Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 10,096, settled in 1870.
For most people who can afford it, yes. East Rockaway grades A overall, ranked 114th of 745 in New York. It is among the most walkable places in the country. The median household earns $125K and it is healthier than 91% of U.S. towns. What holds it back is price: the typical home is worth about $741K, 7.5 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. East Rockaway’s rent at the middle of the market is $2,416 a month, against $1,098 a month in New York’s towns and $1,185 a month across U.S. towns. East Rockaway's schools rank ahead of 84% of New York towns. Only 10 of the 758 New York towns we compare have a higher January low than East Rockaway.
Where East Rockaway beats most towns.
Where East Rockaway’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 York), ordered by how far East Rockaway is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D− for cost of living (better than 2%), so the A overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 509 in 1880, 10,159 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1795 and 5 maps from 1897 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around East Rockaway. Close and well known come first.
Big draw19 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw18 mi City parkCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw19 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw18 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw17 mi BeachConey Island
Big draw24 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife StadiumMadison 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 · Coney Island: OptimumPx, Public domain · MetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in East Rockaway, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Aug 3, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in East Rockaway.
East Rockaway has less food insecurity than most of New York, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of New York and has a long record of flood insurance claims.
Its widest gap with New York is food insecurity: 9.6% of its 8,157 adults worry about having enough food, against 17.2% statewide.
In East Rockaway, 14% of adults say their health is fair or poor. On the CDC’s 32 measures, East Rockaway is ahead of New York on 17 and behind on 1. 9.2% of adults in East Rockaway smoke cigarettes; 14% report frequent mental distress.
| East Rockaway | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 21% | 23% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 9.2% | 13% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 33% | 35% |
| What stands out | East Rockaway | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.6% | 17.2% |
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 7.8% | 12.8% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.7% | 7.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
At 7.5 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $741K) costs more against local pay than in 87% of New York towns; that ratio is one input to that grade.
Zillow values the typical East Rockaway home at about $741,000, up 3.4% in a year, 41% above the New York typical home. For households locally, the share who are owner-occupiers is 79%.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
For most workers, East Rockaway is a place to come home to: only 4% work in town. In East Rockaway, the average trip to work is 39 minutes. The top destinations are New York (43%), Hempstead (35%) and North Hempstead (7%). The share of workers in East Rockaway who work from home: 17%.
| East Rockaway | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 39 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $125,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 2.6% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 17% | 12% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
In July, afternoons reach 84°; in January, nights fall to 27°, and about 26 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
1,026 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 199 properties have flooded more than once.
Federal disaster aid has reached households in East Rockaway after 7 declared disasters, most recently in 2021. Storm and flood damage is expected to run lower than in 60% of U.S. communities. The national flood insurance program has paid 1,026 claims locally since 1978. 72% of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding, followed by earthquakes at 8%.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Trails run 0.4 miles in 4 parks and preserves. Parks and preserves in East Rockaway: 4, covering 6 acres.
| East Rockaway | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.6% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.4 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Memorial Park | 0.2 mi | 2 |
| 2. East Rockaway Sports Complex | — | 2 |
| 3. White Cannon Point | 0.1 mi | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
34 within 15 miles of the center of East Rockaway
About 8 of every 100 East Rockaway residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New York.
3 notable people were born in East Rockaway.
Village in New York, United States
East Rockaway is a village located within Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 10,159 at the time of the 2020 census. The Village of East Rockaway is located on the eastern edge of Rockaway Peninsula in the town of Hempstead, adjacent to Hewlett Harbor, Hewlett, Rockville Centre, Lynbrook, and Oceanside. It is the final neighborhood before the beginning of Five Towns to the west – although some have come to include wealthier sections of East Rockaway as a part of Five Towns. The village is an inner suburb, only 24 km (15 mi) from downtown Manhattan. The primary ethnicities are Italian and Irish. The Waverly Park neighborhood, near …
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with East Rockaway.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Rockaway | #114 | A | D− | — | A− | A |
| Lynbrook | #149 | A− | D− | — | A | A− |
| Bay Park | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Oceanside | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Hewlett Harbor | — | — | D− | — | A | A+ |
| Hewlett | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Rockville Centre | #37 | A+ | D− | A | A | A+ |
Hewlett Harbor has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. East Rockaway, Lynbrook and Hewlett Harbor report no FBI crime data of their own. Bay Park, Oceanside and Hewlett aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare East Rockaway with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. East Rockaway grades A overall, better than 87% of U.S. towns and #114 of 745 in New York. It grades A for health 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−.
3 notable people were born here, including Marie Severin and Kenneth Roemer.
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