Bergen County, New Jersey

Bergen County is a county in New Jersey, United States, directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan and roughly 12 miles northwest of Midtown at its closest point. It had a population of 955,732 at the 2020 census, an estimated 977,026 by 2025, and covers 246.45 square miles (638.1 km2) centred near 40°58′N 74°04′W.

Hackensack is the county seat and one of the county’s three cities; its postal code is 07601. The county holds 3 cities, 56 boroughs, 9 townships and 2 villages across 70 municipalities — more local governments than any other county in New Jersey — and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 34003.

Towns & Villages in Bergen County

All 70 municipalities are incorporated; New Jersey has no unincorporated places or separate civil townships layered underneath them, so a Bergen “township” is a full municipality with its own government, not a county subdivision. The legend below covers every place type found in the county: 56 boroughs, 9 townships, 3 cities (one of them, Hackensack, doubling as the county seat) and 2 villages.

Three name pairs cause confusion. Saddle River and Upper Saddle River are separate boroughs that share ZIP 07458, served by the Saddle River post office — they are not the same place, and Upper Saddle River lies northeast of Saddle River. Ridgefield, Ridgefield Park and Park Ridge are three distinct boroughs; Ridgefield Park is a village near the Hackensack River, Ridgefield sits along the Palisades, and Park Ridge is 12 miles north near the New York line. Bergen’s Washington Township, at the county’s southern tip near Saddle Brook, is one of eight municipalities named Washington Township in New Jersey — the Postal Service still addresses it as “Township of Washington” to avoid mail routing to the wrong county.

ZIP Codes

• 07601 — Hackensack
• 07666 — Teaneck
• 07024 — Fort Lee
• 07410 — Fair Lawn
• 07026 — Garfield
• 07631 — Englewood
• 07621 — Bergenfield
• 07652 — Paramus
• 07644 — Lodi
• 07450 — Ridgewood
• 07010 — Cliffside Park
• 07430 — Mahwah
• 07071 — Lyndhurst
• 07407 — Elmwood Park
• 07650 — Palisades Park
• 07070 — Rutherford
• 07628 — Dumont
• 07646 — New Milford
• 07481 — Wyckoff
• 07031 — North Arlington
• 07670 — Tenafly
• 07022 — Fairview
• 07446 — Ramsey
• 07020 — Edgewater
• 07663 — Saddle Brook
• 07660 — Ridgefield Park
• 07436 — Oakland
• 07452 — Glen Rock
• 07604 — Hasbrouck Heights
• 07661 — River Edge
• 07057 — Wallington
• 07657 — Ridgefield
• 07675 — Westwood (also serves Old Tappan and River Vale)
• 07417 — Franklin Lakes
• 07643 — Little Ferry
• 07073 — East Rutherford
• 07075 — Wood-Ridge
• 07463 — Waldwick
• 07642 — Hillsdale
• 07607 — Maywood
• 07656 — Park Ridge
• 07605 — Leonia
• 07603 — Bogota
• 07676 — Washington Township
• 07626 — Cresskill
• 07645 — Montvale
• 07624 — Closter
• 07649 — Oradell
• 07630 — Emerson
• 07432 — Midland Park
• 07401 — Allendale
• 07072 — Carlstadt
• 07677 — Woodcliff Lake
• 07662 — Rochelle Park
• 07648 — Norwood
• 07632 — Englewood Cliffs
• 07647 — Northvale (also serves Rockleigh)
• 07640 — Harrington Park
• 07627 — Demarest
• 07423 — Ho-Ho-Kus
• 07458 — Saddle River (also serves Upper Saddle River)
• 07641 — Haworth
• 07074 — Moonachie
• 07606 — South Hackensack
• 07620 — Alpine
• 07608 — Teterboro

Upper Saddle River, Old Tappan, River Vale and Rockleigh have no ZIP of their own; each is small enough that the Postal Service routes its mail through a neighboring town’s post office instead of opening a dedicated one.

Geography

Bergen County sits on the Newark Basin lowland in its southern half and rises into the Ramapo Mountains — a spur of the Appalachians — in the north around Mahwah and Ramsey. The Hudson River forms the county’s eastern edge, backed by the Palisades, a wall of diabase cliffs that runs from Fort Lee north to the New York line and gives the Palisades Interstate Parkway its name. Bald Mountain in Mahwah is the highest point at 1,152 feet; the Hudson’s tideline is sea level, the county’s lowest. The Hackensack River bisects the county north to south through the Hackensack Meadowlands, a tidal wetland that widens near Teterboro and Carlstadt, while the Saddle River and the Ramapo River drain the northern townships. Land covers 232.79 square miles of the county’s 246.45-square-mile total, with the balance in the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers and the Meadowlands marshes.

