Bergen County is the most populous

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

.Table1. New Jersey Counties and Most Populous Cities and Townships: 2020 and 2010 Censuses

New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The New Jersey Civil Service Commission is an independent body within the New Jersey state government under the auspices of ...

. Accessed December 1, 2022. Located in the northeastern corner of New Jersey, Bergen County and its many

inner suburb An inner suburb is a suburban community central to a large city, or at the inner city and central business district. The urban density is usually lower than the inner city or central business district, but higher than that of the city's rural� ...

s constitute a highly developed part of the

New York City metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

, bordering the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

; the

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee in Bergen County, New Jersey, with the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is named after George W ...

, which crosses the Hudson, connects Bergen County with

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

. The county lies in the Gateway Region of

North Jersey North Jersey, also known as Northern New Jersey, comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. As a distinct toponym, North Jersey is a colloquial one rather than an a ...

. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 955,732, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 50,616 (+5.6%) from the 905,116 recorded at the 2010 census, which in turn reflected an increase of 20,998 (2.4%) from the 884,118 counted in the 2000 census. The

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

Population Estimates Program The Population Estimates Program (PEP) is a program of the U.S. Census Bureau that publishes annual population estimates and estimates of birth, death, and international migration rates for people in the United States. In addition to publishing t ...

estimated a 2024 population of 978,641, an increase of 22,909 (+2.4%) from the 2020 decennial census. The county is divided into 70 municipalities, the most of any county in New Jersey, made up of 56

boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

, nine townships, three cities, and two villages. Its most populous place, with 46,030 residents as of the 2020 census, is Hackensack, which is also its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

.New Jersey County Map

New Jersey Department of State The secretary of state of New Jersey oversees the Department of State, which is one of the original state offices. The Secretary is responsible for overseeing New Jersey State Council on the Arts, artistic, cultural, and New Jersey Historical Com ...

. Accessed December 22, 2022. Mahwah covers the largest area of any municipality, at . Bergen County is one of the largest commercial hubs in both New Jersey and the United States, generating over $6 billion in annual revenues from retailers in Paramus alone, despite

blue laws Blue laws (also known as Sunday laws, Sunday trade laws, and Sunday closing laws) are laws restricting or banning certain activities on specified days, usually Sundays in the western world. The laws were adopted originally for religious reasons ...

keeping most stores in the county and especially Paramus itself (which has even stricter blue laws than the rest of the county) open only six days per week. The county is one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, with a

median household income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of und ...

of $109,497 (compared to $89,703 in New Jersey and $69,021 nationwide) and a

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

of $55,710 (vs. $46,691 in the state and $37,638 in the U.S.) as of the 2017–2021

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...

.QuickFacts Bergen County, New Jersey; New Jersey; United States

. Accessed July 25, 2023. Bergen County has some of the highest home prices in New Jersey, with the median home price in 2022 exceeding $600,000. The county's

park system A park system, also known as an open space system, is a network of parks and other green spaces that are connected by public walkways, bridleways or cycleways. The concept first emerged with the need to minimize fragmentation of natural envir ...

covers more than .

Etymology

The origin of the name of Bergen County is a matter of debate. It is believed that the county is named after one of the earliest settlements,

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, in modern-day

Hudson County, New Jersey Hudson County is a county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, its smallest and most densely populated. Lying in the northeast of the state and on the west bank of the Hudson River, the North Jersey county is part of the state's Gateway Region an ...

. Several sources also attribute the name to

Bergen, Norway Bergen (, ) is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 2025 the population is 294 029 according to Statistics Norway. The municipali ...

, while others attribute it to

Bergen op Zoom Bergen op Zoom (; called ''Berrege'' in the Brabantian dialect, local dialect) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southwestern Netherlands. It is located in the Province ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

.Hutchinson, Viola L
''The Origin of New Jersey Place Names''
New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed October 30, 2017. Some sources say that the name is derived from one of the earliest settlers of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

(now

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

), Hans Hansen Bergen, a native of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, who arrived in

New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...

in 1633.

History

At the time of first European contact, Bergen County was inhabited by Native American people, particularly the Lenape Nation, whose subgroups included the Tappan, Hackensack, and Rumachenanck (later called the Haverstraw), as named by the Dutch colonists. Some of their descendants are included among the Ramapough Mountain Indians, recognized as a tribe by the state in 1980. Their ancestors had moved into the mountains to escape encroachment by Dutch and English colonists. Their descendants reside mostly in the northwest of the county, in nearby Passaic County and in

Rockland County, New York Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population is 338,329, making it the state' ...

, tracing their Lenape ancestry to speakers of the

Munsee language Munsee (also known as Munsee Delaware, Delaware, Ontario Delaware, ) is an endangered language of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup of the Algonquian language family, itself a branch of the Algic language family. Munsee is one of two Delawar ...

, one of three major dialects of their language. Over the years, they absorbed other ethnicities by intermarriage. In the 17th century, the Dutch considered the area comprising today's Bergen and Hudson counties as part of

, their colonial

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

. The Dutch claimed it after

Henry Hudson Henry Hudson ( 1565 – disappeared 23 June 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator during the early 17th century, best known for his explorations of present-day Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States. In 1607 and 16 ...

(sailing for the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...

) explored

Newark Bay Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jerse ...

and anchored his ship at

Weehawken Cove Weehawken Cove is a cove on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River between the New Jersey municipalities of Hoboken, New Jersey, Hoboken to the south and Weehawken, New Jersey, Weehawken to the north. At the perimeter of ...

in 1609. From an early date, the Dutch began to import African

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

to fill their labor needs. Bergen County eventually was the largest slaveholding county in the state, with nearly 20% of its population consisting of slaves in 1800. The African slaves were used for labor at the ports to support shipping, as well as for domestic servants, trades, and farm labor. Early settlement attempts by the Dutch colonists included Pavonia (1633), Vriessendael (1640), and Achter Col (1642), but the Native Americans repelled these settlements in

Kieft's War Kieft's War (1643–1645), also known as the Wappinger War, was a conflict between the colonial province of New Netherland and the Wappinger and Lenape Indians in what is now New York and New Jersey. It is named for Director-General of New N ...

(1643–1645) and the Peach War (1655). European settlers returned to the western shores of the

in the 1660 formation of Bergen Township (now part of

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

), which would become one of the earliest permanent European settlements in present-day New Jersey. During the

Second Anglo-Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667), Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. It was one in a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars, naval wars between Kingdom of England, England and the D ...

, on August 27, 1664, New Amsterdam's governor

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant ( – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as the Directors of New Netherland, director-general of New Netherland from 1647 to 1664, when the colony was pro ...

surrendered to the

English Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from th ...

. The English organized the

Province of New Jersey The Province of New Jersey was one of the Middle Colonies of Colonial history of the United States, Colonial America and became the U.S. state of New Jersey in 1776. The province had originally been settled by Europeans as part of New Netherla ...

in 1665, later splitting the territory into

East Jersey The Province of East Jersey, along with the Province of West Jersey, between 1674 and 1702 in accordance with the Quintipartite Deed, were two distinct political divisions of the Province of New Jersey, which became the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

and

West Jersey West Jersey and East Jersey were two distinct parts of the Province of New Jersey. The political division existed for 28 years, between 1674 and 1702. Determination of an exact location for a border between West Jersey and East Jersey was often ...

in 1674. On November 30, 1675, the settlement Bergen and surrounding plantations and settlements were called ''Bergen County'' in an act passed by the province's General Assembly. In 1683, Bergen (along with the three other original counties of East Jersey) was officially recognized as an independent county by the Provincial Assembly.Snyder, John P
''The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606–1968''
Bureau of Geology and Topography; Trenton, New Jersey; 1969. p. 29. Accessed July 18, 2012. Initially, Bergen County comprised only the land between the Hudson River and the

Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, about 45 miles (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. The watershed of the river includes part of the suburban ar ...

, extending north to the border between East Jersey and New York. In January 1709, the boundaries were extended to include all of the current territory of

Hudson County Hudson County is a List of counties in New Jersey, county in the U.S. state of New Jersey, its smallest and most densely populated. Lying in the northeast of the state and on the west bank of the North River (Hudson River), Hudson River, the No ...

(formed in 1840) and portions of the current territory of Passaic County (formed in 1837). The 1709 borders were described as follows: :"Beginning at Constable's Hook, so along the bay and Hudson's River to the partition point between New Jersey and the

province of New York The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783. It extended from Long Island on the Atlantic, up the Hudson River and Mohawk River valleys to ...

; along this line and the line between East and West Jersey^† to the Pequaneck River; down the Pequaneck and

Passaic Passaic ( or ) 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,the sound; and so following the sound to Constable's Hook the place of beginning." ::† The line between East and West Jersey here referred to is not the line finally adopted and known as the Lawrence line, which was run by John Lawrence in September and October 1743. It was the compromise line agreed upon between Governors Daniel Coxe and Robert Barclay in 1682, which ran a little north of Morristown to the Passaic River; thence up the Pequaneck to forty-one degrees of north

latitude In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at t ...

