Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Linden's standout: it is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 97% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades C, 360th among New Jersey's 466 graded towns. Natural-hazard risk is low. Its weakest subject is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $548K, 5.5 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Linden's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 93% of U.S. towns. Linden’s property crime rate is 20.6 per 1,000 residents, where New Jersey’s towns sit at 7.4 and U.S. towns at 9.9. The biggest place to walk is Veterans Memorial Park, 37 acres with 1 miles of trail.
Where Linden beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Linden is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 97% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 10%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,396 in 1870, a low of 1,021 in 1900, 43,738 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1880 and 4 maps from 1947 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Linden. Close and well known come first.
Big draw15 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw18 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw15 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw16 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw13 mi MuseumNational September 11 Memorial & Museum
Big draw14 mi BeachConey IslandMadison 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 · National September 11 Memorial & Museum: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0 · Coney Island: OptimumPx, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Linden, 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 Linden.
Linden 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 Linden Public School District. Two of its 12 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Myles J. McManus MIddle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 711 | C |
| Linden High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,934 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
299 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 30 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 77% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 299 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Linden.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Linden has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 25° and about 32 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Linden has about as many jobs (19,583) as working residents, but only 1,915 people both live and work here.
Most working residents leave Linden for work: only 10% work in town. Jobs based in Linden grew to 19,583 in 2023, 3,140 more than in 2013. The average trip to work in Linden is 32 minutes.
| Linden | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 7.3% | 17% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 32 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $93,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 9.5% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
4.2 miles of trail in 11 parks and preserves.
| Linden | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 3% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.4 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Wheeler Park | 1.3 mi | 25 |
| 2. Veterans Memorial Park | 1 mi | 37 |
| 3. Peach Orchard Park | — | 8 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 82% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
Linden beats the New Jersey average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 9. 16% of Linden adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance.
| Linden | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 36% | 36% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 11% | 14% |
| What stands out | Linden | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6% | 7.5% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 19.7% | 22.2% |
| More adults facing housing insecurity | 18.1% | 12.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Linden's reported crime rate is well above New Jersey's. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. 76 violent crimes were reported in 2025.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
60% of households own their home in Linden. The typical Linden home is worth about $548,000, up 2% in a year, close to the New Jersey typical home. Linden’s median rent is $1,731 a month.
| Linden | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 60% | 77% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,731 a month | $1,780 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
73 within 15 miles of the center of Linden
About 6 of every 100 Linden residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
7 notable people were born in Linden.
City in Union County, New Jersey, US
Linden is a city in southeastern Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area, located about 13 miles (21 km) southwest of Manhattan and bordering Staten Island, a borough of New York City, across the Arthur Kill. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 43,738, an increase of 3,239 (+8.0%) from the 2010 census count of 40,499, which in turn reflected an increase of 1,105 (+2.8%) from the 39,394 counted in the 2000 census. In 2015, Linden was listed as the most polluted community in New Jersey, based on the volume of toxic chemicals released into the local environment by facilities in the city.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Linden.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Linden | #360 | C | D | — | C− | B |
| Carteret | #367 | C | D | C+ | C | B |
| Roselle | #355 | C | C− | B− | D | B− |
| Cranford Township | #55 | A | D | A− | A− | A+ |
| Avenel | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Woodbridge Township | #277 | B− | D− | — | C+ | A− |
| Elizabeth | #435 | D | D | D | C | C |
| Winfield Township | — | — | B− | B | D | B |
Winfield Township has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Linden and Woodbridge Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Avenel isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Linden with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Linden grades C overall, better than 29% of U.S. towns and #360 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.
7 notable people were born here, including Pat Stevens and Tamecka Dixon.
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