Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
The typical home is worth about $509K, 5.1 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Overall it grades C−, ranked 389th of 466 in New Jersey. It is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 95% of U.S. towns and 9% of its land is conserved. Its weakest subject is hazard risk: FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 86% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. History is its standout character grade: an A, better than 90% of U.S. towns, with 3 places on the National Register. 45% of households own their home in Bound Brook, against 77% in New Jersey’s towns and 73% across U.S. towns. Its National Register listings include Bound Brook Station and Old Stone Arch Bridge. Bound Brook's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 84% of U.S. towns.
Where Bound Brook beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Bound Brook Station
Its founding year, 1681, comes before those of 95% of the New Jersey towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 556 in 1870, 11,988 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1847 and 6 maps from 1891 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Bound Brook is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 95% of comparable towns) to D− for cost of living (better than 4%), so the C− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bound Brook. Close and well known come first.
Big draw31 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw33 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw30 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw32 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw33 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw29 mi BeachConey IslandMadison 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 · MetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Studio 54: Americasroof (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hugo Schneider, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Coney Island: OptimumPx, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bound Brook, 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 Bound Brook.
Bound Brook is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in New Jersey; it also carries more natural-hazard risk than most of New Jersey (mostly inland flooding) and trails Bridgewater Township and its other neighbors on schools.
Each of its 3 graded neighbors has a higher School Grade than its C−, Bridgewater Township highest at B+.
Its public schools are run by the Bound Brook School District. Two of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Bound Brook High School, with 579 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smalley Elementary SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 4–6 | Grades 4–6 | 424 | D |
| Bound Brook High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 579 | C− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 94% of New Jersey towns, with expected losses of about $387 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on. 1,809 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 468 properties have flooded more than once.
Since 1978, 1,809 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Bound Brook.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The average commute for its 5,729 working residents takes 23.5 minutes, against 30.5 across New Jersey.
Most working residents leave Bound Brook for work: only 4% work in town. The average trip to work in Bound Brook is 24 minutes. Since 2013, Bound Brook has added 153 jobs, to 2,312 in 2023.
| Bound Brook | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 24 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 8.6% | 17% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 6% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $91,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Bound Brook has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 23° and about 21 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 80% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
Bound Brook beats the New Jersey average on 5 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 10. 20% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in Bound Brook.
| Bound Brook | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 36% | 36% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 11% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| What stands out | Bound Brook | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.5% | 7.5% |
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 4.7% | 5.6% |
| More uninsured adults | 20.3% | 11.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Bound Brook's reported crime rate is below New Jersey's. Most reported incidents are property crimes, mainly thefts. 16 violent crimes were reported in 2025.
| Bound Brook | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.2 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 9 per 1,000 residents | 7.4 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Billian Legion Park | 0.4 mi | 16 |
| 2. Tea Street Youth Sports Complex | — | 7 |
| 3. Codrington Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
65.4% of renter households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, against 51.6% across New Jersey.
Bound Brook’s median rent is $1,973 a month. The typical Bound Brook home is worth about $509,000, up 2.1% in a year, 12% below the New Jersey typical home.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
9 within 15 miles of the center of Bound Brook
About 5 of every 100 Bound Brook residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
10,402 counted in 2010 and 11,988 in 2020; an estimated 13,038 in 2025.
Growth hasn’t slowed: 8.8% since 2020, after 15.2% in the decade before.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
3 places in Bound Brook on the National Register of Historic Places.
11 notable people were born in Bound Brook.
Borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, US
Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located along the Raritan River. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 11,988, an increase of 1,586 (+15.2%) from the 2010 census count of 10,402, which in turn reflected an increase of 247 (+2.4%) from the 10,155 counted in the 2000 census. Bound Brook was originally incorporated as a town by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 24, 1869, within portions of Bridgewater Township. On February 11, 1891, it was reincorporated as a borough, based on the results of a referendum held on the previous day.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Bound Brook.
All 3 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its C−; South Bound Brook (C) is closest.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bound Brook | #389 | C− | D− | — | C− | B |
| Bridgewater Township | #144 | A− | D | — | B+ | A+ |
| Martinsville | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Middlesex | #188 | B+ | C− | A | B− | B+ |
| Finderne | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| South Bound Brook | #365 | C | D | — | B− | B− |
Bound Brook, Bridgewater Township and South Bound Brook report no FBI crime data of their own. Martinsville and Finderne aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Bound Brook with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Bound Brook grades C− overall, better than 20% of U.S. towns and #389 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades B for health 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−.
11 notable people were born here, including Jeffrey Chiesa and Perry Wilson.
_-_Full_(48124330357).jpg){kind=link}
_-_Central_Park,_NYC.jpg){kind=link}
