that ratio is one input to its D for cost of living.
92% of Emerson households own their home. Typical home values rose 6.8% in the year to September 2026. Emerson’s median rent is $1,887 a month.
| Emerson | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 92% | 77% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,887 a month | $1,778 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 88% of New Jersey towns, with expected losses of about $212 per resident a year; that rating is what its A− for hazard risk is built on.
Since 1979, 24 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Emerson.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Most working residents leave Emerson for work: only 4% work in town. Since 2013, Emerson has added 173 jobs, to 2,269 in 2023. The top destinations are New York (19%), Paramus (4%) and Hackensack (4%).
| Emerson | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 3.1% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 31 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 4.1% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Emerson has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 23° and about 33 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
67 within 15 miles of the center of Emerson
About 7 of every 100 Emerson residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
3 notable people were born in Emerson.
Borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, US
Emerson is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, a suburb in the New York City metropolitan area. Emerson is the southernmost municipality in an area of the county known as the Pascack Valley. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 7,290, a decrease of 111 (−1.5%) from the 2010 census count of 7,401, which in turn reflected an increase of 204 (+2.8%) from the 7,197 counted in the 2000 census. What is now Emerson was originally formed on April 8, 1903, from portions of Washington Township as the Borough of Etna, the name of a railroad station in the community. The name was changed to Emerson as of March 9, 1909.} The name came from author Ral…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
8 towns share a border with Emerson.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emerson | #19 | A+ | D | A+ | B+ | A+ |
| Haworth | #23 | A+ | D | — | A | A+ |
| Westwood | #40 | A+ | D | A | A− | A+ |
| River Vale Township | #6 | A+ | C− | A+ | A− | A+ |
| Oradell | #1 | A+ | D | A+ | A | A+ |
| Closter | #58 | A | D− | B+ | A | A+ |
| Harrington Park | #4 | A+ | D | A+ | A | A+ |
| Paramus | #293 | B− | D− | C− | B+ | A |
Haworth reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Emerson with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Emerson grades A+ overall, better than 98% of U.S. towns and #19 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A+ for health, A+ for safety and B+ 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.
3 notable people were born here, including Nicki Gross and Aron Abrams.
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