; and thence by a straight line due east to the New York State line. This line being afterward objected to by the East Jersey proprietors, the latter procured the running of the Lawrence line. Bergen was the location of several battles and troop movements during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. Fort Lee's location on the bluffs of the New Jersey Palisades, opposite Fort Washington in

, made it a strategic position during the war. In November 1776, the

Battle of Fort Lee Fort Lee Historic Park is located atop a bluff of the Hudson Palisades overlooking Burdett's Landing, known as Mount Constitution, in Fort Lee, New Jersey, United States. The park was conceived as early as 1952. Native Americans appear to ha ...

took place as part of a British plan to capture

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

and to resoundingly defeat the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

, whose forces were divided and located in Fort Lee and Hackensack. After abandoning the defenses in Fort Lee and leaving behind considerable supplies, the Continental forces staged a hasty retreat through present-day Englewood, Teaneck, and Bergenfield, and across the Hackensack River at New Bridge Landing, one of the few sites where the river was crossed by a bridge. They destroyed the bridge to delay the British assault on Washington's headquarters in the village of Hackensack. The next day, George Washington retreated to Newark and left Hackensack via Polifly Road. British forces pursued, and Washington continued to retreat across New Jersey. The retreat allowed American forces to escape capture and regroup for subsequent successes against the British elsewhere in New Jersey later that winter. Soon after the Battle of Princeton in January 1777, British forces realized that they were not able to spread themselves thin across New Jersey. Local militia retook Hackensack and the rest of Bergen County. Bergen County saw skirmishes throughout the war as armies from both sides maneuvered across the countryside. The Baylor Massacre took place in 1778 in River Vale, resulting in severe losses for the Continentals. In 1837, Passaic County was formed from parts of Bergen and

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

counties. In 1840,

was formed from Bergen. These two divisions took roughly 13,000 residents (nearly half of the previous population) from the county's rolls. In 1852, the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...

began operating major rail services from

Jersey City Jersey City is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, second-most populous

on the

to points north and west via leased right-of-way in the county. This became known as the Erie Main Line, and is still in use for passenger service today. The Erie later leased two other railroads built in the 1850s and 1860s, later known as the

Pascack Valley Line The Pascack Valley Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Hoboken Division of New Jersey Transit, in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. The line runs north from Hoboken Terminal, through Hudson and Bergen counties in New Jerse ...

and the Northern Branch, and in 1881 built a cutoff, now the Bergen County Line. There were two other rail lines in the county, ultimately known as the

West Shore Railroad The West Shore Railroad was a U.S. railway company active in the states of New York and New Jersey between 1885 and 1952. It was incorporated in 1885 to reorganize the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway, which had originally been inten ...

and the New York, Susquehanna, and Western. In 1894, state law was changed to allow easy formation of municipalities with the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

form of government. This led to the "

boroughitis Boroughitis (also borough fever or borough mania) was the creation in the 1890s, usually by referendum, of large numbers of small boroughs in the U.S. state of New Jersey, particularly in Bergen County. Attempts by the New Jersey Legislature to ...

" phenomenon, in which many new municipalities were created in a span of a few years. There were 26 boroughs that were formed in the county in 1894 alone, with two more boroughs (and one new township) formed in 1895.Harvey, Cornelius Burnham
''Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen Counties, New Jersey''
p. 11, New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Company, 1900. Accessed September 17, 2013. "For a period of sixteen years following the passage of this act few boroughs were organized in the State, only three of them being in Bergen County ... As it was twenty-six boroughs were created in the county from January 23, 1894, to December 18, of the same year." Ultimately 56 boroughs were incorporated in Bergen County, the highest number for any county in New Jersey. On January 11, 1917, the Kingsland Explosion took place at a

munitions Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of ...

factory in what is today Lyndhurst. The explosion is believed to have been an act of

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

by German agents, as the munitions in question were destined for

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, part of the U.S.'s effort to supply allies before entrance into

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. After the U.S. entry into the war in April 1917, Camp Merritt was created in eastern Bergen County for troop staging. Beginning operations in August 1917, it housed 50,000 soldiers at a time, staging them for deployment to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

via Hoboken. Camp Merritt was decommissioned in November 1919. The

was completed in 1931, linking Fort Lee to

. This connection spurred rapid development in the post-World War II era, developing much of the county to

suburban A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

levels. Two lanes were added to the upper level in 1946 and a second deck of traffic on the bridge was completed in 1962, expanding its capacity to becoming the world's only 14-lane

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

. The bridge is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge, carrying 104 million vehicles in 2019. In 1955, the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

established a Nike Missile station at Campgaw Mountain (in the west of the county) for the defense of the

New York Metropolitan Area The New York metropolitan area, also called the Tri-State area and sometimes referred to as Greater New York, is the List of cities by GDP, largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a List of U.S. metropolitan areas by GDP, gross metropo ...

from

strategic bomber A strategic bomber is a medium- to long-range Penetrator (aircraft), penetration bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unl ...

s. In 1959, the site was upgraded to house

Nike-Hercules Missile The Nike Hercules, initially designated SAM-A-25 and later MIM-14, was a surface-to-air missile (SAM) used by U.S. and NATO armed forces for medium- and high-altitude long-range air defense. It was normally armed with the W31 nuclear warhead, bu ...

s with increased range, speed, and payload characteristics. The missile site closed in June 1971.

Geography

Bergen County is located at the northeastern corner of the state of New Jersey and is bordered by

, to the north; by

and

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, as well as by

Westchester County, New York Westchester County is a County (United States), county located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, bordering the Long Island Sound and the Byram River to its east and the Hudson River on its west. The c ...

, across the

to the east; and within New Jersey, by

as well as a small border with Essex County to the south, and by Passaic County to the west. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, as of the 2020 Census, the county had a total area of , of which was land (94.5%) and was water (5.5%).2020 Census Gazetteer File for Counties in New Jersey

. Accessed April 1, 2023. Bergen County's highest elevation is Bald Mountain near the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

state line in Mahwah, at above sea level. The county's lowest point is

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, along the Hudson River, which in this region is a

tidal estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

. The sharp cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades lift much of the eastern boundary of the county up from the Hudson River. The relief becomes less pronounced across the middle section of the county, much of it being located in the

valley or the Pascack Valley. In the northwestern portion of the county, Bergen County becomes hilly again and shares the

Ramapo Mountains The Ramapo Mountains are a forested chain of the Appalachian Mountains in northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York, in the United States. They range in height from in New Jersey, and in New York. Several parks and forest preserves e ...

with Rockland County, New York. The damming of the Hackensack River and a tributary, the

Pascack Brook Pascack Brook is a tributary of the Hackensack River in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. History At least one late 18th-century map calls the brook "Great Pascack River." Its tributary Musquapsink Brook is shown as "Little Pascack Rive ...

, produced three

reservoirs A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrup ...

in the county, Woodcliff Lake Reservoir (which impounds one billion gallons of water), Lake Tappan (3.5 billion gallons), and Oradell Reservoir, which allows United Water to provide drinking water to 750,000 residents of

, mostly in Bergen and Hudson counties. The Hackensack River drains the eastern portion of the county through the

New Jersey Meadowlands New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the Hackensack River, primary river flowing through it, is a general name for a large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey in the United States, a few miles to th ...

, a

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

area in the southern portion of the county. The central portion is drained by the Saddle River and the western portion is drained by the Ramapo River. Both of these are tributaries of the

Passaic River The Passaic River ( or ) is a river, approximately long, in North Jersey, northern New Jersey. The river in its upper course flows in a highly circuitous route, meandering through the swamp lowlands between the ridge hills of rural and suburb ...

, which forms a section of the southwestern border of the county.

Climate

Southeastern Bergen County lies at the edge of the

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

zone (''Cfa'') according to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

because its coldest month (January) averages above 26.6 °F / -3 °C. In part due to Bergen's coastal location, its lower

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

, and the partial shielding of the county from colder air by the three ridges of the

Watchung Mountains The Watchung Mountains are a group of three long low ridges of volcanic origin, between high, lying parallel to each other in northern New Jersey in the United States. The name is derived from the American Native Lenape name for them, Wach Unks ...

as well as by the higher

Appalachians The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

, the climate of Bergen County is milder than in New Jersey counties further inland such as Sussex County. Bergen County has a moderately sunny climate, averaging between 2,400 and 2,800 hours of

sunshine Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically per ...

annually. In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Hackensack have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in February 1934 and a record high of was recorded in July 1936. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in February to in July. Average monthly temperatures at the interchange of Route 17 and MacArthur Boulevard in Mahwah range from 28.5 °F in January to 73.8 °F in July. Using the 0 °C January isotherm, most of Bergen has a hot-summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''Dfa'') except for higher areas in the

, which are ''Dfb'', and along the Hudson River from Fort Lee downward, where ''Cfa'' exists. Due to its location and elevation span, Bergen is the only county in New Jersey to have all three of the state's Köppen climate zones.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, the county had 955,732 people, 343,733 households, and 242,272 families. The population density was . There were 367,383 housing units at an average density of . The county racial makeup was 56.90%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 5.73%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.47% Native American, 16.59% Asian, and 10.17% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino residents of any race were 21.41% of the population. The most reported ancestries were

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

(15.8%), Irish (12.2%),

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

(8.7%),

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

(6.9%), Polish (5.3%), and English (4.9%). There were 343,733 households, of which 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.1% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 24.7% had a female householder with no husband present, 13.9% had a male householder with no wife present and 29.5% were non-families. 14.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.18 and the average family size was 3.25. About 21.3% of the county's population was under age 18, 8.0% was from age 18 to 24, 36.7% was from age 25 to 44, and 17.0% was age 65 or older. The median age was 42.1 years. The gender makeup was 48.53% male and 51.14% female. For every 100 females, there were 94.3 males. The median household income was $108,827, and the median family income was $122,981. About 5.6% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 7.4% of those under age 18 and 7.7% of those age 65 or over.

2010 census

The 2010 United States census counted 905,116 people, 335,730 households, and 238,704 families in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 3,884.5 per square mile (1,499.8/km²). There were 352,388 housing units at an average density of 1,512.3 per square mile (583.9/km²). The racial makeup was 71.89% (650,703)

, 5.80% (52,473) Black or African American, 0.23% (2,061) Native American, 14.51% (131,329) Asian, 0.03% (229)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 5.04% (45,611) from other races, and 2.51% (22,710) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 16.05% (145,281) of the population. Of the 335,730 households, 32% had children under the age of 18; 56.1% were married couples living together; 10.9% had a female householder with no husband present and 28.9% were non-families. Of all households, 24.6% were made up of individuals and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.66 and the average family size was 3.2. 22.6% of the population was under the age of 18, 7.4% was from 18 to 24, 25.9% from 25 to 44, 29% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.1 years. For every 100 females, the population had 92.9 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older there were 89.8 males.

