Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Passaic earns a D−, ranked 457th of 466 in New Jersey, mostly because of schools and safety. Its schools rank behind 95% of the state's. Its police reported 414 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025, a higher rate per resident than 88% of U.S. towns. In its favor, few places in the country are easier to get around without a car. History is its standout character grade: an A+, better than 99% of U.S. towns, with 6 places on the National Register. 23% of residents live below the poverty line in Passaic, where New Jersey’s towns sit at 6% and U.S. towns at 9.6%. Only 16 of New Jersey’s 530 towns score lower on health. Its National Register listings include St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church and Botany Worsted Mills Historic District.
Where Passaic beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Mahatma Gandhi School Number 25 | K–3 | 903 |
| William B. Cruise Memorial School No. 11 | K–8 | 805 |
| Mario Drago School No. 3 | PK–8 | 776 |
Its founding year, 1679, comes before those of 96% of the New Jersey towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 6,532 in 1880, 70,537 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1761 and 7 maps from 1888 on.
6 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Passaic is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for schools (better than 5%), so the D− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Passaic. Close and well known come first.
Big draw4 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw10 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw10 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw10 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw10 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw11 mi Stadium & arenaYankee StadiumMetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Madison 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 · 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 Passaic, 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 Passaic.
Passaic reports violent crime at 3 times the New Jersey rate, but it has poverty well above the New Jersey rate and scores below Garfield and its other neighbors on health.
Each of its 4 graded neighbors has a higher School Grade than its D, Rutherford highest at A−.
Its public schools are run by the Passaic City School District. Two of its 25 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mahatma Gandhi School Number 25Largest public elementary schoolGrades K–3 | Grades K–3 | 903 | – |
| Passaic High School No. 12Largest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,484 | D |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Violent crime runs at 5.9 per 1,000 residents, 3 times the New Jersey rate; the Safety Grade counts each violent crime four times, so this weighs most on its D. Each of the 3 graded towns on its borders reports less crime per resident, from Garfield (C+) to Rutherford (B+).
The violent crime rate in Passaic is 5.9 per 1,000 residents. Passaic reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 88% report less. The property crime rate in Passaic is 18.4 per 1,000 residents.
| Passaic | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.9 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 18.4 per 1,000 residents | 7.4 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
All 4 graded neighbors score healthier than its C−, from Garfield (B−) to Rutherford (A+).
33% of adults say their health is fair or poor in Passaic. Only 2 of the 468 New Jersey towns we compare have a higher share of adults who feel lonely than Passaic. 18% of adults report frequent physical distress in Passaic.
| Passaic | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 15% | 19% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 12% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 22% | 25% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 32% | 33% |
| What stands out | Passaic | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 4.2% | 7.5% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 18.6% | 22.2% |
| More uninsured adults | 33.6% | 11.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Most working residents leave Passaic for work: only 12% work in town. Passaic’s median household income is $55,000. Jobs based in Passaic grew to 17,174 in 2023, 1,209 more than in 2013.
| Passaic | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $55,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 9% | 17% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 12% | 6.3% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 25 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Passaic 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
140 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 10 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 53% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 140 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Passaic.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The typical Passaic home is worth about $555,000, up 2.1% in a year, close to the New Jersey typical home. 24% of Passaic households own their home.
| Passaic | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 24% | 77% | 73% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 58% | 52% | 48% |
| Median rent | $1,465 a month | $1,780 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
0.4 miles of trail in 5 parks and preserves. Among 437 New Jersey towns, just 5 have a lower share of conserved land than Passaic. The biggest park or preserve is Veterans Memorial Park, at 27 acres.
| Passaic | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.8% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Veterans Memorial Park | 0.1 mi | 27 |
| 2. Dundee Island Park | — | 5 |
| 3. Armory Park | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
97 within 15 miles of the center of Passaic
About 5 of every 100 Passaic residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
Where Passaic’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
6 places in Passaic on the National Register of Historic Places.
58 notable people were born in Passaic.
City in Passaic County, New Jersey, US
Passaic ( pə-SAY-ik or locally pə-SAYK) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city was the state's 16th-most-populous municipality, with a population of 70,537, falling behind Bayonne (ranked 16th in 2010), an increase of 756 (+1.1%) from the 2010 census count of 69,781, which in turn reflected an increase of 1,920 residents (+2.8%) from the 2000 census population of 67,861. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 68,903 for 2023, making it the 552nd-most populous municipality in the nation. Among cities with more than 50,000 people, Passaic was the fifth-most densely populated municipality …
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Passaic.
All 4 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its D−; Garfield (C−) is closest. Garfield next door grades higher for schools (C+ to Passaic’s D) and lower for cost of living (D− to C−).
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Passaic | #457 | D− | C− | D | D | C− |
| Wallington | #297 | B− | D | B− | B | A− |
| Garfield | #382 | C− | D− | C+ | C+ | B− |
| Clifton | #341 | C+ | D | — | C− | B+ |
| Rutherford | #105 | A | D | B+ | A− | A+ |
Clifton reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Passaic with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Passaic grades D− overall, in the bottom 2% of U.S. towns and #457 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades C− for health, D for safety and D for schools. Schools is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. That is 5.6 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−.
58 notable people were born here, including Zoe Saldaña and Paul Rudd.
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