Bergen borders Rockland County, New York, to the north; Westchester County and, across the Hudson, New York County (Manhattan) and Bronx County, New York, to the east; Hudson County and Essex County, New Jersey, to the south; and Passaic County, New Jersey, to the west.

Demographics

Bergen County had a population of 955,732 at the 2020 census, the largest of any county in New Jersey, and an estimated 977,026 residents by 2025. Hackensack (46,030) and Teaneck (41,246) are the two largest municipalities, followed closely by Fort Lee (40,191). Median household income was $109,497 (2017–2021 American Community Survey five-year estimate), well above the $99,781 New Jersey figure from the 2023 one-year estimate. Land-area population density works out to roughly 4,106 residents per square mile, among the densest counties in the state outside the immediate New York City core.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, with about 71,459 workers, followed by professional, scientific and technical services (60,405) and educational services (53,507). Hackensack University Medical Center, a 950-bed teaching hospital in Hackensack, is the county’s single largest employer; Valley Health System (Ridgewood/Paramus) and Englewood Health (Englewood) are the other major hospital systems. Paramus is New Jersey’s retail hub, home to Westfield Garden State Plaza and neighboring malls, generating an estimated $6 billion a year in retail sales along Route 17 and Route 4. Teterboro Airport, a general-aviation field, anchors a corporate-aviation and logistics cluster along the Meadowlands. Bergen Community College in Paramus, the state’s largest community college, enrolls more than 13,000 degree students. The county’s biggest annual event is the Bergen County Fair, held each June at Overpeck County Park in Leonia and Ridgefield Park.

History

Dutch settlers from New Amsterdam established the village of Bergen on the west bank of the Hudson in 1660, naming it for Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands; it was the first permanent European settlement in present-day New Jersey. Bergen County was organized in 1683 as one of New Jersey’s original four counties, then a much larger territory that later gave up land to form Hudson, Passaic and part of Rockland County, New York. The seat of government moved from Bergen to Hackensack in 1709. Fort Lee, on the Palisades above the Hudson, was the site of George Washington’s 1776 retreat across New Jersey after the fall of Fort Washington. A change in state law in 1894 let residents split off new municipalities as boroughs with minimal process; 26 boroughs incorporated in Bergen County that year alone, a wave historians call “boroughitis,” and it produced most of the small, single-town boroughs that still define the county’s map today.

Getting There

Interstate 80 crosses the county’s south end through Saddle Brook and Elmwood Park, meeting the Garden State Parkway there. Interstate 95, as the New Jersey Turnpike’s Western Spur, clips the southeast corner near Ridgefield and Fort Lee before crossing the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan. Interstate 287 runs 10.4 miles through the county’s northwest, linking Mahwah and Oakland to the wider New York City beltway. Route 4, Route 17 and Route 46 carry most east–west local traffic.

• Hackensack — 0 miles (county seat)
• Manhattan (Midtown) — 10 miles southeast, via the George Washington Bridge
• Paterson — 8 miles west
• Newark — 15 miles south

Teterboro Airport, in the county’s southeast, handles general and corporate aviation only. The nearest commercial airport is Newark Liberty International, about 15 miles south. The nearest Amtrak station is Newark Penn Station, which also connects to NJ Transit, PATH and light rail service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Bergen County?
It is in northeastern New Jersey, United States, directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, bordering New York to the north and east.

What is the population of Bergen County?
955,732 at the 2020 census, an estimated 977,026 by 2025 — the highest of any county in New Jersey.

How big is Bergen County?
246.45 square miles (638.1 km2), of which 232.79 square miles is land.

What is the county seat of Bergen County?
Hackensack, population 46,030, which is also the county’s largest municipality.

How many towns and villages are in Bergen County?
70 municipalities: 56 boroughs, 9 townships, 3 cities and 2 villages — more local governments than any other New Jersey county.

What ZIP codes are in Bergen County?
66 primary ZIP codes covering the 70 municipalities, from 07001-range codes near the Meadowlands to 07600s around Hackensack and 07400s in the northern boroughs; several small boroughs share a ZIP with a larger neighbor.

Why does Bergen County have so many small boroughs?
A 1894 New Jersey law made it easy to split off new boroughs; 26 formed in Bergen County that year alone, and the pattern of small, single-town governments has persisted ever since.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in New Jersey.