Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Carteret's standout: it is more walkable than 97% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades C, 367th among New Jersey's 466 graded towns. Its weakest subject is cost of living: homes are expensive, about $560K for a typical one and 5.6 times the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Carteret's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 94% of U.S. towns. Carteret’s median rent is $2,032 a month, against $1,778 a month in New Jersey’s towns and $1,185 a month across U.S. towns. The biggest park or preserve is Joseph Medwick Park, at 39 acres.
Where Carteret beats most towns.
22,844 counted in 2010 and 25,326 in 2020; an estimated 25,781 in 2025.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts · Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Carteret is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 97% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 6%), so the C overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 5,785 in 1910, 25,326 in 2020. The archive holds 15 old photos and papers going back to 1915 and 4 maps from 1947 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Carteret. Close and well known come first.
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw19 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw18 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw13 mi BeachConey Island
Big draw18 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw14 mi MuseumNational September 11 Memorial & MuseumMadison 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 · Coney Island: OptimumPx, Public domain · Studio 54: Americasroof (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 · National September 11 Memorial & Museum: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Carteret, 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 Carteret.
Carteret trades workers with New York City and other neighbors, is safe by national standards but not by New Jersey’s and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in New Jersey.
Its public schools are run by the Carteret Public School District. Two of its 9 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–4 | Grades PK–4 | 642 | D |
| Carteret High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,188 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Carteret has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 26° and about 32 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
196 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 45 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 67% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 196 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Carteret.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Carteret has about as many jobs (11,270) as working residents, but only 1,020 people both live and work here. Jobs based here grew from 7,497 in 2013 to 11,270.
Most working residents leave Carteret for work: only 9% work in town. Jobs based in Carteret grew to 11,270 in 2023, 3,773 more than in 2013. The average trip to work in Carteret is 31 minutes.
| Carteret | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 31 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $97,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 11% | 17% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 8.2% | 6% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
At 21.7 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 75% of New Jersey’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 440 to 262 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Carteret’s violent crime rate is 2 per 1,000 residents.
| Carteret | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 8 per 1,000 residents | 7.4 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 84% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar. Against the 9,045 U.S. towns with household incomes like Carteret’s, it is less healthy than 61%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Carteret beats the New Jersey average on 4 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 15. 13% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Carteret.
| Carteret | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 16% | 23% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 42% | 36% | 36% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 8.4% | 8.1% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 32% | 33% |
| What stands out | Carteret | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.2% | 7.5% |
| Fewer adults with depression | 13% | 15.1% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 20.4% | 14.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
1.1 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves.
| Carteret | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 3.2% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.2 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Joseph Medwick Park | 0.2 mi | 39 |
| 2. Carteret Park | 0.2 mi | 20 |
| 3. Carteret Waterfront Park | 0.1 mi | 18 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
55% of Carteret households own their home. Typical home values rose 6% in the year to September 2026.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
61 within 15 miles of the center of Carteret
About 7 of every 100 Carteret residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
3 notable people were born in Carteret.
Borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, US
Carteret is a borough in northeastern Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population reached 25,326, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 2,482 (+10.9%) from the 2010 census count of 22,844, which in turn reflected an increase of 2,135 (+10.3%) from the 20,709 counted in the 2000 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Carteret.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carteret | #367 | C | D | C+ | C | B |
| Woodbridge Township | #277 | B− | D− | — | C+ | A− |
| Avenel | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Linden | #360 | C | D | — | C− | B |
| Port Reading | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Woodbridge Township and Linden report no FBI crime data of their own. Avenel and Port Reading aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Carteret with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Carteret grades C overall, better than 27% of U.S. towns and #367 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades B 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.
3 notable people were born here, including Keith Hughes and Joseph Sirola.
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