It is located near the fictional town of Greendale, home of Sabrina the Teenage Witch comic book series.

One panel says "...the good ship 'Peter Stuyvesant' settles into the Hudson, as Riverdale High clambers aboard for a happy trip to Bear Mountain."

Riverdale has been shown to have beaches, lakes, rivers, deserts, farmland, woodland, mountains, plains, a transit system, and four distinct seasons with changes in climate.

Archie Comics publisher John L. Goldwater and initial Archie artist Bob Montana differed on the inspiration for Riverdale, with Goldwater saying it was based on his hometown of Hiawatha, Kansas, and Montana saying the town's high school was based on his own in Haverhill, Massachusetts, where as in the comics a replica of Auguste Rodin's famous statue The Thinker stands.

In the TV show, the staff frequently shown/mentioned in Riverdale are Mr. Weatherbee (principal), Miss Grundy (former, deceased music teacher), Coach Clayton (football coach) and Mr. Svenson (caretaker) In the five-issue miniseries Faculty Funnies (cover-dated June 1989 – May 1990) by writer George Gladir and penciler Stan Goldberg, faculty members Mr. Weatherbee, Mr. Flutesnoot, Miss Grundy and Coach Clayton secretly become the superhero team the Awesome Foursome after a lab accident involving Archie's science project.

As Jughead courageously ventures outside their cozy abode to buy them an extravagant meal of vending machine memorabilia, he is nearly attacked by one of these bunny loving students.

Pembrooke Academy is a private school attended by siblings Cheryl and Jason Blossom and their snobbish friends Bunny and Cedric.

where the state should be, and a ZIP code of 10543 (which in real life is Mamaroneck, New York, the home of Michael Silberkleit, an Archie Comics editor).