Bergen County

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, in modern-day Hudson County, New Jersey. Several sources also attribute the name to Bergen, Norway, while others attribute it to Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands. Some sources say that the name is derived from one of the earliest settlers of New Amsterdam (now New York City), Hans Hansen Bergen, a native of Norway, who arrived in New Netherland 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, tracing their Lenape ancestry to speakers of the Munsee language, 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 New Netherland, their colonial province of the Dutch Republic. The Dutch claimed it after Henry Hudson (sailing for the Dutch East India Company) explored Newark Bay and anchored his ship at Weehawken Cove in 1609. From an early date, the Dutch began to import African slaves 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 (1643–1645) and the Peach War (1655). European settlers returned to the western shores of the Hudson River in the 1660 formation of Bergen Township (now part of Jersey City, New Jersey), which would become one of the earliest permanent European settlements in present-day New Jersey.

During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, on August 27, 1664, New Amsterdam's governor Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to the English Navy. The English organized the Province of New Jersey in 1665, later splitting the territory into East Jersey and West Jersey 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.

Geography

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.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of the 2020 Census, the county had a total area of 246.45 square miles (638.3 km2), of which 232.79 square miles (602.9 km2) was land (94.5%) and 13.66 square miles (35.4 km2) was water (5.5%).

Bergen County's highest elevation is Bald Mountain near the New York state line in Mahwah, at 1,164 feet (355 m) above sea level. The county's lowest point is sea level, along the Hudson River, which in this region is a tidal estuary.

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 Hackensack River valley or the Pascack Valley. In the northwestern portion of the county, Bergen County becomes hilly again and shares the Ramapo Mountains with Rockland County, New York.

The damming of the Hackensack River and a tributary, the Pascack Brook, produced three reservoirs 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 North Jersey, mostly in Bergen and Hudson counties. The Hackensack River drains the eastern portion of the county through the New Jersey Meadowlands, a wetlands 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, which forms a section of the southwestern border of the county.

Climate

Southeastern Bergen County lies at the edge of the humid subtropical climate zone (Cfa) according to the Köppen climate classification because its coldest month (January) averages above 26.6 °F (−3.0 °C). 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 has a moderately sunny climate, averaging between 2,400 and 2,800 hours of sunshine annually.

In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Hackensack have ranged from a low of 19 °F (−7 °C) in January to a high of 86 °F (30 °C) in July, although a record low of −15 °F (−26 °C) was recorded in February 1934 and a record high of 106 °F (41 °C) was recorded in July 1936. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 3.21 inches (82 mm) in February to 4.60 inches (117 mm) in July.

Average monthly temperatures in Mahwah (measured at the interchange of Route 17 and MacArthur Boulevard) range from 28.5 °F (−1.9 °C) in January to 73.8 °F (23.2 °C) in July. Using the 32 °F (0 °C) January isotherm, most of Bergen has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa) except for higher areas in the Ramapo Mountains, which are Dfb, and along the Hudson River from Fort Lee and southward, where Cfa exists.

Demographics

The county hosts one of the largest population of Circassian Americans.

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, the county had 955,732 people, 350,664 households, and 242,272 families. The population density was 3,900 inhabitants per square mile (1,505.8/km2). There were 367,383 housing units at an average density of 1,576 per square mile (608.5/km2). Among the housing units, 4.6% were vacant, 63.1% of occupied units were owner-occupied, and 36.9% were renter-occupied, with a homeowner vacancy rate of 1.2% and a rental vacancy rate of 4.5%. About 99.9% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.1% lived in rural areas.

The county racial makeup was 56.9% White, 5.7% Black or African American, 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 16.6% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 10.1% from some other race, and 10.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 21.4% of the population.

There were 350,664 households, of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.1% were married couples living together, 25.9% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present, 13.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 29.5% were non-families. About 24.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.1% 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.

The median age was 42.0 years. About 21.0% 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 17.7% was age 65 or older. For every 100 females there were 93.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.6 males age 18 and over.

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

The most reported ancestries were Italian (15.8%), Irish (12.2%), German (8.7%), Korean (6.9%), Polish (5.3%), and English (4.9%).

