Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Much to like here, and you pay for it. Its strongest is health (A+). Glen Rock’s overall A+ puts it 32nd of 466 in New Jersey. That leaves it better than 96% of U.S. towns. Incomes are another plus: the median household earns $215K. The trade-off is cost of living (D) — the typical home is worth about $1.1 million, 11 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Hazard risk is weaker too (C): FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than nearly two thirds of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. On civic life, just 6 of New Jersey’s 527 towns do better.
Figures: health, CDC PLACES · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · home values, Zillow · FEMA National Risk Index.
Where Glen Rock beats most towns.
| Widest gap | Glen Rock | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.5% | 14.3% |
Where Glen Rock’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 Glen Rock is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 613 in 1900, 12,133 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1890 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Glen Rock. Close and well known come first.
Big draw15 mi City parkCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw16 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw15 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw15 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw14 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 Glen Rock, 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 Glen Rock.
Glen Rock sends many workers across the state line, has less food insecurity than most of New Jersey and is safe by national standards but not by New Jersey’s.
At 11 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $1.09M) costs more against local pay than in 92% of New Jersey towns; that ratio is one input to that grade.
The midpoint rent for Glen Rock comes to $1,930 a month. In the year to September 2026, typical home values climbed 11%. 90% of Glen Rock households own their home.
| Glen Rock | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 90% | 77% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,930 a month | $1,778 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its A for schools comes with a D for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $1.09M.
Public schools: the Glen Rock Public School District. Below: Three of its 8 schools, each with why it was picked.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glen Rock Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 642 | A |
| Glen Rock High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 722 | A |
| Clara E Coleman SchoolTop results in townGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 322 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Walkers can cover 4.3 miles of trail in 6 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Saddle River County Park, at 66 acres. Glen Rock’s concentration of trails is 1.6 miles per square mile, against 0.7 in New Jersey’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| Glen Rock | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.6 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 8.1% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Saddle River County Park | 0.4 mi | 66 |
| 2. Wilde Memorial Park | 0.2 mi | 8 |
| 3. Lower Faber Field | — | 6 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its widest gap with New Jersey is food insecurity: 5.5% of its 8,691 adults worry about having enough food, against 14.3% statewide.
Glen Rock: 30% of adults have high blood pressure, below both the New Jersey town median (32%) and the median of U.S. towns (35%). In Glen Rock, 6.4% of adults smoke cigarettes. Only 10 of the 468 New Jersey towns we compare have a lower share of adults who have diabetes than Glen Rock. Against the New Jersey average, Glen Rock comes out ahead on 22 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 1.
| Glen Rock | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 8.7% | 12% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 28% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 6.4% | 11% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 17% |
| What stands out | Glen Rock | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5.5% | 14.3% |
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 4.1% | 9.6% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 8.6% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
At 7.4 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 71% of New Jersey’s graded towns. Violent crime is rare: 4 reported in 2025, 0.3 per 1,000 residents.
Glen Rock’s level of violent crime is 0.3 per 1,000 residents. The rate of thefts and burglaries locally is 6.2 per 1,000 residents.
| Glen Rock | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.3 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 6.2 per 1,000 residents | 7.5 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
23% of working residents cross a state line to work. 33.2% of workers work from home, against 16.8% across New Jersey.
Only 6% of working residents stay in Glen Rock for work; the rest commute out. For Glen Rock, the mean commuting time is 37 minutes. Since 2013, Glen Rock has added 294 jobs, to 3,393 in 2023. The share of workers in Glen Rock who work remotely from home: 33%.
| Glen Rock | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 33% | 16% | 11% |
| Median household income | $215,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 37 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 1.3% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
A winter brings about 24 inches of snow, with January nights at 22° and July afternoons at 86°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Since 1978, Glen Rock has seen 26 flood insurance claims paid out. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Glen Rock after 10 declared disasters, most recently in 2021. 81% of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by earthquakes at 6%.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
59 within 15 miles of the center of Glen Rock
About 3 of every 100 Glen Rock residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Jersey.
4 places in Glen Rock on the National Register of Historic Places.
9 notable people were born in Glen Rock.
Borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, US
Glen Rock is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 12,133, an increase of 532 (+4.6%) from the 2010 census count of 11,601, which in turn reflected an increase of 55 (+0.5%) from the 11,546 counted in the 2000 census. The borough has been one of the state's highest-income communities. Based on data from the American Community Survey for 2013–2017, Glen Rock residents had a median household income of $162,443, ranked 6th in the state among municipalities with more than 10,000 residents, more than double the statewide median of $76,475. Glen Rock was voted one of the best places to live in New Jersey for …
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Glen Rock.
At #32 in NJ, it grades higher overall than all 3 graded towns on its borders; Ridgewood (A+) comes closest.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glen Rock | #32 | A+ | D | A− | A | A+ |
| Ridgewood | #42 | A+ | D− | A− | A | A+ |
| Fair Lawn | #98 | A | D | — | A | A+ |
| Hawthorne | #192 | B+ | D | A− | B− | A |
Fair Lawn reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Glen Rock with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Glen Rock grades A+ overall, better than 96% of U.S. towns and #32 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A+ for health, A− for safety and A 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.
9 notable people were born here, including Charlie Tahan and George Hotz.
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