Demographic Information

Union City, located in northern New Jersey's Hudson County, is situated directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Union City is a community of ethnic and cultural diversity with a predominantly immigrant Latino population. One mile long and a quarter mile wide, it is the most densely populated city in the United States (approximately 60,000 residents), with a student population that is 92% Spanish speaking.

The Board of Education serves 9,017 students in eleven schools (three elementary, five K-8, one middle, and two high schools). Approximately 92% of the students are Latino, 75% of whom do not speak English at home. Thirty-four percent of the students are enrolled in the District's bilingual program and over half of the District's teachers are certified ESL or bilingual. The majority of residents are of low or moderate income, and 14% of the District's students have been in the country less than three years. The Brookings Institute classified Union City as one of the 92 most impoverished communities in the U.S. with 27.5% of all children living below the poverty line. Eighty percent of the District's students receive free or reduced price lunches -- a figure that is more than twice that of the national average of 36.4% (National Center for Education Statistics, 1995).