Kearny is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, home to about 40,614 people across 8.8 square miles. Its ZIP code is 07032.
Homes sold for a median of $364 per square foot in the three months ending August 2026, a seller’s market.
Each card is that ZIP code’s whole market, including any part outside Kearny. Seller’s market: under 4 months of supply; buyer’s market: over 6. Methodology
Kearny occupies Lenape land that became part of New Barbadoes Neck, a 30,000-acre Crown grant made to Major William Sandford in 1668. In 1710 the upper tract passed to Captain Arent Schuyler, whose copper mine became the site of the first steam engine brought to America, installed to pump water from the shaft; engine and mine burned in 1772. The road now called the Belleville Turnpike was first laid with cedar logs in 1759, and during the Revolution the British general Henry Clinton used the Schuyler mansion as a headquarters in September 1777. The house stood until 1924.
In the mid-1800s the area was the northern part of the Township of Harrison. A campaign for independence led the legislature to create the Township of Kearny in March 1867, named for Major General Philip Kearny, and it became a town in 1899. Town Hall, built of Indiana limestone near the center of town in 1909, is still in use.
Industry arrived along the Passaic River and the rail lines in the late 19th century: Clark Thread built mills from 1875, a linen thread plant opened in 1883, and the Nairn Linoleum Company was founded in 1887. Later employers included Western Electric and, on Kearny Point, the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, a major shipyard in both world wars that employed as many as 30,000 people a day at its peak. The shipyard site has since been turned into a business campus known as Kearny Point.
Nearly all of Kearny's homes are in the Uplands, a ridge of about 2.7 square miles between Harrison to the south and North Arlington to the north, bounded on the west by the Passaic River. The Uplands is laid out as a walkable street grid of low-rise buildings, mostly single-family houses and two-family duplexes on lots of roughly 50 by 100 feet with modest yards, with pockets of apartment buildings. The Arlington section in the north is set apart by the deep railroad cut of the former Montclair-Boonton line.
Kearny Avenue is the main street and runs nearly the length of town, lined with older mixed-use buildings that have shops and restaurants at street level and apartments above; Midland Avenue forms a second commercial core, and Passaic Avenue, Schuyler Avenue and the Belleville Turnpike carry more businesses. Kearny Riverbank Park runs along Passaic Avenue beside the river, and small playgrounds are scattered through the residential blocks.
The rest of Kearny is not residential. To the east, the Kearny Meadows are a broad district of marsh, closed landfills, rail yards, warehouses and highways under state Meadowlands zoning, and South Kearny, the low peninsula where the Passaic and Hackensack rivers meet Newark Bay, is given over to warehouses, trucking and industry. Parts of the town lie in mapped flood zones, including edges of the Uplands along the Passaic. The Kearny Board of Education runs the town's public schools.
Kearny has no passenger rail station of its own. As of the town's 2021 draft master plan, NJ Transit bus routes 30, 40 and 76 serve the Uplands, running to Newark Penn Station, the Meadowlands and Hackensack, and route 1 links South Kearny with Newark Penn Station. NJ Transit also runs some direct buses from Kearny Avenue to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, and riders can also connect to trains in Newark.
The Harrison PATH station in neighboring Harrison, at Frank E. Rodgers Boulevard and Guyon Drive, was rebuilt with longer platforms and elevators, reopening in stages in 2018 and 2019; PATH trains run from there to Newark Penn Station and east through Jersey City toward Lower Manhattan.
By car, Interstate 280 and the New Jersey Turnpike cross the Kearny Meadows and meet at Turnpike interchange 15W, while the Pulaski Skyway and Truck Routes 1 and 9 cross South Kearny and connect at interchange 15E. The Belleville Turnpike (Route 7) runs along the northern edge, and Passaic, Schuyler and Harrison avenues are the main local arteries. Newark Liberty International Airport is about five miles away. The draft master plan noted that the town had no bike lanes.
Kearny Riverbank Park stretches along Passaic Avenue between Bergen Avenue and the Belleville Turnpike and is the town's main riverfront green space. It includes named sections such as Keating Cove, Wallace Glen and Veterans Memorial Park, along with the Frank A. Vincent Marina boat launch, an archery range, a roller hockey rink, a soccer facility and the Kearny Dog Park. Gunnell Oval on Schuyler Avenue has ball fields, tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, a playground and a skate park, and Veteran's Field on Belgrove Drive hosts the town's Fourth of July fireworks. The Hartung Recreation Center on Passaic Avenue holds classes.