2010 census

The 2010 United States census counted 905,116 people, 335,730 households, and 238,704 families in the county. The population density 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) White, 5.80% (52,473) Black or African American, 0.23% (2,061) Native American, 14.51% (131,329) Asian, 0.03% (229) Pacific Islander, 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 Manhattan across the George Washington Bridge, Bergen County has evolved a globally 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, Poland, and India are the three most common nations of birth for foreign-born Bergen County residents.

Italian Americans 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 American Community Survey.

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, 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.

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%), Garfield (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 Hudson County to the south. Since 2000, an increasing number of immigrants from other countries (including Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Chile) as well as from the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico 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, 7% from South America, 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 ancestry in the county, 12.4%. 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 count to an estimated 165,442 as of 2013.

Transportation

As of May 2010, the county had a total of 2,988.59 miles (4,809.67 km) of roadways, of which 2,402.78 miles (3,866.90 km) are maintained by the municipality, 438.97 miles (706.45 km) by Bergen County, 106.69 miles (171.70 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, 11.03 miles (17.75 km) by the Palisades Interstate Parkway Commission, 27.94 miles (44.97 km) by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and 1.18 miles (1.90 km) by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Bergen County has a highly developed road network, including the northern termini of the New Jersey Turnpike (a portion of Interstate 95) and the Garden State Parkway, the eastern terminus of Interstate 80, and a portion of Interstate 287. A notable feature of Bergen County road intersections is ubiquitous signage guiding drivers with the direction toward multiple municipalities.

Other roadways that serve Bergen County include:

U.S. highways

U.S. Route 1/9

U.S. Route 9W

U.S. Route 46

U.S. Route 202

Interstate 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

Education

Tertiary education

Bergen County is home to several colleges and universities:

Bergen Community College – Paramus, with other centers in Hackensack and Lyndhurst

Eastwick College – Ramsey and Hackensack

Fairleigh Dickinson University – Teaneck and Hackensack

Felician University – Lodi and Rutherford

Ramapo College – Mahwah

Saint Peter's University formerly operated a campus in Englewood Cliffs. This campus, on the site of the former Englewood Cliffs College, was active from 1975 until its official closure in August 2018. Berkeley College 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:

K-12

Secondary (9-12, except as noted)

Elementary (K-8, except as noted)

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 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 (#3), Pascack Hills High School in Montvale (#7), and Glen Rock High School in Glen Rock (#8). The magazine's list did not include the Bergen County Academies, which as the county's public magnet 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 score of 294 out of 300 and an average SAT score of 2103 out of 2400.

There is a school for Japanese citizen students, the New Jersey Japanese School, in Oakland, in the northwestern portion of Bergen County. In 1987, there were five juku (Japanese-style cram schools) in the county, with two of them in Fort Lee.

Arts and culture

The Bergen Performing Arts Center (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 Hackensack River and is available for tours as a museum ship.

Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum of New Jersey, located at Teterboro Airport in Teterboro.

Bergen Museum of Art & Science, Hackensack.

Buehler Challenger & Science Center, Paramus – located on the campus of Bergen Community College.

Meadowlands Environment Center, Lyndhurst.

Tenafly Nature Center, Tenafly

Puffin Foundation, Teaneck

Maywood Station Museum, Maywood

Bergen Performing Arts Center, Englewood

Commercial and entertainment

MetLife Stadium, which replaced Giants Stadium, in East Rutherford, is the home of the New York Giants and the New York Jets of the National Football League. At a construction cost of approximately $1.6 billion, it was the most expensive stadium ever built until being passed by SoFi Stadium in 2020.

Meadowlands Arena, 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 of the National Hockey League, the New Jersey Nets of the National Basketball Association, and the Seton Hall University Pirates men's basketball team. The arena closed on April 3, 2015.