Community diversity

Given its location as a suburban extension of

across the

,Gambrell, Dorothy
"Where America's Wealthiest Suburbanites Live—and Where They Don't"
''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'', January 31, 2014. Accessed July 18, 2017. Bergen County has evolved a globally

cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

ambience of its own, demonstrating a robust and growing demographic and cultural diversity with respect to metrics including nationality, religion, race, and domiciliary partnership.

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

are the three most common nations of birth for foreign-born Bergen County residents.

Italian American

Italian American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

s have long had a significant presence in Bergen County; in fact, Italian is the most commonly identified first ancestry among Bergen residents (18.5%), with 168,974 Bergen residents were recorded as being of Italian heritage in the 2013

.DP02: Selected Social Characteristics in the United States from the 2009–2013 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates for Bergen County, New Jersey
,

. Accessed May 7, 2015. To this day, many residents of the Meadowlands communities in the county's south are of Italian descent, most notably in South Hackensack (36.3%), Lyndhurst (33.8%), Carlstadt (31.2%), Wood-Ridge (30.9%) and Hasbrouck Heights (30.8%). Saddle Brook (29.8%), Lodi (29.4%), Moonachie (28.5%),

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis (cartoonist), Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide Print syndication, syndication from 1978, it chro ...

, Hackensack, and the southeastern Bergen towns were Italian American strongholds for decades, but their Italo-American demographics have diminished in recent years as more recent immigrants have taken their place. At the same time, the Italian American population has grown in many of the communities in the northern half of the county, including Franklin Lakes, Ramsey, Montvale, and Woodcliff Lake.

Latin American

The diverse Hispanic and Latin American population in Bergen is growing in many areas of the county but is especially concentrated in a handful of municipalities, including Fairview (37.1%), Hackensack (25.9%), Ridgefield Park (22.2%), Englewood (21.8%), Bogota (21.3%),

(20.1%), Cliffside Park (18.2%), Lodi (18.0%), and Bergenfield (17.0%). Traditionally, many of the Latino residents were of Colombian and Cuban ancestry, although that has been changing in recent years. Englewood's Colombian community is the largest in Bergen County and among the top ten by percent of population in the United States (7.17%); Hackensack, Fairview, Bergenfield, Bogota, and Lodi also have notable populations. The Cuban population is largest in Fairview, Ridgefield Park, Ridgefield, and Bogota, although the Cuban community is much bigger in

to the south. Since 2000, an increasing number of immigrants from other countries (including

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

, the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

) as well as from the U.S. territory of

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

have entered the county. The diverse backgrounds of the local Latino community are best exemplified in Fairview, where 10% of the overall population hails from

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

, 7% from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, and 9% from other Latin American countries, mainly those in the Caribbean. The borough of Fairview has the highest percentage of people of Salvadoran and

Salvadoran American Salvadoran Americans ( or ) are Americans of full or partial El Salvador, Salvadoran descent. As of 2021, there are 2,473,947 Salvadoran Americans in the United States, the Hispanic and Latino Americans#National origin, third-largest Hispanic ...

ancestry in the county, 12.4%. The city of Hackensack has the highest percentage of people of Ecuadorian and Ecuadorian American ancestry in the county, 10.01%, with a total of approximately 4,500 living within city limits. Overall, Bergen County's Latino population has demonstrated a robust increase recently, growing from 145,281 as of the 2010 census countState & County QuickFacts – Bergen County, New Jersey

. Accessed April 5, 2017. to an estimated 165,442 as of 2013.

Western European American

Irish American Irish Americans () are Irish ethnics who live within in the United States, whether immigrants from Ireland or Americans with full or partial Irish ancestry. Irish immigration to the United States From the 17th century to the mid-19th c ...

s and

German American German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

s are the next largest individual ethnic groups in Bergen County, numbering 115,914 (12.7% of the county's total population) and 80,288 (8.8%) respectively in 2013. As is the case with Italian Americans, these two groups developed sizable enclaves long ago and are now well established in all areas of the county. In 2023, Waldwick (30.43%), Ho-Ho-Kus (26.72%), and Hillsdale (24.94%) were reported as having the highest percentages of Irish American residents in the county. The Council of Irish Associations of Greater Bergen County, based in Bergenfield, has hosted an annual Saint Patrick's Day parade in the county since 1982.

Jewish American

Bergen County is home to the largest

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

population in New Jersey.Virtual Jewish World: New Jersey, United States

Jewish Virtual Library The Jewish Virtual Library (JVL, formerly known as JSOURCE) is an online encyclopedia published by the American foreign policy analyst Mitchell Bard's non-profit organization American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). It is a website cove ...

. Accessed May 27, 2016. "The largest concentration of Jews is in Bergen County (83,700)..." Many municipalities in the county are home to a significant number of

Jewish Americans American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jews, Jewish, whether by Jewish culture, culture, ethnicity, or Judaism, religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of Am ...

, including Fair Lawn, Teaneck, Tenafly, Closter, Englewood,

Englewood Cliffs Englewood Cliffs is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 5,342, an increase of 61 (+1.2%) from the 2010 census count of 5,281, which in turn reflected a ...

, Fort Lee, Bergenfield, Woodcliff Lake, Paramus, and Franklin Lakes. Teaneck, Fair Lawn, Englewood, and Bergenfield in particular have become havens for Bergen County's growing

Orthodox Jewish Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tra ...

communities, with a rising number of

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

s as well as supermarkets and restaurants offering

kosher foods Kosher foods are foods that conform to the Jewish dietary regulations of '' kashrut'' ( dietary law). The laws of ''kashrut'' apply to food derived from living creatures and kosher foods are restricted to certain types of mammals, birds and fish ...

.Sheingold, Dave
"Survey seeks better count of North Jersey Jews"
, ''

The Record The Record may refer to: Music * The Record (Fear album), ''The Record'' (Fear album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear * The Record (Boygenius album), ''The Record'' (Boygenius album), a 2023 studio album by the indie rock supe ...

'', June 15, 2014 The largest

Israeli American Israeli Americans () are Americans who are of full or partial Israeli descent. The Israeli-American community, while predominantly Jewish, also includes various ethnic and religious minorities reflective of Israel's diverse demographics. This c ...

communities in Bergen County were in Fair Lawn (2.5%), Closter (1.4%), and Tenafly (1.3%) in 2000, representing three of the four largest in the state. Altogether, 83,700 Bergen residents identified themselves as being of

heritage in 2000, a number expected to show an increase per a 2014 survey of Jews in the county. The Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey is based in Paramus.

Korean American

ns constituted the most prevalent foreign-born nationality in Bergen County, which was home to all of the nation's top ten municipalities by percentage of Korean population in 2010. The top ten municipalities in the United States as ranked by

Korean American Korean Americans () are Americans of full or partial Korean ethnic descent. While the broader term Overseas Korean in America () may refer to all ethnic Koreans residing in the United States, the specific designation of Korean American impli ...

percentage of overall population in 2010 are illustrated in the following table. Palisades Park has

Koreans Koreans are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. The majority of Koreans live in the two Korean sovereign states of North and South Korea, which are collectively referred to as Korea. As of 2021, an estimated 7.3 m ...

that comprise the majority (53.7%) of the population in 2022: One of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in Bergen CountySullivan, S. P
"http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2013/06/japanese-american_congressman_visits_nj_comfort_women_memorial.html"
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, June 8, 2013. Accessed July 18, 2017. is the Korean American community, which is concentrated along the

– especially in the area near the George Washington Bridge – and represented more than half of the state's entire Korean population as of 2000.QT-P13 – Ancestry: 2000 from the Census 2000 Summary File 3 (SF 3) – Sample Data for Bergen County, New Jersey

. Accessed August 9, 2012. As of the 2022

, persons of Korean ancestry made up 6.5% of Bergen County's population, the highest percentage for any county in the United States; while the concentration of Koreans in Palisades Park, within Bergen County, is the highest density and percentage of any municipality in the United States, Pérez-Peña, Richard
"Palisades Park Journal – As Koreans Pour In, a Town Is Remade"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', December 15, 2010. Accessed July 18, 2017. at 53.7% of the borough's population. Per the 2010 Census, Palisades Park was home to the highest total number (10,115)DP-1: Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 from 2010 Demographic Profile Data for Palisades Park borough, New Jersey
,

. Accessed July 18, 2017. of individuals of Korean ancestry among all municipalities in the state,Korean Ancestry by City
,

EPodunk ePodunk was a website that profiled communities in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the UK. It provided geocoded information that includes local museums, attractions, parks, colleges, libraries, cemeteries and other features, as well as ...

. Accessed March 17, 2007. while neighboring Fort Lee had the second largest cluster (8,318), and fourth highest proportion (23.5%, trailing Leonia (26.5%) and Ridgefield (25.7%)). All of the nation's top ten municipalities by percentage of Korean population in 2010 were located in Bergen County, including Palisades Park, Leonia, Ridgefield, Fort Lee, Closter,

, Norwood, Edgewater, Cresskill, and Demarest, closely followed by Old Tappan. Virtually all of the municipalities with the highest Korean concentrations are located in the eastern third of the county, near the Hudson River, although Ridgewood has emerged as a Korean American nexus in western Bergen County, and Paramus and River Edge in central Bergen County. Beginning in 2012, county election ballots were printed in the Korean language, in addition to English and Spanish, given the U.S. Census Bureau's directive that Bergen County's Korean population had grown large enough to warrant language assistance during elections. Between 2011 and 2017, the Korean population of Fair Lawn was estimated to have more than doubled. South Korean ''

chaebol A chaebol ( , ; , ) is a large industrial South Korean conglomerate run and controlled by an individual or family. A chaebol often consists of multiple diversified affiliates, controlled by a person or group. Several dozen large South Kore ...

s'' have established

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

operations in Bergen County, including

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

LG Corp LG Corporation (or LG Group), formerly known as Lucky-Goldstar, is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi in 1947 and managed by successive generations of his family. It is the fourth-largest company in South Korea. ...