The Kearny Meadows hold large protected wetlands, among them the Kearny Freshwater Marsh and the Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area. The Al Stewart Ecology Park sits on Passaic Avenue near South Midland Avenue.
The Kearny Public Library's main building at 318 Kearny Avenue also houses the Kearny Museum, with a collection on General Philip Kearny and local history, open limited hours and closed in summer; a branch library is at 759 Kearny Avenue. Town traditions include a Halloween parade up Kearny Avenue to Town Hall and a December holiday celebration at Town Hall. At Kearny Point, the former shipyard buildings have been converted to workspaces, and as of 2018 later phases were planned to add a public waterfront promenade and a restored marina.
Researched and drafted from the public sources below. Updated October 2026. Spot something wrong or out of date? Tell us.
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Get matched| Nearest major airport | Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)5 miles away |
|---|---|
| Nearest city of 250,000+ | Newark, NJ3 miles away |
| Nearest city of 1 million+ | New York, NY13 miles away |
Straight-line distances from the center of Kearny; driving is longer.
Source: Airports from OurAirports (scheduled passenger service); city centers and populations from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Source: Members of Congress from the congress-legislators project; districts from the Census Bureau’s relationship files; governor and mayor from Wikidata.
Kearny had 41,999 residents in the 2020 census, up 4% since 2000.
It’s the 57th largest of 565 towns in New Jersey by population.
Hudson County grew from 386,048 residents in 1900 to 724,854 in 2020.
Hudson County, 1900–2020
Source: U.S. Census Bureau decennial censuses (counties 1900–1990 from the Bureau’s historical county file).
Average highs peak around 87°F in summer, and winter lows average 25°F. About 50.7 inches of rain and melted snow fall in a typical year, with about 28 inches of snow.
Source: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, Harrison, NJ weather station (about a mile away).
253,652 jobs at 14,119 businesses in Hudson County. The biggest industries by employees:
Source: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 (private employers; jobs counted where people work).
166 doctors and other health care providers list an office in Kearny.
Nearest hospitals
Providers with an office here
| Primary care doctors | 21 |
|---|---|
| Specialist doctors | 20 |
| Dentists | 32 |
| Nurse practitioners and physician assistants | 26 |
| Mental health providers | 34 |
| Physical and occupational therapists | 17 |
| Optometrists | 10 |
| Chiropractors | 6 |
| Pharmacies | 13 |
Source: Hospitals from CMS Hospital General Information (ratings are CMS overall star ratings); straight-line distances; providers from the CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), by practice address and primary specialty.
Parks (35 nearby)
Grocery stores (36 nearby)
Pharmacies (15 nearby)
Libraries (8 nearby)
Museums (2 nearby)
Theaters and performance venues (4 nearby)
Counts are within about 2 miles of the center of town.
Source: Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright), as mapped by volunteers; it can miss places or include closed ones.
Notable people born here
Source: Wikidata (wikidata.org), the free knowledge base; people are listed by place of birth.
Public schools here are run by Kearny, Hudson Arts and Science Charter School. Check each district’s attendance zones for a specific address.
| School | Grades | Students | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin Elementary SchoolKearny | Pre-K–6 | 950 | Public | 0.6 mi |
| Garfield Elementary SchoolKearny | Pre-K–6 | 428 | Public | 0.3 mi |
| Roosevelt Elementary SchoolKearny | Pre-K–6 | 428 | Public | 0.9 mi |
| Schuyler Elementary SchoolKearny | Pre-K–6 | 437 | Public | 0.9 mi |
| Washington Elementary SchoolKearny | Pre-K–6 | 557 | Public | 0.9 mi |
| Hudson Arts and Science Charter SchoolKearny | K–8 | 848 | Charter | 0.4 mi |
| Lincoln Middle SchoolKearny | 7–8 | 763 | Public | 0.4 mi |
| Kearny High SchoolKearny | 9–12 | 1,825 | Public | 0.2 mi |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES: Common Core of Data (2024-2025) for public schools. Listed by address; we don’t rate schools.
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Town boundaries don’t always match ZIP codes: a ZIP code can cross into neighboring towns, and a town can share a ZIP code with its neighbors. Facts describe the town itself; market figures describe whole ZIP codes.