Bergenfield, NJ

Bergenfield fits 28,321 residents, as counted in 2020, into 2.90 square miles near the eastern side of Bergen County. The borough was created in 1894 from parts of Englewood and Palisades townships during the county’s intense “Boroughitis” wave, when 26 municipalities formed in a single year. One less visible piece of cultural history comes from Prestige Records: the jazz label kept its offices in Bergenfield from the mid-1960s until its 1972 sale. Washington Avenue and Main Street form an important service and transit corridor. NJ Transit buses connect there, and in 2026 Bergenfield was included in the agency’s MicroLink pilot, an on-demand service designed to bring riders to nearby bus stops. The borough’s multilingual character is measurable: in the 2020–2024 American Community Survey, 52.1 percent of residents age five or older spoke a language other than English at home.

Bergenfield Public Library supports that broad public through English-language classes, events, passport and notary services, museum passes, and a Library of Things. Its children’s lending collection ranges from guitars, percussion instruments, and ukuleles to robotics and coding kits. Outdoor and group activities center on borough recreation facilities such as Memorial Park, Veterans Memorial Park, and PAL Field. The 2026 recreation calendar included summer camp, youth sports classes, an adult kickball league, a townwide 5K, and free recurring wellness programs, with chair yoga using the library’s Friends Room.