, and Hanjin Shipping. In April 2018, the largest Korean-themed supermarket in Bergen County opened in Paramus. In January 2019, Christopher Chung was sworn in as the first Korean-American mayor of Palisades Park. The political stature of Koreatown appears to be increasing significantly as well. Bergen County's growing Korean community was cited by county executive Kathleen Donovan in the context of attorney Jae Y. Kim's appointment to Central Municipal Court

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

ship in nearby Hackensack in January 2011. Subsequently, in March 2012, leaders from Bergen County's Korean community announced they would form a grassroots

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

to gain an organized voice in politics in the wake of the rejection of attorney Phillip Kwon to the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases cha ...

by a state legislative body, and in July 2012, Kwon was appointed instead as deputy general counsel of the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, (PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ) is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate c ...

. Jacqueline Choi was then sworn in as Bergen County's first female Korean American assistant

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...

in September 2012. According to ''The Record'', the U.S. Census Bureau has determined that the county's Korean American population has grown enough to warrant language assistance during elections, and Bergen County's Koreans have earned significant political respect. As of May 2014, Korean Americans had garnered at least four borough council seats in Bergen County. In November 2016, Ellen Park was elected to the borough council in nearby

, while namesake Daniel Park was elected to the borough council in nearby Tenafly in November 2013.

Polish American

Polish Americans Polish Americans () are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, ...

are well represented in western Bergen County and are growing as a community, with 59,294 (6.5%) of residents of Polish descent residing in the county as of the 2013 American Community Survey. The community's cultural and commercial heart has long been centered in Wallington, where 45.5% of the population is of Polish descent; this is the largest concentration among New Jersey municipalities and the seventh-highest in the United States.Polish Ancestry by City
,

Epodunk ePodunk was a website that profiled communities in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the UK. It provided geocoded information that includes local museums, attractions, parks, colleges, libraries, cemeteries and other features, as well as ...

, accessed April 5, 2007 The adjacent city of

has also become a magnet for Polish immigrants, with 22.9% of the population identifying themselves as being of Polish ancestry, the third highest concentration in the state.

African American

The county's

community is almost entirely concentrated in three municipalities: Englewood (10,215 residents, accounting for 38.98% of the city's total population), Teaneck (11,298; 28.78%), and Hackensack (10,518; 24.65%). Collectively, these three areas account for nearly 70% of the county's total African American population of 46,568, and in fact, blacks have had a presence in these towns since the earliest days of the county. In sharp contrast, African Americans comprise less than 2% of the total in most of Bergen's other municipalities. In Englewood, the African American population is concentrated in the Third and Fourth wards of the western half of the city, while the northeastern section of Teaneck has been an African American enclave for several decades. In 2014, Teaneck selected its first female African-American mayor. Hackensack's long-established African American community is primarily located in the central part of the city, especially in the area near Central Avenue and First Street. Bergen County's black population has declined from 52,473 counted in the 2010 Census to an estimated 50,478 in 2012. Other county municipalities with a sizeable minority of African Americans include Bergenfield (7.7%), Bogota (9.4%),

(6.5%), Lodi (7.5%) and Ridgefield Park (6.4%).

Indian American

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

s represent a rapidly growing demographic in Bergen County, enumerating over 40,000 individuals in 2013, a significant increase from the 24,973 counted in the 2010 Census, and represent the second largest Asian ethnic group in Bergen County, after Korean Americans. The biggest clusters of Indian Americans are located in Hackensack, Ridgewood, Fair Lawn, Paramus, Teaneck,DP-1 – Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 for Teaneck township, Bergen County, New Jersey

. Accessed September 25, 2014. Mahwah, Bergenfield,Profile of General Demographic Characteristics for Bergenfield borough, New Jersey: 2000
,

. Accessed March 17, 2007. Lodi, and Elmwood Park. Within the county's Indian population is America's largest

Malayali The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala and Union Territory of Lakshadweep in India, occupying its south ...

community, and

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

-based Kitex Garments, India's largest children's clothing manufacturer, opened its first U.S. office in Montvale in October 2015. Glen Rock resident Gurbir Grewal, a member of Bergen County's growing Indian American

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

community, was sworn into the position of county

in 2016, and an architecturally notable Sikh '' gurudwara'' resides in Glen Rock, while a similarly prominent

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

mandir A Hindu temple, also known as Mandir, Devasthanam, Pura, or Kovil, is a sacred place where Hindus worship and show their devotion to deities through worship, sacrifice, and prayers. It is considered the house of the god to whom it is dedica ...

'' has been built in Mahwah. The public library in Fair Lawn began a highly attended Hindi language (हिन्दी) storytelling program in October 2013. The affluent municipalities of northern Bergen County are witnessing significant growth in their Indian American communities, including Glen Rock, into which up to 90% of this constituency was estimated by one member in 2014 to have moved within the preceding two-year period alone. In February 2015, the board of education of the Glen Rock Public Schools voted to designate the Hindu holy day

Diwali Diwali (), also called Deepavali (IAST: ''Dīpāvalī'') or Deepawali (IAST: ''Dīpāwalī''), is the Hindu festival of lights, with variations celebrated in other Indian religions such as Jainism and Sikhism. It symbolises the spiritual v ...

as an annual school holiday, making it the first district in the county to close for the holiday, while thousands celebrated the first county-wide celebration of Diwali under a unified sponsorship banner in 2016. An annual "

Holi Holi () is a major Hindu festival celebrated as the Festival of Colours, Love and Spring.The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) p. 874 "Holi /'həʊli:/ noun a Hindu spring festival ...".Yudit Greenberg, Encyclopedia of Love in World ...

in the Village" festival of colors has been launched in Ridgewood.

Russian (and other former Soviet) American

Fair Lawn, Tenafly, Alpine, and Fort Lee are hubs for

Russian Americans Russian Americans are Americans of full or partial Russians, Russian ancestry. The term can apply to recent Russian diaspora, Russian immigrants to the United States, as well as to those that settled in the 19th-century Russian colonization of ...

, including a growing community of

Russian Jews The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

is home to an architecturally prominent

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

church. Likewise,

Ukrainian American Ukrainian Americans are Americans who are of full or partial Ukrainians, Ukrainian ancestry. According to U.S. census estimates, in 2021 there were 1,017,586 Americans of Ukrainian descent representing 0.3% of the American population. The Ukr ...

s, Georgian Americans, and Uzbek Americans have more recently followed the path of their Russian American predecessors to Bergen County, particularly to Fair Lawn. The size of Fair Lawn's Russian American presence has prompted an April Fool's satire titled, "

Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

Moves Against Fair Lawn". The Armenian American population in Bergen is dispersed throughout the county, but its most significant concentration is in the southeastern towns near the George Washington Bridge. The victims of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

are recognized annually at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack.

Filipino American

Bergenfield, along with Paramus, Hackensack, New Milford, Dumont, Fair Lawn, and Teaneck, have become growing hubs for

Filipino American Filipino Americans () are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos in North America were first documented in the 16th century and other small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration did not begin until after the end of the Sp ...

s. Taken as a whole, these municipalities are home to a significant proportion of Bergen County's Philippine population. A census-estimated 20,859 Filipino Americans resided in Bergen County as of 2013, embodying an increase from the 19,155 counted in 2010. Between 2000 and 2010, the Filipino-American population of Bergenfield grew from 11.7%, or 3,081 residents, to 17.1%, or 4,569, and increasing further to 5,062 (18.4%) by 2016. Bergenfield is informally known as the ''

Little Manila A Little Manila ( or ), also known as a Manilatown () or Filipinotown (), is a community with a large Filipinos, Filipino immigrant and descendant population. Little Manilas are enclaves of overseas Filipinos, a term for Filipinos living outside o ...

'' of Bergen County, with a significant concentration of Filipino residents and businesses. In the late 1990s, Bergenfield became the first municipality on the

East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coast, coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always pla ...

to elect a Filipino mayor, Robert C. Rivas. The annual Filipino American Festival is held in Bergenfield. The Philippine-American Community of Bergen County (PACBC) organization is based in Paramus, while other Filipino organizations are based in Fair Lawn and Bergenfield. Bergen County's culturally active Filipino community repatriated significant financial assistance to victims of

Typhoon Haiyan Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that is among List of the most intense tropical cyclones, the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded. Upon ...

, which ravaged the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in November 2013. Between 2011 and 2017, Fair Lawn's Filipino population was estimated to have more than doubled. In 2021, the multinational conglomerate

Jollibee Jollibee is a Filipino chain of fast food restaurants owned by Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) which serves as its flagship brand. Established in 1978 by Tony Tan Caktiong, it is the Philippines' top fast food restaurant and is among the ...

restaurant chain based in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

, planned to open its first Bergen County location in

East Rutherford East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 10,022, an inc ...

Chinese American

The

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

population is also spread out, with sizable populations in Fort Lee, Paramus, Ridgewood, River Edge, and Englewood Cliffs. Fort Lee and Paramus have the highest total number of Chinese among Bergen municipalities, while Englewood Cliffs has the highest percentage (8.42%). Several school districts throughout the county have added

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

to their curricula.

