Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 100% of U.S. communities, with coastal flooding at the top. Overall it grades A−, 170th among New Jersey's 466 graded towns. The median household earns $90K and it is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 96% of U.S. towns. Moonachie's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 98% of U.S. towns. Only 11 of New Jersey’s 530 towns score lower on history. Moonachie’s median rent is $1,127 a month, below the New Jersey town median ($1,780 a month) and near the median of U.S. towns ($1,185 a month).
Where Moonachie beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Coastal flooding makes up 84% 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 Moonachie is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 96% of comparable towns) to D− for hazard risk (better than 1%), so the A− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 212 in 1900, 3,133 in 2020. The archive holds 5 old photos and papers going back to 2008 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Moonachie. Close and well known come first.
Big draw2 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw6 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw7 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw7 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw7 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw7 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 Moonachie, 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 Moonachie.
Moonachie draws workers from New York City and beyond and is safe by national standards but not by New Jersey’s; it also carries more natural-hazard risk than most of New Jersey (mostly coastal flooding).
7,035 jobs are based in Moonachie, 5 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
Most working residents leave Moonachie for work: only 6% work in town. Since 2013, Moonachie has lost 401 jobs, to 7,035 in 2023. The average trip to work in Moonachie is 26 minutes.
| Moonachie | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $90,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 7.4% | 6% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its public schools are run by the Moonachie School District. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert L. Craig SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 356 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 100% of New Jersey towns, with expected losses of about $5,279 per resident a year; that rating is what its D− for hazard risk is built on. 234 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 12 properties have flooded more than once.
Moonachie’s FEMA risk score is 100 of 100. Since 1979, 234 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Moonachie.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 69% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
Moonachie beats the New Jersey average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 15% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Moonachie.
| Moonachie | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 36% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 35% | 32% | 33% |
| What stands out | Moonachie | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 14.7% | 11.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
At 12.2 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 51% of New Jersey’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 33 to 17 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Moonachie has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 24° and about 28 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The typical Moonachie home is worth about $659,000, up 4.3% in a year, 15% above the New Jersey typical home.
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Richard P. Kane Natural Area | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
119 within 15 miles of the center of Moonachie
About 6 of every 100 Moonachie residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
2,708 counted in 2010 and 3,133 in 2020; an estimated 3,153 in 2025.
Growth has leveled off: within 1% of 2020, after 15.7% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
Borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, US
Moonachie (English pronunciation: /muːˈnɑːki/ ) is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, in the Hackensack River watershed. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 3,133, an increase of 425 (+15.7%) from the 2010 census count of 2,708, which in turn reflected a decline of 46 (−1.7%) from the 2,754 counted in the 2000 census. Moonachie was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 11, 1910, from portions of Lodi Township, based on the results of a referendum held on May 3, 1910. On March 26, 1917, portions of Moonachie were taken to form Teterboro.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Moonachie.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moonachie | #170 | A− | C | B+ | B+ | B+ |
| Little Ferry | #333 | C+ | D | — | C | A− |
| Wood-Ridge | #104 | A | D | A | B | A+ |
| Carlstadt | #291 | B− | D | B | B− | A− |
| South Hackensack Township | #377 | C− | D− | D | B+ | B |
| Hasbrouck Heights | #63 | A | D | A | B+ | A |
| Teterboro | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Little Ferry reports no FBI crime data of its own. Teterboro isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Moonachie with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Moonachie grades A− overall, better than 77% of U.S. towns and #170 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades B+ for health, B+ for safety and B+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D−.
That is 6.6 years of the area's median household income ($99,155 across the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
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