Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Belleville Township's standout: it is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades C, 371st among New Jersey's 466 graded towns. CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 76% of the country and 5% of its land is conserved. Its weakest subject is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $515K, 5.2 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Belleville Township's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 99% of U.S. towns. Belleville Township’s property crime rate is 18.8 per 1,000 residents, above both the New Jersey town median (7.4) and the median of U.S. towns (9.9). Reformed Dutch Church of Second River is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where Belleville Township beats most towns.
Where Belleville Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Belleville Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 98% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 12%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 2,466 in 1840, 38,222 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1835 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Belleville Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw5 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw9 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw10 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw10 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw10 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw10 mi MuseumNational September 11 Memorial & MuseumMetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Madison Square Garden: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0 · Central Park: Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Studio 54: Americasroof (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hugo Schneider, CC BY-SA 2.0 · National September 11 Memorial & Museum: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Belleville Township, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Belleville Township.
Belleville Township is safe by national standards but not by New Jersey’s and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in New Jersey; it also has a long record of flood insurance claims.
3.6 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve. Belleville Township’s trail density is 1.1 miles per square mile. Branch Brook Park, at 108 acres with 3.2 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Belleville Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.1 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 5.4% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Branch Brook Park | 3.2 mi | 108 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Belleville Public School District. Two of its 12 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belleville Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 7–8 | Grades 7–8 | 685 | C |
| Belleville High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,590 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 67% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
18% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in Belleville Township. Belleville Township beats the New Jersey average on 6 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 7. 26% of adults have high blood pressure in Belleville Township.
| Belleville Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 32% | 35% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 75% | 78% | 79% |
| What stands out | Belleville Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.7% | 7.5% |
| Fewer adults with high blood pressure | 26.4% | 32.8% |
| More uninsured adults | 18% | 11.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The average trip to work in Belleville Township is 32 minutes. Jobs based in Belleville Township grew to 7,933 in 2023, 665 more than in 2013. 7.1% of Belleville Township workers work from home.
| Belleville Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 7.1% | 17% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 32 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $90,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 9.6% | 6% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
217 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 40 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 77% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 217 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Belleville Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
At 29.4 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 84% of New Jersey’s graded towns.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Belleville Township has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 24° and about 28 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The typical Belleville Township home is worth about $515,000, up 3.7% in a year, 11% below the New Jersey typical home.
| Belleville Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 56% | 77% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,639 a month | $1,780 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
119 within 15 miles of the center of Belleville Township
About 6 of every 100 Belleville Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
33 notable people were born in Belleville Township.
Township in Essex County, New Jersey, US
Belleville (French: "Belle ville" meaning "beautiful town") is a township in Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 38,222. an increase of 2,296 (+6.4%) from the 2010 census count of 35,926,
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Belleville Township.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belleville Township | #371 | C | D | C | C | A− |
| Newark | #453 | D− | D | C− | D | D |
| Silver Lake | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| North Arlington | #223 | B | D | B | B | A |
| Bloomfield Township | #259 | B | D | B− | B− | A |
| Nutley Township | #149 | A− | D | A− | B+ | A+ |
| Kearny | #383 | C− | D | — | C | B |
| Lyndhurst Township | #236 | B | D | B+ | C+ | A |
Kearny reports no FBI crime data of its own. Silver Lake isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Belleville Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Belleville Township grades C overall, better than 26% of U.S. towns and #371 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A− for health, C for safety and C for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
33 notable people were born here, including Frank Iero and Tony Meola.
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