Japanese American

The Japanese community, which includes a significant number of Japanese nationals, has long had a presence in Fort Lee, with over a quarter of the county's total Japanese population living in that borough alone. Adjacent Edgewater has also developed an active

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian Americans, Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 United States census, 2000 census, they have declined in ...

community, particularly after the construction of the largest Japanese-oriented commercial center on the U.S. East Coast in this borough. As of March 2011, about 2,500 Japanese Americans lived in Fort Lee and Edgewater combined; this is the largest concentration of Japanese Americans in New Jersey. The remainder of Bergen County's Japanese residents are concentrated in northern communities, including Ridgewood. The Japanese-American Society of New Jersey is based in Fort Lee.

Balkan American

Greek American Greek Americans ( ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. There is an estimate of 1.2 million Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. According to the US census, 264,066 people o ...

s have had a fairly sizable presence in Bergen for several decades, and according to 2000 census data, the Greek community numbered 13,247 county-wide. Greek restaurants are abundant in Bergen County. The largest concentrations of Greeks by percentage in the county are in

(7.2%), Alpine (5.2%), Fort Lee (3.7%), and Palisades Park (3.5%).

Macedonian American Macedonian Americans ( are Americans of ethnic Macedonian heritage. History Review Macedonian national feelings had shifted throughout the 20th century. According to the ''Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups'', almost all of Macedo ...

s and Albanian Americans have arrived relatively recently in New Jersey but have quickly established Bergen County enclaves, roughly in tandem, in Garfield, Elmwood Park, and Fair Lawn.

Iranian American

A relatively recent community of

Iranian American Iranian-Americans, also known as Persian-Americans, are Americans, United States citizens or nationals who are of Iranian peoples, Iranian ancestry, or who hold Iranian Multiple citizenship, citizenship. Most Iranian-Americans arrived in the U ...

s has emerged in Bergen County, including those in

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

occupations scattered throughout the county.

Same-sex couples

Same-sex couples A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries ...

headed one in 160 households in 2010, prior to the commencement of same-sex marriages in New Jersey on October 21, 2013. On June 28, 2016, Bergen County officials for the first time raised the rainbow-colored

gay pride In the context of LGBTQ culture, pride (also known as LGBTQ pride, LGBTQIA pride, LGBT pride, queer pride, gay pride, or gay and lesbian pride) is the promotion of the rights, self-affirmation, dignity, Social equality, equality, and increas ...

flag at the county administration building in Hackensack to commemorate the

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Not ...

movement.

Muslims

Bergen County also has a moderate-sized

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

population, which numbered 6,473 as of the 2000 census.County Membership Report for Bergen County, New Jersey
,

Association of Religion Data Archives The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) is a free source of online information related to American and international religion. One of the primary goals of the archive is to democratize access to academic information on religion by making t ...

. Accessed April 6, 2007. Teaneck and Hackensack have emerged as the two most significant Muslim enclaves in the county, with the American Muslim Union's 18th annual brunch gathering held in Teaneck in 2016. Bergen's Muslim population primarily consists of

Arab American Arab Americans ( or ) are Americans who trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants from the Arabic-speaking countries. In the United States census, Arabs are racially classified as White Americans which is defined as "A person ha ...

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

Americans, African Americans, and more recently, Macedonian Americans and Albanian Americans, although many members of these groups practice other religions. While Arab Americans have not established a significant presence in any particular municipality, in total there are 11,755 county residents who indicated

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

ancestry in the 2000 census. The overwhelming majority of Bergen's Arab American population (64.3%) is constituted by persons of Lebanese (2,576),

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

(2,568), and

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

(2,417) descent. The county's

diner A diner is a type of restaurant found across the United States and Canada, as well as parts of Western Europe and Australia. Diners offer a wide range of cuisine, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a comb ...

s provide late-night and pre-dawn dining options during the Islamic holy month of

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

Transportation

, the county had a total of of roadways, of which are maintained by the municipality, by Bergen County, by the

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transport ...

, by the Palisades Interstate Parkway Commission, by the

New Jersey Turnpike Authority The New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) is a state agency responsible for maintaining the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, which are two toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The agency is headquartered in Woodbridge Town ...

and by the

. Bergen County has a highly developed road network, including the northern termini of the

New Jersey Turnpike The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll roads in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although ma ...

(a portion of

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

) and the

Garden State Parkway The Garden State Parkway (GSP) is a Controlled-access highway, controlled-access toll road that stretches the north–south length of eastern New Jersey from the state's southernmost tip near Cape May, New Jersey, Cape May north to the New York ...

, the eastern terminus of

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one of the ori ...

, and a portion of

Interstate 287 Interstate 287 (I-287) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US states of New Jersey and New York (state), New York. It is a partial beltway around New York City, serving northern New Jersey and the counties of Rockland County, New York ...

. Other roadways that serve Bergen County include: ;U.S. highways * 1/9 * 9W * 46 * 202 * 95W (Western spur along I-95 / NJ Turnpike) ;State highways * 3 * 4 * 5 * 7 (Runs along the southern county border in North Arlington) * 17 * 63 * 67 * 93 * 120 * 208 ;Other highways *

Palisades Interstate Parkway The Palisades Interstate Parkway (PIP) is a controlled-access parkway in the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York. The parkway is a major commuter route into New York City from Rockland and Orange counties in New York and Bergen County in ...

Bridges and Tunnels The

, connecting Fort Lee in Bergen County across the Hudson River to the

Upper Manhattan Upper Manhattan is the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary has been variously defined, but some of the most common usages are 96th Street, 110th Street (the northern boundary of Central Park), 1 ...

section of

, is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge. Access to New York City is alternatively available for motorists through the

Lincoln Tunnel The Lincoln Tunnel is an approximately tunnel under the Hudson River, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey, to the west with Midtown Manhattan in New York City to the east. It carries New Jersey Route 495 on the New Jersey side and the unsigned N ...

and

Holland Tunnel The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects Hudson Square and Lower Manhattan in New York City in the east to Jersey City, New Jersey, in the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Authority of New York an ...

. Access across the Hudson River to Westchester County in New York is available using the Tappan Zee Bridge in neighboring Rockland County, New York. , the county had a total of of roadways, of which are maintained by the municipality, by Bergen County, by the

, by the Palisades Interstate Parkway Commission, by the

and by the

.Hudson County Mileage by Municipality and Jurisdiction

, March 2019. Accessed December 25, 2020.Palisades Parkway Straight Line Diagram

, August 2014. Accessed December 25, 2020Interstate 95 Straight Line Diagram

, August 2014. Accessed December 25, 2020 Train 1253 leaves Glen Rock Boro Hall Bergen County Line

Public Transportation Train service is available on three lines from

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. I ...

: the Bergen County Line, the Main Line, and the

. They run north–south to

Hoboken Terminal Hoboken Terminal is a commuter-oriented intermodal passenger station in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, it is served by eight NJ Transit (NJT) commuter rail lines, an NJ T ...

with connections to the

PATH A path is a route for physical travel – see Trail. Path or PATH may also refer to: Physical paths of different types * Bicycle path * Bridle path, used by people on horseback * Course (navigation), the intended path of a vehicle * Desir ...

train. NJ Transit also offers connecting service to

New York Penn Station Pennsylvania Station (also known as New York Penn Station or simply Penn Station) is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers ...

and Newark Penn Station at

Secaucus Junction Secaucus Junction (signed as Secaucus) is an intermodal transit hub served by New Jersey Transit Rail Operations, New Jersey Transit (NJ Transit) and Metro-North Railroad in Secaucus, New Jersey, Secaucus, New Jersey. It is one of the List of b ...

. Connections are also available at Hoboken Terminal to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and New York Waterways ferry service to the World Financial Center and other destinations. Despite the name, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail does not yet run into Bergen County, although a northward extension from Hudson County to

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center Englewood Hospital is an acute care 294-bed teaching hospital in Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. In spring 2024, the medical center received an 'A' Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group patient safety organization. ...

, known as the Northern Branch Corridor Project, has been advanced to the draft

environmental impact statement An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An E ...

stage by NJ Transit. The proposed Passaic-Bergen Rail Line, with two station stops in Hackensack, has not advanced since its 2008 announcement. The Access to the Region's Core rail tunnel project would have allowed many Bergen County railway commuters a one-seat ride into

but was canceled in October 2010. Local and express bus service is available from

and private companies such as Academy Bus Lines, and

Coach USA Coach USA, LLC is a holding company for various American transportation service providers providing scheduled intercity bus service, local and commuter bus transit, city sightseeing, tour, yellow school bus, and charter bus service across the ...

, offering transport within Bergen County, elsewhere in New Jersey, and to the

Port Authority Bus Terminal The Port Authority Bus Terminal (colloquially known as the Port Authority and by its acronym PABT) is a bus station, bus terminal located in Manhattan in New York City. It is the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, serving ab ...

and

George Washington Bridge Bus Station The George Washington Bridge Bus Station is a commuter bus terminal at the east end of the George Washington Bridge in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The bus station is owned and operated by the Port Author ...

in New York City. In studies conducted to determine the best possible routes for the Bergen BRT (bus rapid transit) system, it has been determined the many malls and other "activity generators" in the vicinity of the intersection of routes 4 and 17 would constitute the core of any system.Route 17 Bergen Rapid Transit Study: Final Report
, STV Incorporated, September 2006. Accessed December 24, 2013. While no funding has for construction of the project has been identified, a study begun in 2012 will define the optimal routes. Airports There is one airport in the county,

Teterboro Airport Teterboro Airport is a general aviation relief airport situated in the boroughs of Teterboro, Moonachie, and Hasbrouck Heights in Bergen County, New Jersey.Teterboro, which is operated by the

. The three busiest commercial airports in the New York City metropolitan area, namely JFK International Airport,

Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport is a major international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. The airport straddles the boundary between the cities of Newark, New Jersey, Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and E ...

, and

LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport ( ) – colloquially known as LaGuardia or simply LGA – is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, situated on the North Shore (Long Island), northwestern shore of Long Island, bord ...

, are all located within 25 miles of Bergen County. For the main surface-street routes through the county, see List of county routes in Bergen County, New Jersey.

