27 Facts About Bergen County

Bergen County is the most populous county in the U S state of New Jersey.

Bergen County is divided into 70 municipalities but has no large cities.

Origin of the name of Bergen County is a matter of debate.

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, as named by the Dutch colonists.

In 1683, Bergen was officially recognized as an independent county by the Provincial Assembly.

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Bergen County was the location of several battles and troop movements during the American Revolutionary War.

Bergen County saw skirmishes throughout the war as armies from both sides maneuvered across the countryside.

Bergen County is located at the northeastern corner of the state of New Jersey and is bordered by Rockland County, New York to the north; by Manhattan and the Bronx in New York City, as well as by Westchester County, New York, across the Hudson River to the east; and within New Jersey, by Hudson County as well as a small border with Essex County to the south, and by Passaic County to the west.

In part due to Bergen's coastal location, its lower elevation, and the partial shielding of the county from colder air by the three ridges of the Watchung Mountains as well as by the higher Appalachians, the climate of Bergen County is milder than in New Jersey counties further inland such as Sussex County.

Bergen County is home to the largest Jewish population in New Jersey.

Teaneck, Fair Lawn, Englewood, and Bergenfield in particular have become havens for Bergen County's growing Orthodox Jewish communities, with a rising number of synagogues as well as supermarkets and restaurants offering kosher foods.

One of the fastest-growing immigrant groups in Bergen County is the Korean American community, which is concentrated along the Hudson River – especially in the area near the George Washington Bridge – and represented more than half of the state's entire Korean population as of 2000.

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, Englewood Cliffs, Norwood, Edgewater, Cresskill, and Demarest, closely followed by Old Tappan.

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 judgeship in nearby Hackensack in January 2011.

Glen Rock resident Gurbir Grewal, a member of Bergen County's growing Indian American Sikh community, was sworn into the position of county prosecutor in 2016, and an architecturally notable Sikh gurudwara resides in Glen Rock, while a similarly prominent Hindu mandir has been built in Mahwah.

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 Philippine-American Community of Bergen County organization is based in Paramus, while other Filipino organizations are based in Fair Lawn and Bergenfield.

Relatively recent community of Iranian Americans has emerged in Bergen County, including those in professional occupations scattered throughout the county.

Bergen County has a highly developed road network, including the northern termini of the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, the eastern terminus of Interstate 80, and a portion of Interstate 287.

Bergen County has some 45 public high schools 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 magazine, including Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale, Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, and Glen Rock High School in Glen Rock .

The executive oversees the county's business, while the seven-member Board of Bergen County Commissioners has a legislative and oversight role.

Bergen County is part of three Congressional Districts: the 5th District covering the northern portion of the county and the 9th most of the south, with Fairview being the lone municipality in the 8th District.

Bergen County is characterized by a divide between Republican communities in the north and northwest of the county and Democratic communities in its center and southeast.

Bergen County won somewhat less affluent suburban towns such as Mahwah, Waldwick, and Midland Park.

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Furthermore, Bergen County has significant populations of Jewish and Muslim residents whose observant members would not be celebrating the Sunday Sabbath with most of their Christian neighbors.

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.