[12] The county is located on the U.S. East Coast, approximately halfway between the Equator and the North Pole, which results in climate that is influenced by wet, dry, hot, and cold airstreams, and highly variable daily weather.

Much of the county lies between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers on a geographically long narrow peninsula, (sometimes called Bergen Neck), which is a contiguous urban area where it is often difficult to know when one's crossed a civic boundary.

At the time of European contact in the 17th century, Hudson County was the territory of the Lenape (or Lenni-Lenape), namely the bands (or family groups) known as the Hackensack, the Tappan, the Raritan, and the Manhattan.

They were a seasonally migrational people who practiced small-scale agriculture (companion planting) augmented by hunting and gathering which likely, given the topography of the area, included much (shell) fishing and trapping.

[28] The west bank of the North River (as it was called) and the cliffs, hills, and marshlands abutting and beyond it, were settled by Europeans (Dutch, Flemish, Walloon, Huguenot) from the Lowlands around the same time as New Amsterdam.

Relations were tenuous with the Lenape, and eventually led to Kieft's War, which began as a slaughter by the Dutch at Communipaw and is considered to be one of the first genocides of Native Americans by Europeans.

[citation needed] By 1675, the Treaty of Westminster finalized the transfer and the area became part of the British colony of East Jersey, in the administrative district of Bergen Township.

Border conflicts for control of the waterfront with New York (which claimed jurisdiction to the high water line[31] and the granting of ferry concessions) restricted development though some urbanization took place in at Paulus Hook and Hoboken, which became a vacation spot for well-off New Yorkers.

[33] West New York was incorporated as a town by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on July 8, 1898, replacing Union Township, based on the results of a referendum held three days earlier.

[29][36] Construction, first of ports, and later railroad terminals, in Jersey City, Bayonne, Hoboken, and Weehawken (which significantly altered the shoreline with landfill) fueled much of the development.

European immigration, notably German-language speakers and Irish (many fleeing famine) initiated a population boom that would last for several decades.

Central Railroad of New Jersey's Communipaw Terminal, across a small strait from Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, played a crucial role in the massive immigration of the period, with many newly arrived departing the station to embark on their lives in America.

Many manufacturers, whose names read as a "Who's Who" in American industry established a presence, including Colgate, Dixon Ticonderoga, Maxwell House, Standard Oil, and Bethlehem Steel.

It was during this period that much of the housing stock, namely one and two family homes and low-rise apartment buildings, was built; municipal boundaries finalized, neighborhoods established.

Upon entry into World War I, the U.S. government took over control of the Hamburg-American Line piers in Hoboken under eminent domain, and Hudson became the major point of embarkation for more than three million soldiers, known as "doughboys".

In 1916, an act of sabotage literally and figuratively shook the region when German agents set off bombs at the munitions depot in New York Bay at Black Tom.

Both were named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who attended the opening of the largest project of them all, The Jersey City Medical Center, a massive complex built in the Art Deco Style.

During this era, the "Hudson County Democratic Machine", known for its cronyism and corruption, with Jersey City mayor Frank Hague at its head was at its most powerful.

After the war maritime and manufacturing industries still dominated the local economy, and union membership provided guarantees of good pay packages.

Though some returning servicemen took advantage of GI housing bills and moved to close by suburbs, many with strong ethnic and familial ties chose to stay.

Hudson felt the short- and long-term impact of the destruction of the World Trade Center intensely: its proximity to lower Manhattan made it a place to evacuate to, many residents who worked there lost their jobs (or their lives), and many companies sought office space across the river.

[9] Hudson County is a major port of entry for immigration to the United States and a major employment center at the approximate core of the New York City metropolitan region; and given its proximity to Manhattan, Hudson 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.

[63] Jersey City is the host of the annual Philippine-American Friendship Day Parade, an event that occurs yearly in June, on its last Sunday.

[52][53] Hudson County's Muslim American population includes a significant Latino contingent comprising adherents converting from other religious affiliations.

[82] Jersey City is home to Verisk Analytics[83] and WFMU 91.1FM (WMFU 90.1FM in the Hudson Valley), the longest running freeform radio station in the United States.

Many long-distance trains and buses pass through the county, though Amtrak and the major national bus companies – Greyhound Lines and Trailways – do not provide service within it.

Additionally, private bus companies, some of which operate dollar vans (mini-buses or carritos) augment the state agency's surface transport.

In 2013, two main thoroughfares in Hudson County, Kennedy Boulevard and U.S. Route 1/9, were included among the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's list of the top ten most dangerous roads for pedestrians in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

Route 1/9 is monitored by state police, while Kennedy Boulevard is patrolled by the Hudson County Sheriff's Office and the respective municipalities through which that road runs.

Liberty State Park, the county's largest, is sited on land that had once been part of a vast oyster bed, was filled in for industrial, rail, and maritime uses, and was reclaimed in the 1970s.