Education

Tertiary education

Bergen County is home to several colleges and universities: *

Bergen Community College Bergen Community College is a Public university, public community college in Bergen County, New Jersey. It was founded in 1965 and opened in 1968. , it is the largest community college in the state, with sites in Paramus, New Jersey, Paramus, Ha ...

– Paramus, with other centers in Hackensack and Lyndhurst * Eastwick College – Ramsey and Hackensack *

Fairleigh Dickinson University Fairleigh Dickinson University () is a private university with its main campuses in New Jersey, located in Madison / Florham Park and in Teaneck / Hackensack. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University offers more than 100 degree prog ...

– Teaneck and Hackensack * Felician University – Lodi and Rutherford *

Ramapo College Ramapo College of New Jersey (RCNJ) is a Public university, public liberal arts college in Mahwah, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. As of the fall 2021 semester, there were a total of 5,732 students enro ...

– Mahwah

Saint Peter's University Saint Peter's University is a private Jesuit university in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States. Founded as Saint Peter's College in 1872 by the Society of Jesus, the university offers over 60 undergraduate and graduate programs to more than ...

formerly operated a campus in

. This campus, on the site of the former Englewood Cliffs College, was active from 1975 until its official closure in August 2018.

Berkeley College Berkeley College is a private for-profit college with campuses in New York City, New Jersey, and online. It was founded in 1931 and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees and certificate programs. Berkeley College is accredited by the Mi ...

formerly operated a campus in Paramus but announced the closure of this campus in spring 2022, thereafter consolidating it with the college's campus in Woodland Park (in Passaic County).

School districts

The county has the following school districts:New Jersey School Directory for Bergen County

New Jersey Department of Education The New Jersey Department of Education (NJ DOE) administers state and federal aid programs affecting more than 1.4 million public and non-public elementary and secondary school children in the state of New Jersey. The department is headquartered ...

. Accessed August 1, 2022.
Text list
/ref> ;K-12: * Bergenfield Public School District * Bogota Public Schools * Cliffside Park School District * Cresskill Public Schools * Dumont Public Schools * Edgewater Public Schools * Elmwood Park Public Schools * Emerson School District * Englewood Public School District * Fair Lawn Public Schools * Fort Lee School District * Garfield Public Schools * Glen Rock Public Schools * Hackensack Public Schools * Hasbrouck Heights School District * Leonia Public Schools * Lodi Public Schools * Lyndhurst School District * Mahwah Township Public Schools * Midland Park School District * New Milford School District * North Arlington School District * Palisades Park Public School District * Paramus Public Schools * Park Ridge Public Schools * Ramsey Public School District * Ridgefield Park Public Schools * Ridgefield School District * Ridgewood Public Schools * Rutherford School District * Saddle Brook Public Schools * Teaneck Public Schools * Tenafly Public Schools * Waldwick Public School District * Wallington Public Schools * Westwood Regional School District – Regional * Wood-Ridge School District ;Secondary (9-12, except as noted): * Bergen County Technical Schools * Carlstadt-East Rutherford Regional School District *

Northern Highlands Regional High School Northern Highlands Regional High School (NHRHS) is a regional public high school and school district in Allendale, in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Allendale ...

* Northern Valley Regional High School District * Pascack Valley Regional High School District * Ramapo Indian Hills Regional High School District * River Dell Regional School District – (7–12) ;Elementary (K-8, except as noted): * Allendale School District *

Alpine Public School District The Alpine Public School District is a community state school, public school district serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade in the Borough of Alpine, New Jersey, Alpine in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. sta ...

* Carlstadt Public Schools * Closter Public Schools * Demarest Public Schools * East Rutherford School District * Englewood Cliffs Public Schools * Fairview Public Schools * Franklin Lakes Public Schools * Harrington Park School District * Haworth Public Schools * Hillsdale Public Schools *

Ho-Ho-Kus School District Ho-Ho-Kus School District is a community public school district located in Ho-Ho-Kus, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, that serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. As of the 2022–23 school year, the district, comprising o ...

* Little Ferry Public Schools * Maywood Public Schools * Montvale Public Schools * Moonachie School District * Northvale Public Schools * Norwood Public School District * Oakland Public Schools * Old Tappan Public Schools * Oradell Public School District (K–6) * River Edge Elementary School District (K–6) * River Vale Public Schools * Rochelle Park School District * Saddle River School District (K–5) * South Hackensack School District * Upper Saddle River School District * Woodcliff Lake Public Schools * Wyckoff School District The Rockleigh Borough School District is a non-operating school district. Teterboro Borough School District was a non-operating school district; it is now in the Hasbrouck Heights district. County-wide school districts include Bergen County Technical Schools and Bergen County Special Services School District. South Bergen Jointure Commission also has special education services for the south of the county. Bergen has some 45

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

high schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

and at least 23 private high schools. Three of the top ten municipal high schools out of 339 schools in New Jersey were located in Bergen County, according to a 2014 ranking by ''

New Jersey Monthly ''New Jersey Monthly'' is an American monthly magazine featuring issues of possible interest to residents of New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United St ...

'' magazine, including

in Allendale (#3),

Pascack Hills High School Pascack Hills High School (PHHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school, one of two secondary schools serving students in ninth through twelfth grade as part of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District in Bergen County, in the ...

in Montvale (#7), and Glen Rock High School in Glen Rock (#8). The magazine's list did not include the

Bergen County Academies Bergen County Academies (BCA) is a tuition-free public magnet high school located in Hackensack, New Jersey, that serves students in the ninth through twelfth grades from all of Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The school was fo ...

, which as the county's public

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

high school in Hackensack has continued to be recognized by various rankings as one of the best high schools in the United States. In 2014, BCA had an average

HSPA HSPA may refer to: * High Speed Packet Access, a mobile broadband technology * Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Education * High School Proficiency Assessment * Humphrey School of Public Affairs, an American public policy school * Hunter Sch ...

score of 294 out of 300 and an average

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...

score of 2103 out of 2400. There is a school for Japanese citizen students, the New Jersey Japanese School, in

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

, in the northwestern portion of Bergen County. In 1987, there were five

juku ''Gakushū juku'' (; see cram school) are private, fee-paying schools that offer supplementary classes often in preparation for key school and university entrance exams. The term is primarily used to characterize such schools in Japan. Juku t ...

(Japanese-style cram schools) in the county, with two of them in Fort Lee.
Clipping from

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...

Arts and culture

The

Bergen Performing Arts Center The Bergen Performing Arts Center (BergenPAC) is a not-for-profit theater in Englewood, New Jersey. There are dance, theater, voice, and music classes offered year round at The Performing Arts School at BergenPAC. History The theater originally ...

(PAC) is based in Englewood, while numerous museums are located throughout the county. In September 2014, the Englewood-based Northern New Jersey Community Foundation announced an initiative known as ArtsBergen, a centralizing body with the goal of connecting artists and arts organizations with one another in Bergen County.

Educational and cultural

* New Jersey Naval Museum, Hackensack. At the museum, the USS ''Ling'' is moored in the

and is available for tours as a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

. * Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum of New Jersey, located at

. * Meadowlands Environment Center, Lyndhurst. *

Tenafly Nature Center The Tenafly Nature Center is a non-profit member-supported nature preserve. Its mission is the stewardship of nearly 400 wooded acres for the purposes of conservation, education and recreation. It is located at 313 Hudson Avenue, Tenafly, New Jers ...

, Tenafly * Puffin Foundation, Teaneck * Maywood Station Museum, Maywood *

, Englewood

Commercial and entertainment

MetLife Stadium MetLife Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States, 5 mi (8 km) west of New York City. It opened in 2010, replacing Giants Stadium, and serves as the home for the ...

, which replaced

Giants Stadium Giants Stadium (sometimes referred to as Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands) was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and primarily hosted sporting events and ...

, in East Rutherford, is the home of the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

and the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

. At a construction cost of approximately $1.6 billion, it was the most expensive stadium ever built until being passed by

SoFi Stadium SoFi Stadium ( ) is a domed multi-purpose stadium in Inglewood, California, U.S., a suburb of Los Angeles. SoFi occupies the former site of the Hollywood Park Racetrack and neighbors the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome. Opened in September 2020, the ...

in 2020. *

Meadowlands Arena Meadowlands Arena (formerly Brendan Byrne Arena, Continental Airlines Arena and Izod Center) is a closed indoor sports and concert venue located in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. Since closing, ...

, East Rutherford (formerly known as the Izod Center, the Continental Airlines Arena and the Brendan Byrne Arena). Opened in 1981, it was formerly home to the

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The club w ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

, the

New Jersey Nets New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

, and the

Seton Hall University Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...

Pirates men's basketball team. The arena closed on April 3, 2015. *

Meadowlands Racetrack The Meadowlands Racetrack (currently referred to as Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment) is a horse racing track at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The track hosts both tho ...

, East Rutherford * Garden State Plaza, Paramus, is one of the largest and highest revenue-producing

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

s in the United States. * The Shops at Riverside, shopping mall, Hackensack (formerly known as Riverside Square Mall) * Paramus Park, shopping mall, Paramus *

The Outlets at Bergen Town Center Bergen Town Center (formerly known as The Outlets at Bergen Town Center) is a shopping center located in Bergen County, New Jersey, USA. The center consists of both an indoor mall and exterior outlying stores and occupies over 105 acres split be ...

, shopping mall, Paramus (formerly known as the Bergen Mall) * Fashion Center, shopping mall, Paramus *

H Mart H Mart ( or ) is an American chain of Asian supermarkets operated by the Hanahreum Group, headquartered in Lyndhurst, Bergen County, New Jersey. The chain has 84 stores throughout the United States, operated variously as H Mart, H Mart Northwes ...

