Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Garfield's standout: it is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades C−, 382nd among New Jersey's 466 graded towns. Its weakest subject is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $589K, 5.9 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. 45% of households own their home in Garfield, below both the New Jersey town median (77%) and the median of U.S. towns (73%). On civic life, just 17 of New Jersey’s 527 towns do worse.
Where Garfield beats most towns.
Where Garfield’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 Garfield is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 98% of comparable towns) to D− for cost of living (better than 5%), so the C− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,028 in 1890, 32,655 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1909 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Garfield. Close and well known come first.
Big draw5 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw10 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw11 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw10 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw10 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaYankee StadiumMetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Central 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 · 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 Garfield, 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 Garfield.
Garfield is safe by national standards but not by New Jersey’s and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in New Jersey; it also has a long record of flood insurance claims.
2.2 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves. Garfield’s trail density is 1.0 miles per square mile.
| Garfield | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.0 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 5% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Dahnert's Lake County Park | 0.7 mi | 11 |
| 2. Belmont Hill Park | 0.3 mi | 13 |
| 3. Dundee Island Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Garfield Public School District. Two of its 13 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 971 | C |
| Bergen Arts and Sciences Charter SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades K–12 | Grades K–12 | 1,276 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Most working residents leave Garfield for work: only 7% work in town. 13% of Garfield residents live below the poverty line. Since 2013, Garfield has added 670 jobs, to 5,865 in 2023.
| Garfield | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 6.7% | 17% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 13% | 6% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $80,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 28 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Garfield 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
At 23.5 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 77% of New Jersey’s graded towns.
The property crime rate in Garfield is 16.6 per 1,000 residents.
| Garfield | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 16.6 per 1,000 residents | 7.4 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.8 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 85% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
Garfield beats the New Jersey average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 17. 18% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in Garfield.
| Garfield | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 36% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 32% | 33% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 11% | 14% |
| What stands out | Garfield | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6.1% | 7.5% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 20.1% | 22.2% |
| More uninsured adults | 17.6% | 11.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The typical Garfield home is worth about $589,000, up 2.7% in a year, close to the New Jersey typical home.
| Garfield | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,688 a month | $1,780 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 53% | 52% | 48% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
307 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 38 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 50% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 307 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Garfield.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
101 within 15 miles of the center of Garfield
About 6 of every 100 Garfield residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
17 notable people were born in Garfield.
City in Bergen County, New Jersey, US
Garfield is a city in Bergen County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 32,655, an increase of 2,168 (+7.1%) from the 2010 census count of 30,487, which in turn reflected an increase of 701 (+2.4%) from the 29,786 counted in the 2000 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Garfield.
Passaic next door grades lower for schools (D to Garfield’s C+) and higher for cost of living (C− to D−).
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Garfield | #382 | C− | D− | C+ | C+ | B− |
| Wallington | #297 | B− | D | B− | B | A− |
| Lodi | #313 | C+ | D | B− | B+ | B |
| Clifton | #341 | C+ | D | — | C− | B+ |
| South Hackensack Township | #377 | C− | D− | D | B+ | B |
| Passaic | #457 | D− | C− | D | D | C− |
| Saddle Brook Township | #191 | B+ | D | B | B | A |
| Elmwood Park | #368 | C | D− | C | C | A− |
Clifton reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Garfield with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Garfield grades C− overall, better than 22% of U.S. towns and #382 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−.
17 notable people were born here, including Gordon Hollingshead and Tony Aless.
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