Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Kearny's standout: few places in the country are easier to get around without a car. Overall it grades C−, ranked 383rd of 466 in New Jersey. 3% of its land is conserved. Its weakest subject is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $579K, 5.8 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Kearny’s property crime rate is 26 per 1,000 residents, against 7.4 in New Jersey’s towns and 9.9 across U.S. towns. Kearny's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 95% of U.S. towns. The biggest park or preserve is Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area, at 544 acres.
Where Kearny beats most towns.
Coastal flooding makes up 21% of the storm damage FEMA expects here.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA · OpenStreetMap
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Kearny is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 7%), so the C− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 777 in 1880, 41,999 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1890 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Kearny. Close and well known come first.
Big draw7 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw9 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw5 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw7 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw9 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw6 mi MuseumNational September 11 Memorial & MuseumMadison 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 · 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 · National September 11 Memorial & Museum: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Kearny, 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 Kearny.
Kearny 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.
249 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 13 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 74% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 249 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Kearny.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its public schools are run by the Kearny school district. Two of its 8 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–6 | Grades PK–6 | 950 | C− |
| Kearny High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,825 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Kearny has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 25° and about 28 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Kearny has about as many jobs (15,675) as working residents, but only 1,647 people both live and work here.
Most working residents leave Kearny for work: only 9% work in town. The average trip to work in Kearny is 33 minutes. Since 2013, Kearny has added 3,385 jobs, to 15,675 in 2023.
| Kearny | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 5.9% | 17% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 33 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 13% | 6% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $79,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Kearny's reported crime rate is well above New Jersey's. Kearny’s violent crime rate is 2.2 per 1,000 residents. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 83% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
Kearny beats the New Jersey average on 3 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 15. 18% of Kearny adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance.
| Kearny | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 22% | 25% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 11% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 16% | 23% |
| What stands out | Kearny | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.9% | 7.5% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 18.9% | 22.2% |
| More uninsured adults | 18.2% | 11.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
| Kearny | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 3.2% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.3 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. 1-E Landfill | 1.9 mi | 214 |
| 2. Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area | 0.1 mi | 544 |
| 3. Kearny Brackish Marsh | — | 192 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
43% of households own their home in Kearny. The typical Kearny home is worth about $579,000, up 1.8% in a year, close to the New Jersey typical home.
| Kearny | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 43% | 77% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,720 a month | $1,780 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
129 within 15 miles of the center of Kearny
About 8 of every 100 Kearny residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Jersey.
3 places in Kearny on the National Register of Historic Places.
25 notable people were born in Kearny.
Town in Hudson County, New Jersey, US
Kearny ( KAR-nee) is a town in the western part of Hudson County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and a suburb of Newark. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 41,999, an increase of 1,315 (+3.2%) from the 2010 census count of 40,684, which in turn reflected an increase of 171 (+0.4%) from the 40,513 counted in the 2000 census. Kearny is named after Civil War general Philip Kearny. It began as a township formed by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 8, 1867, from portions of Harrison Township. Portions of the township were taken on July 3, 1895, to form East Newark. Kearny was incorporated as a town on January 19, 1899, based on the results of a referendu…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
8 towns share a border with Kearny.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kearny | #383 | C− | D | — | C | B |
| Lyndhurst Township | #236 | B | D | B+ | C+ | A |
| North Arlington | #223 | B | D | B | B | A |
| Newark | #453 | D− | D | C− | D | D |
| Jersey City | #396 | C− | D− | C− | C− | A− |
| Harrison | #357 | C | D− | C | C+ | A− |
| Secaucus | #294 | B− | D− | C− | B | A+ |
| East Newark | #433 | D | D− | B− | C | C |
Kearny reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Kearny with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Kearny grades C− overall, better than 22% of U.S. towns and #383 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.
Kearny was incorporated in 1899 and has 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places. 25 notable people were born here, including Ray Toro and John Harkes.
_-_Full_(48124330357).jpg){kind=link}
_-_Central_Park,_NYC.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}