, Asian shopping plaza and supermarket, Ridgefield * Mitsuwa Marketplace, Japanese shopping plaza and supermarket, Edgewater *

American Dream Meadowlands American Dream is a large retail and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, and is the second largest mall in the United Sta ...

, retail and entertainment complex that opened on October 25, 2019.

Government

County government

Bergen has had a county executive form of government since voters chose the first executive in 1986, joining

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

Hudson Hudson may refer to: People * Hudson (given name) * Hudson (surname) * Hudson (footballer, born 1986), Hudson Fernando Tobias de Carvalho, Brazilian football right-back * Hudson (footballer, born 1988), Hudson Rodrigues dos Santos, Brazilian f ...

and Mercer counties as one of the 5 of 21 New Jersey counties with an elected executive. The executive oversees the county's business, while the seven-member Bergen County Board of Commissioners has a legislative and oversight role. The Commissioners are elected at-large to three-year terms in office on a staggered basis, with either two or three seats coming up for election each November in a three-year cycle. All members of the governing body are elected

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...

on a partisan basis as part of the November general elections.Board of County Commissioners
Bergen County, New Jersey. Accessed June 22, 2022. In 2018, Commissioners were paid $28,312 and the Commissioner chairman was paid an annual salary of $29,312. Day-to-day oversight of the operation of the county and its departments is delegated to the County Administrator, Thomas J. Duch. Duch took the position in June 2021, succeeding Julien X. Neals who was appointed as a federal judge. , the Bergen County Executive is James J. Tedesco III ( D, Paramus), whose four-year term of office ends December 31, 2026. Bergen County's Commissioners are (with terms for Chair and Vice Chair ending every December 31):''2022 County and Municipal Directory''
Bergen County, New Jersey, March 2022. Accessed January 30, 2023.Bergen County November 8, 2022 General Election Statement of Vote
Bergen County, New Jersey Clerk, updated November 21, 2022. Accessed January 1, 2023.Bergen County Statement of Vote November 2, 2021 Official results
Bergen County, New Jersey, updated November 17, 2021. Accessed January 1, 2022.Precinct Summary Results Report - Combined 2020 Bergen County General Election - November 3, 2020 Official Results
Bergen County, New Jersey, December 3, 2020. Accessed January 1, 2021.Bergen County November 5, 2019 General Election Statement of Vote
Bergen County, New Jersey Clerk, updated December 10, 2019. Accessed January 1, 2020. Pursuant to Article VII Section II of the

New Jersey State Constitution The Constitution of the State of New Jersey is the basic governing document of the State of New Jersey. In addition to three British Royal Charters issued for East Jersey, West Jersey and united New Jersey while they were still colonies, the sta ...

, each county in New Jersey is required to have three elected administrative officials known as "constitutional officers." These officers are the

County Clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keepin ...

and County Surrogate (both elected for five-year terms of office) and the

County Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is commonly ...

(elected for a three-year term). Bergen County's constitutional officials are: The Bergen County Prosecutor is Mark Musella. Musella succeeded acting prosecutor Dennis Calo, who was sworn into office in January 2018 after Gurbir Grewal of Glen Rock left office to become

New Jersey Attorney General The attorney general of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state and oversees the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, Department of Law and Public Safety. The office is appointed by the governor of New Jersey, confi ...

. Bergen County constitutes Vicinage 2 of the

New Jersey Superior Court The Superior Court is the state court in the U.S. state of New Jersey, with statewide trial and appellate jurisdiction. The New Jersey Constitution of 1947 establishes the power of the New Jersey courts: under Article Six of the State Consti ...

, which is seated at the Bergen County Justice Center in Hackensack; the Assignment Judge for Vicinage 2 is Bonnie J. Mizdol. In March 2023, Rafael Marte was selected to fill the seat expiring in December 2023 that had been held by Ramon Hache until he resigned from office earlier that month. In 2014, Freeholder James Tedesco challenged incumbent Kathleen Donovan on a platform that highlighted his own plan to merge the Bergen County Police Department with the sheriff's office, as well as Donovan's connections to recent scandals in the New Jersey state government, including the nationally reported "Bridgegate" scandal and alleged campaign finance abuse among her staff. Election results showed Tedesco with 54.2% of the vote (107,958), ahead of Donovan with 45.8% (91,299), in a race in which Tedesco's campaign spending nearly $1 million, outspending Donovan by a 2–1 margin; that sweep mirrored that by neighboring Passaic County Democrats, who also defeated the three Republicans elected there in 2010, in the election in 2013, although voters in Passaic County would elect their first Republican candidate since 2013 to the then-renamed Board of County Commissioners in 2021. No Republican has won county-wide office in Bergen County since 2013. In November 2010, Republican County Clerk Kathleen Donovan won the race for County Executive, defeating Dennis McNerney in his bid for a third term. Three incumbent Freeholders, Chairman James Carroll, Freeholder Elizabeth Calabrese, and Freeholder John Hogan were all defeated by Republican challengers Franklin Lakes Mayor Maura DeNicola, former River Edge Councilman John Felice, and Cliffside Park resident John Mitchell. Incumbent Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire also failed in his bid for a third term as Emerson Police Chief Mike Saudino defeated him. As a result of the 2010 elections, Republicans controlled Bergen County government for the first time in nearly a decade, with County Executive Kathleen Donovan and a 5–2 majority on the Board of Chosen Freeholders. Saudino would later face backlash over his remarks disparaging

Black Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

and

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

—including remarks about Gurbir Grewal, who was the Bergen County prosecutor at the time—and resigned his position in 2018.

Law enforcement

Negotiations to merge the Bergen County Police Department with the Sheriff's Office began in 2015, and were finally completed in 2021. The county Police Department was created in 1917. The Bergen County court system consists of a number of municipal courts handling

traffic court Traffic court is a specialized judicial process for handling traffic ticket cases. In the United States, people who are given a citation by a police officer can plead guilty and pay the indicated fine directly to the court house, by mail, or on ...

and other minor matters, plus the Bergen County Superior Court which handles more serious offenses. Law enforcement at the county level includes the Bergen County Sheriff's Office and the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. Bergen County's first female police chief took office in September 2015, as police chief of Bergenfield. In August 2015, a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

ing campaign was launched to highlight county government services, with its centerpiece being the official

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

of Bergen County, depicting a Dutch settler shaking hands with a Native American. The county's contemporaneous executive James Tedesco made an approximately $5,000 private donation to initiate the effort in the form of a nine-foot rendering of this seal woven into the carpet of the county executive's office.

Federal representatives

The county is part of two

Congressional Districts Congressional districts, also known as electoral districts in other nations, are divisions of a larger administrative region that represent the population of a region in the larger congressional body. Countries with congressional districts includ ...

: the 5th District covering the northern portion of the county and the 9th most of the south.

State representatives

The 70 municipalities of Bergen County are represented by six separate state legislative districts.

Politics

The county leans Democratic and is characterized by a divide between mostly Republican communities in the north and northwest of the county, and mostly Democratic communities in its center and southeast. That dichotomy largely remained in place for quite a while, until

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

. Mirroring the national "suburban revolt" against President Donald Trump, Democratic candidate

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

made significant gains in the northern portion of the county, winning in many affluent and typically Republican voting communities, such as River Vale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Ramsey, Allendale, Hillsdale, and Montvale, winning in Upper Saddle River by a mere 2 vote margin. He also won somewhat less affluent suburban towns such as Mahwah, Waldwick, and Midland Park, along with surpassing the margins of victory obtained by Hillary Clinton in municipalities like Fair Lawn, Glen Rock, Ridgewood, and wealthier southern Bergen towns like Rutherford (although the results in most of the rest of southern Bergen largely stayed the same compared to 2016 - either Biden or Trump barely won the more blue-collar towns of Carlstadt (Trump, by 57 votes)/East Rutherford (Biden, 485)/Lyndhurst (Trump, 68)/Moonachie (Biden, 48)/North Arlington (Trump, just 5)/South Hackensack (Biden, 88), while Trump's margins of defeat shrank in Garfield/Lodi, and his margin of victory grew in Wallington, all compared to 2016). In fact, the 2020 presidential election saw

win the county by the largest margin for a Democrat since

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

, and marked the first time the county voted to the left of the state since 1904. In 2024, however, Bergen mirrored the rest of the state by shifting heavily to the right, cutting the margin down to less than 4% - the best Republican result since the county was won outright by Republicans in 1992. Bergen County returned to voting to the right of the state in this election, albeit by a very small margin. As of October 1, 2021, there were a total of 688,213 registered voters in Bergen County, of whom 265,251 (38.5%) were registered as Democrats, 150,812 (21.9%) were registered as Republicans, and 265,186 (38.5%) were registered as unaffiliated. There were 6,965 voters (1.0%) registered to other parties. Among the county's 2010 Census population, 61.4% were registered to vote, including 77.4% of those ages 18 and over.Statewide Voter Registration Summary
,

Division of Elections, as of October 31, 2014. Accessed May 11, 2015.

Municipalities

In the last decades of the 19th century, Bergen County, to a far greater extent than any other county in the state, began dividing its townships up into incorporated

; this was chiefly due to the "

" phenomenon, triggered by a number of loopholes in state laws that allowed boroughs to levy lower taxes and send more members to the county's board of freeholders. There was a 10-year period in which many of Bergen County's townships disappeared into the patchwork of boroughs that exist today, before the state laws governing municipal incorporation were changed. The county has 70 municipalities, the highest number of any county in the state, with 56 of them being boroughs. The 70 municipalities in Bergen County (with 2010 Census data for population, housing units and area) are:

Historical municipalities

Over the history of the county, there have been various municipality secessions, annexations and renamings. The following is a partial list of former municipalities, ordered by year of incorporation.

