Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Hempstead does the important things well, at a cost. The city grades A overall and ranks 118th of 745 in New York. On that grade it does better than 86% of U.S. towns. Its strongest subject is walkability (A+). Add health to its strengths — CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 89% of the country. What counts against it is cost of living (D−): the typical home is worth about $646K, 6.5 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Its National Register listings include Mitchel Air Base and Flight Line and US Post Office-Hempstead. Hempstead’s typical journey to work is 37 minutes, above both the New York town median (25 minutes) and the median of U.S. towns (25 minutes).
Figures: health, CDC PLACES · home values, Zillow · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · National Register of Historic Places.
Where Hempstead beats most towns.
St. George's Church| Widest gap | Hempstead | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 8.2% | 12.8% |
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 3 old photos and papers going back to 1905 and 5 maps from 1897 on.
29 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
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 3%), so the A 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 draw21 mi City parkCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw22 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw21 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw20 mi BeachConey Island
Big draw27 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife 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 · Coney Island: OptimumPx, Public domain · MetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 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 less tooth loss 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 tooth loss: 8.2% of those 65+ have lost all their teeth, against 12.8% statewide. Against the 3,461 U.S. towns with household incomes like Hempstead’s, it is healthier than 58%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
Nearly a tenth of Hempstead adults smoke cigarettes. For adults in the town, the share who have been diagnosed with depression is 14%.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 21% | 23% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8.8% | 13% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 37% | 36% |
| What stands out | Hempstead | NY |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 8.2% | 12.8% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 12.3% | 17.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Its A for schools comes with a D− for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $646K.
Below: Three of its 223 schools, each with why it was picked. The 6 public schools in Hempstead teach 4,980 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodland Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,141 | B |
| Freeport High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,244 | A− |
| Valley Stream Central High SchoolTop results in townGrades 10–12 | Grades 10–12 | 1,121 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NY on state tests and graduation
In 186 parks and preserves, walkers have 75 miles of trail. The biggest place to walk is Jones Beach State Park, 2,218 acres with 8.4 miles of trail.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 8.1% | 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. Jones Beach State Park | 8.4 mi | 2,218 |
| 2. Hempstead Lake State Park | 5.7 mi | 590 |
| 3. Eisenhower Park | 4.7 mi | 912 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The top destinations are New York (40%), North Hempstead (9%) and Oyster Bay (7%). In Hempstead, about one in four working residents works in town. For Hempstead, the typical household income is $141,000. Jobs based in Hempstead grew to 257,235 in 2023, 14,152 more than in 2013.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 37 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $141,000 | $82,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 28% | 10% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 5.9% | 9.5% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
At 6.5 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $646K) costs more against local pay than in 84% of New York towns; that ratio is one input to that grade. Its typical home is the least expensive on its borders; Levittown is next at $733K.
The typical home value in Hempstead is about $646,000, up 4.2% in a year, 23% above the New York typical home. Its going rate for rent stands at $2,101 a month. On the market here: a median 47 days to sell.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,101 a month | $1,098 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 82% | 75% | 73% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 56% | 49% | 48% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 27° and about 26 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
19,033 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 2,648 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected losses in Hempstead break down as 62% from inland flooding and 11% from coastal flooding. On expected storm and flood damage, Hempstead sits below nearly two thirds of U.S. communities. This New York town has had 19,033 paid flood insurance claims since 1978.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The median household earns $141,243, against $85,974 across New York, one input to its A for jobs and income.
No age group stands out against New York: all are within 4 points. In Hempstead, 44% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more. For Hempstead, the median age is 40.7 years.
| Hempstead | New York towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 44% | 32% | 29% |
| Aged 65 or older | 18% | 20% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 22% | 20% | 22% |
| Median age | 40.7 years | 43 years | 40.5 years |
50.8% women, 49.2% men
About 97 men for every 100 women. Across New York, 51.2% of residents are women. Median age: women 41.9, men 39.5.
| Hempstead | NY | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.4% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10.4% | 9.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 8.9% | 8.9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.2% | 14.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.8% | 13% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13% | 12.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 13.9% | 13.3% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 10.4% | 10.3% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.1% | 7.6% | 7% |
| No diploma | 8.9% | 12% | 10.4% |
| High school | 23.4% | 24.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 15% | 14.6% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.7% | 8.8% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 24.6% | 22.4% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 19.4% | 17.9% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
24 within 15 miles of the center of Hempstead
About 8 of every 100 Hempstead residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New York.
Coastal flooding makes up 11% of the storm damage FEMA expects here.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA · OpenStreetMap
29 places in Hempstead on the National Register of Historic Places.
30 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)
10 towns share a border with Hempstead.
| Town | NY rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hempstead | #118 | A | D− | — | A | A |
| Oyster Bay | — | — | D− | — | — | A+ |
| New York | #651 | C− | D− | D | — | B+ |
| Levittown | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| North Hempstead | #44 | A+ | D− | — | A | A+ |
| Massapequa | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Bethpage | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Seaford | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Hempstead, Oyster Bay and North Hempstead report no FBI crime data of their own. Oyster Bay, Levittown, Massapequa, Bethpage and Seaford 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.
By most measures, yes. Hempstead grades A overall, better than 86% of U.S. towns and #118 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−.
30 notable people were born here, including Method Man and Bill Nieder.
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