Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 13,916, settled in 1874. More miles of trail than almost any town in New Jersey.
Trash day: look up yoursFew places in the country grade higher. Cedar Grove Township earns an A, 60th among New Jersey's 466 graded towns. CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 96% of the country, crime is low: it reports less per resident than 87% of U.S. towns, and the median household earns $151K. The exception is cost of living: homes are expensive, about $771K for a typical one and 7.8 times the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Cedar Grove Township’s trail density is 6.4 miles per square mile, against 0.7 in New Jersey’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns. Cedar Grove Township is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 97% of U.S. towns. On the outdoors, just 32 of New Jersey’s 530 towns do better.
Where Cedar Grove Township beats most towns.
17.4% of the town is conserved land, across 5 parks and preserves.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Cedar Grove Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 97% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 11%), so the A overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 2,139 in 1900, 12,980 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1909 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Cedar Grove Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw9 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw14 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw15 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw14 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw15 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw15 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 Cedar Grove 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 Cedar Grove Township.
Cedar Grove Township reports less crime than Verona Township or any other graded neighbor and has less food insecurity than most of New Jersey, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of New Jersey.
28 miles of trail in 5 parks and preserves. Mills Reservation, at 151 acres with 9.6 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. More trails than any other town in New Jersey.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mills Reservation | 9.6 mi | 151 |
| 2. Hilltop Reservation | 4.7 mi | 91 |
| 3. Cedar Grove Park | 0.2 mi | 42 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Cedar Grove Township School District. Two of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Cedar Grove High School, with 421 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memorial Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 5–8 | Grades 5–8 | 468 | B |
| Cedar Grove High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 421 | B+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with New Jersey is food insecurity: 7.6% of its 10,537 adults worry about having enough food, against 14.3% statewide.
22% of Cedar Grove Township adults have obesity, where New Jersey’s towns sit at 28% and U.S. towns at 35%. 13% of adults report frequent mental distress in Cedar Grove Township. Cedar Grove Township beats the New Jersey average on 20 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1.
| Cedar Grove Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 28% | 35% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8% | 11% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 36% | 36% |
| What stands out | Cedar Grove Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.6% | 14.3% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 7% | 12.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.9% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Its A tops all 3 graded towns on its borders; Verona Township (A) comes closest. Reported crimes fell from 99 to 51 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The property crime rate in Cedar Grove Township is 3.6 per 1,000 residents.
| Cedar Grove Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 3.6 per 1,000 residents | 7.5 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.1 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
At 7.8 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $771K) costs more against local pay than in 78% of New Jersey towns; that ratio is one input to its D for cost of living.
Cedar Grove Township’s median rent is $1,896 a month. Typical home values rose 5.8% in the year to September 2026. 84% of Cedar Grove Township households own their home.
| Cedar Grove Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,896 a month | $1,778 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 84% | 77% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Most working residents leave Cedar Grove Township for work: only 4% work in town. The top destinations are New York (14%), Newark (5%) and Montclair Township (3%). Half commute less than 10 miles.
| Cedar Grove Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $151,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 24% | 16% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 34 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 4.1% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Cedar Grove Township has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 22° and about 24 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 59% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 23 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Cedar Grove Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
58 within 15 miles of the center of Cedar Grove Township
About 6 of every 100 Cedar Grove Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
Where Cedar Grove Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
2 places in Cedar Grove Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
4 notable people were born in Cedar Grove Township.
Township in Essex County, New Jersey, US
Cedar Grove is a township in north central Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 12,980, an increase of 569 (+4.6%) from the 2010 census count of 12,411, which in turn reflected an increase of 111 (+0.9%) from the 12,300 counted in the 2000 census. New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked Cedar Grove as its fourth-best place to live in Essex County and 17th-best place overall to live in its 2008 rankings of the "Best Places To Live" in New Jersey. What is now Cedar Grove was originally incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature as the Township of Verona on February 7, 1892, from portions of Caldwell Township. Po…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Cedar Grove Township.
It grades higher overall than all 4 graded towns on its borders; Verona Township (A) comes closest.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cedar Grove Township | #60 | A | D | A | B+ | A+ |
| Montclair Township | #126 | A | D− | B+ | B+ | A+ |
| Upper Montclair | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| North Caldwell | #108 | A | D− | — | A | A+ |
| Verona Township | #68 | A | D | A | B+ | A+ |
| Little Falls Township | #155 | A− | D | A− | B+ | A |
North Caldwell reports no FBI crime data of its own. Upper Montclair isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Cedar Grove Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Cedar Grove Township grades A overall, better than 93% of U.S. towns and #60 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A+ for health, A for safety and B+ for schools, and has the most trail per square mile in the state. 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.
4 notable people were born here, including Amanda Lepore and David Njoku. Its 28 miles of trails, 6.4 per square mile, are the densest network of any New Jersey town.
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