Economy

The

Bureau of Economic Analysis The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the United States Department of Commerce is a U.S. government agency that provides official macroeconomic and industry statistics, most notably reports about the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United ...

calculated that the county's

gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...

was $81.5 billion in 2022, which was ranked first in the state and was a 1.2% increase from the prior year.

Largest employers

According to the Bergen County Economic Development Corporation, the largest employers in Bergen County as of November 2012, as ranked with at least 1,000 employees in the county, were as follows: * Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, 8,000 * Valley Health System, Ridgewood, 4,660 * Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc., Elmwood Park, 2,900 * Medco Health Solutions, Franklin Lakes, 2,800 (no longer an independent company) * County of Bergen, Hackensack, 2,390 *

Quest Diagnostics Quest Diagnostics Incorporated is an American clinical laboratory. A Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 company, Quest operates in the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Brazil. Quest also maintains collaborative agreements with various hospitals ...

, Teterboro/Lyndhurst, 2,200 *

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

, Montvale, 2,100 *

, Englewood, 2,002 * Englewood Hospital Home Health Care Services, Englewood, 1,985 * Unilever Bestfoods, Englewood Cliffs, 1,900 * Stryker Corporation, Allendale/Mahwah, 1,812 * Bergen Regional Medical Center, Paramus, 1,746 * Holy Name Medical Center, Teaneck, 1,695 * Becton Dickinson, Franklin Lakes, 1,500 * Crestron Electronics, Rockleigh/Cresskill, 1,500 * BMW of North America, Woodcliff Lake, 1,000 Ridgewood NJ Downtown

In January 2015, Mercedes-Benz USA announced that it would be moving its headquarters from the borough of Montvale in Bergen County to the Atlanta, Georgia, area as of July. The company had been based in northern New Jersey since 1972 and has had 1,000 employees on a campus in Montvale. Despite incentive offers from the State of New Jersey to remain in Bergen County, Mercedes-Benz cited proximity to its Alabama manufacturing facility and a growing customer base in the southeastern United States, in addition to as much as $50 million in tax incentives from Georgia governmental agencies, in explaining its decision to move. However, Mercedes-Benz USA also stated its intent to maintain its Northeast regional headquarters in Montvale and to build a "state-of-the-art" assemblage training center in the borough as well.

Building permits

In 2011, Bergen County issued 1,903 new building permits for residential construction, the largest number in New Jersey.

Retail

The retail industry, anchored in Paramus, is a mainstay of the Bergen County economy, with a combined payroll of $1.7 billion as of 2012. The largest retail entities are described below in further detail:

Garden State Plaza

The Garden State Plaza megamall is located in Paramus. The mall is owned and managed by Paris-based real estate management company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, and located at the intersection of New Jersey Route 4, Route 4 and New Jersey Route 17, Route 17 near the

, about west of

.Queally, James; Sherman, Ted; Grant, Jason (November 5, 2013)
"Garden State Plaza shooting suspect killed self in mall, authorities say"
NJ.com. Opened in 1957 as the first suburban shopping mall in New Jersey,
''

'', March 20, 1957. p. 49. Accessed February 27, 2021. "The Garden State Plaza Shopping Center, being built in Paramus, N.J., will open on May 1, it was announced yesterday. The center will be the largest in the state." it contains of leasable space,
, Westfield Group. Accessed June 6, 2008 and housing over 300 stores, it is the second-largest mall in New Jersey, the third-largest mall in the New York metropolitan area, and one of the highest-revenue producing malls in the United States.

American Dream Meadowlands

American Dream Meadowlands, American Dream, located south of Garden State Plaza, is another large retail and entertainment complex, situated in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in

. The first and second of four opening stages occurred on October 25, 2019, and on December 5, 2019. The remaining opening stages occurred on October 1, 2020, and thereafter. As of January 2023, the megamall hosts over 200 stores and other commercial establishments.

Blue laws

Bergen County enforces one of the last remaining U.S.

that cover most retail sales, other than food and gasoline (among other limited items). The law enforced in the county is actually a state law that each county could reject by voter referendum, with 20 of the state's 21 counties having voted to reject the legal option to enforce the law. Thus one of the largest and most popular commercial shopping cores of the New York metropolitan area is almost completely closed on Sunday. Grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations, hotels, restaurants, pharmacies, entertainment venues, and any other exempted establishments that do not sell clothing, shoes, furniture, electronics, hardware, and home appliances are among the businesses allowed to operate. Furthermore, Bergen County has significant populations of Jewish (2000 estimate of 83,700) and

(2000 estimate of 6,473) residents whose observant members would not be celebrating the Sunday Sabbath with most of their Christians, Christian neighbors. The substantial Orthodox Jewish minority is placed in the position of being unable to shop either on Sunday (due to the blue laws) or on Saturday (due to religious observance). However, repeated attempts by voters to repeal the law have failed. A large part of the reason for maintaining the laws has been a desire by many Bergen County residents for relative tranquility and less traffic on one day of the week.Anthony DePalma (author), DePalma, Anthony
"In New Jersey — Paramus Blue Laws Crimp Office Leasing"
''

'', November 4, 1984. Accessed July 25, 2018. "Officials tried to regulate the effects of the tremendous growth on the borough by insisting that at least one day a week, Paramus be allowed to enjoy some of its former peace and quiet. In 1957, a law was passed banning all ''worldly employment'' on Sundays, forcing all the new stores and malls built in the celery fields to close for the day." This desire for relative peace is most apparent in Paramus, where most of the county's largest

s are located, along the intersecting highways of New Jersey Route 4, Route 4 and New Jersey Route 17, Route 17, which are jam-packed on many Saturdays. Paramus has enacted blue laws of its own that are even more restrictive than those enforced by Bergen County, banning all forms of "worldly employment" on Sundays, including white collar workers in office buildings. Despite these strict blue laws, Paramus (07652) has become the top retail ZIP Code in the United States, with the municipality generating over US$6 billion in annual retail sales. Local blue laws in Paramus were first proposed in 1957, while the Bergen Mall (since renamed as

) and Garden State Plaza were under construction. The legislation was motivated by fears that the two new malls would aggravate the already severe highway congestion caused by local retail businesses along the borough's highways seven days a week and to preserve one day on which the roads were less congested. In November 2012, Governor Chris Christie issued an executive order to temporarily suspend the blue law due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy. The blue law was suspended on November 11 but was back in effect one week later.

Minimum wage

In November 2017, County Executive James Tedesco raised the minimum wage for full-time Bergen County workers to $15 per hour gradually increasing over a 6-year period, an increase from the prevailing state minimum wage at the time of $8.44 hourly. The raise constituted the first such hike in the minimum wage paid to employees of any New Jersey county.

Parks and recreation

State parks

* Ramapo Mountain State Forest, Mahwah * Palisades Interstate Park, Fort Lee, Englewood Cliffs, Tenafly, Alpine

State-owned historical sites

* New Bridge Landing, River Edge, Teaneck and New Milford * The Hermitage (New Jersey), The Hermitage, Ho-Ho-Kus * Steuben House, River Edge (at New Bridge Landing)

County parks

* Bergen Equestrian Center, Leonia * Belmont Hill County Park, Garfield * Campgaw Mountain Reservation, Mahwah, offers activities including skiing, snowboarding and hiking in an area covering * Dahnert's Lake County Park, Garfield * Darlington County Park, Mahwah * McFaul Environmental Center, Wyckoff * Ramapo Valley County Reservation, Mahwah * Overpeck County Park, Leonia, Palisades Park, Ridgefield Park * Riverside County Park, Lyndhurst, North Arlington * Pascack Brook County Park, Westwood * Saddle Ridge Riding Area, Franklin Lakes * Saddle River County Park, Paramus, Glen Rock, Rochelle Park, Saddle Brook, Ridgewood * Samuel Nelkin County Park, Wallington * Van Saun County Park, Paramus, including the Bergen County Zoological park, Zoological Park, the county's only zoo. The zoo was slated for an expansion as of 2016 which would nearly double its size from 12 to 23 acres and significantly diversify its population of animal species. * Wood Dale County Park, Woodcliff Lake

County-owned historical sites

* Baylor Massacre site, River Vale – location of a surprise attack on September 27, 1778, against the 3rd Regiment of Continental Light Dragoons under the command of George Baylor, Colonel George Baylor during the American Revolutionary War. * Camp Merritt (New Jersey), Camp Merritt, Cresskill * Campbell-Christie House, River Edge – a historic Dutch sandstone home that was moved from New Milford to preserve the home from destruction. * Easton Tower, Paramus * Garretson Farm, Fair Lawn – a stone home dating to the 1720s that is one of the county's oldest surviving structures. * Gethsemane Cemetery, Little Ferry * Washington Spring Garden, located in Van Saun Park, Paramus * Wortendyke Barn, Park RidgeWortendyke Barn
, Bergen County. Accessed December 29, 2016. "Resting like a jewel is suburban New Jersey is the Wortendyke Barn Museum, a National Register landmark that is all that remains of the original 460-acre Wortendyke Farm."

References

Sources

* Bogert, Frederick W. ''Bergen County, New Jersey, History and Heritage, Volume II, The Colonial Days, 1630–1775'', Bergen County, N.J., The Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders, 1983. * Cornelius Burnham Harvey (ed.)
''Genealogical History of Hudson and Bergen counties, New Jersey.''
New York: New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Co., 1900. * W. Woodford Clayton with William Nelson
''History of Bergen and Passaic Counties, New Jersey, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men.''
Philadelphia: Everts and Peck, 1882. * James M. Van Valen
''History of Bergen County, New Jersey.''
New York: New Jersey Publishing and Engraving Co., 1900. * Westervelt, Frances A. ''History of Bergen County, New Jersey, 1630–1923.'' New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1923.

External links

Official website

Bergen County Historical Society
{{Authority control Bergen County, New Jersey, 1683 establishments in New Jersey Counties in the New York metropolitan area North Jersey Populated places established in 1683