Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Hempstead grades D overall, 692nd among New York's 745 graded towns, mostly because of schools. Its public schools trail 79% of New York towns on state tests and graduation. One bright spot: it is among the most walkable places in the country. Only 116 of New York’s 1,213 towns score lower on health. Hempstead's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 90% of U.S. towns. Homes are expensive, about $460K for a typical one and 4.6 times the New York metro’s $99K median household income.
Where Hempstead beats most towns.
Its founding year, 1644, comes before those of 98% of the New York towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 3,828 in 1790, 793,409 in 2020. The archive holds 4 old photos and papers going back to 1905 and 5 maps from 1897 on.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New York), ordered by how far Hempstead is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 9%), so the D overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Hempstead. Close and well known come first.
Big draw19 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw20 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw20 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw19 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw25 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw18 mi Stadium & arenaYankee StadiumCentral 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 · MetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Yankee Stadium: Matt Boulton, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Hempstead, 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 Hempstead.
Hempstead has seen reported crime fall beyond ordinary swings, but it trails even towns with similar incomes on health.
Most working residents leave Hempstead for work: only 8% work in town. Hempstead’s average trip to work is 33 minutes, against 25 minutes in New York’s towns and 25 minutes across U.S. towns. 14% of residents live below the poverty line in Hempstead.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 33 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 14% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 7.3% | 12% | 11% |
| Median household income | $90,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Against the 9,896 U.S. towns with household incomes like Hempstead’s, it is less healthy than 88%, so it trails even them.
50% of Hempstead adults sleep under 7 hours, where New York’s towns sit at 37% and U.S. towns at 36%. 14% of Hempstead adults binge drink. Among 755 New York towns, just 6 have a higher share of adults who get no exercise outside work than Hempstead.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 50% | 37% | 36% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 21% | 23% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 13% | 14% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 36% | 25% | 25% |
| What stands out | Hempstead | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 4.7% | 7.7% |
| Fewer adults with depression | 13.2% | 17.5% |
| More uninsured adults | 15.9% | 7.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Reported crimes fell from 921 to 845 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Hempstead’s violent crime rate is 4.3 per 1,000 residents.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 4.3 per 1,000 residents | 0.8 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 9.9 per 1,000 residents | 7.5 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 69% of U.S. communities. Since 2010, 12 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Hempstead.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Hempstead has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 85°, January nights drop to 26° and about 19 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
0.6 miles of trail in 7 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Kennedy Memorial Park, at 22 acres.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 1.9% | 5.2% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Lincoln Park | 0.3 mi | 11 |
| 2. Kennedy Memorial Park | 0.1 mi | 22 |
| 3. Brierley Park | — | 9 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The median rent in Hempstead is $1,622 a month.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 48% | 75% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,622 a month | $1,098 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
28 within 15 miles of the center of Hempstead
About 6 of every 100 Hempstead residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New York.
Where Hempstead’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
27 notable people were born in Hempstead.
Town on Long Island, New York, United States
Hempstead is the most populous town in the state of New York. It is the largest of the three towns within Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay), located on Long Island, immediately east of southern Queens. The population was 793,409 at the time of the 2020 United States census, and its highest decennial census count ever was back in the 1970 United States census, where the town recorded a population of 801,592, which also made it the ninth largest municipality in the country by population at that time. The town occupies the southwestern part of Nassau County, on western Long Island. A total of 22 incorporated villages (one of which is named Hempstead) are completely or pa…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Hempstead.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hempstead | #692 | D | D | C | C− | C |
| Uniondale | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Garden City | #17 | A+ | D− | A− | A+ | A+ |
| West Hempstead | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| South Hempstead | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Baldwin | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Uniondale, West Hempstead, South Hempstead and Baldwin aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Hempstead with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Hempstead grades D overall, better than 10% of U.S. towns and #692 of 745 in New York. It grades C for health, C for safety and C− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. The typical home is worth about $460,000, 12% below the New York typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
27 notable people were born here, including Method Man and Bill Nieder.
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