Meadowlands Racetrack, East Rutherford

Garden State Plaza, Paramus, is one of the largest and highest revenue-producing shopping malls 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, shopping mall, Paramus (formerly known as the Bergen Mall)

Fashion Center, shopping mall, Paramus

H Mart, Asian shopping plaza and supermarket, Ridgefield

Mitsuwa Marketplace, Japanese shopping plaza and supermarket, Edgewater

American Dream Meadowlands, 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, Essex, Hudson 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 on a partisan basis as part of the November general elections. In 2018, commissioners were paid $38,000 and the commissioner chairman was paid an annual salary of $39,00, while the county executive was paid $161,500. 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. As of 2025, the county executive is James J. Tedesco III (D, Paramus), whose four-year term of office ends December 31, 2026.

Bergen County's Commissioners are

Chair Mary J. Amoroso (D, Mahwah, 2025),

Vice Chair Steven A. Tanelli (D, North Arlington, 2027),

Chair Pro Tem Joan Voss (D, Fort Lee, 2026),

Rafael Marte (D, Bergenfield, 2026),

Germaine M. Ortiz (D, Emerson, 2025),

Thomas J. Sullivan Jr. (D, Montvale, 2025) and

Tracy Silna Zur (D, Franklin Lakes, 2027).

Pursuant to Article VII Section II of the New Jersey State Constitution, each county in New Jersey is required to have three elected administrative officials known as "constitutional officers." These officers are the County Clerk and County Surrogate (both elected for five-year terms of office) and the County Sheriff (elected for a three-year term). Bergen County's elected constitutional officials are

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

Highlands protection

In 2004, the New Jersey Legislature passed the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act, which regulates the New Jersey Highlands region. A portion of the northwestern area of the county, comprising the municipalities of Oakland and Mahwah, was included in the highlands preservation area and is subject to the rules of the act and the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council, a division of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Some of the territory in the protected region is classified as being in the highlands preservation area, and thus subject to additional rules.

Federal representatives

The county is part of two Congressional Districts: the 5th District covering the northern portion of the county and the 9th most of the south. For the 119th United States Congress, New Jersey's 5th congressional district is represented by Josh Gottheimer (D, Wyckoff). For the 119th United States Congress, New Jersey's 9th congressional district is represented by Nellie Pou (D, North Haledon)

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. Mirroring the national "suburban revolt" against President Donald Trump, Democratic candidate Joe Biden 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 Joe Biden win the county by the largest margin for a Democrat since 1964, 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.

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 boroughs; this was chiefly due to the "boroughitis" 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 calculated that the county's gross domestic product 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 2025, as ranked with at least 1,000 employees in the county, were as follows:

Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, 9,000

Valley Health System, Ridgewood, 48660

Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc., Elmwood Park, 2,900

Express Scripts, Franklin Lakes, 2,800

County of Bergen, Hackensack, 2,390

Quest Diagnostics, Teterboro/Lyndhurst, 2,200

KPMG, Montvale, 2,100

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, 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

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 37-acre (15 ha) 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.

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 Route 4 and Route 17 near the Garden State Parkway, about 15 miles (24 km) west of Manhattan. Opened in 1957 as the first suburban shopping mall in New Jersey, it contains 2,118,718 sq ft (196,835.3 m2) of leasable space, 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, located 8 miles (13 km) south of Garden State Plaza, is another large retail and entertainment complex, situated in the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford. 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. blue laws 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 Muslim (2000 estimate of 6,473) residents whose observant members would not be celebrating the Sunday Sabbath with most of their 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. This desire for relative peace is most apparent in Paramus, where most of the county's largest shopping malls are located, along the intersecting highways of Route 4 and 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 The Outlets at Bergen Town Center) 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, 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 1,373 acres (556 ha)

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, 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

Historical sits owned by Bergen County include:

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 Colonel George Baylor during the American Revolutionary War

Camp Merritt, Cresskill

Campbell-Christie House, River Edge – historic Dutch sandstone home that was moved from New Milford to preserve the home from destruction

Easton Tower, Paramus

Garretson Farm, Fair Lawn – stone home dating to the 1720s that is one of the county's oldest surviving structures

Gethsemane Cemetery, Little Ferry

Hackensack Water Company Complex, Oradell

Washington Spring Garden, located in Van Saun Park, Paramus

Wortendyke Barn, Park Ridge