Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Chester’s best subject grades are an A+ for incomes and health and an A for walkability. Chester’s median household income is $172,000, against $113,000 in New Jersey’s towns and $80,000 across U.S. towns. Only 3 of New Jersey’s 530 towns score higher on hazard risk. Chester's public schools beat 89% of New Jersey towns on state tests and graduation. 21% of the land in Chester is conserved, above both the New Jersey town median (11%) and the median of U.S. towns (4.3%). Only 2 of New Jersey’s 527 towns score higher on civic life. The biggest park or preserve is Seward Hill Preserve, at 59 acres. Chester has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Chester beats most towns.
Census counts: 705 in 1880, 1,681 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1812 and 7 maps from 1888 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Chester is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Chester. Close and well known come first.
Big draw37 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw38 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw32 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw37 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw38 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw36 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 · 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 Chester, 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 Chester.
Chester beats the New Jersey average on 15 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 23% of Chester adults have obesity.
| Chester | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 28% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 36% | 36% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 17% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| What stands out | Chester | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.6% | 14.3% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 6.9% | 12.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.2% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Most working residents leave Chester for work: only 9% work in town. The average trip to work in Chester is 32 minutes. Jobs based in Chester grew to 4,249 in 2023, 2,484 more than in 2013.
| Chester | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 22% | 16% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 32 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 6.4% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 9.3% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Chester’s FEMA risk score is 4 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Seward Hill Preserve | 0.8 mi | 59 |
| 2. Grove Street Park | 0.4 mi | 9 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Chester has chilly winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 84°, January nights drop to 20° and about 30 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
8 within 15 miles of the center of Chester
About 6 of every 100 Chester residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
Where Chester’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
2 places in Chester on the National Register of Historic Places.
Borough in Morris County, New Jersey, US
Chester Borough is a borough in southwestern Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 1,681, an increase of 32 (+1.9%) from the 2010 census count of 1,649, which in turn reflected an increase of 14 (+0.9%) from the 1,635 counted in the 2000 census. Chester's name is derived from the township, which was named for Chestershire in England. Chester Borough is located within the Raritan Valley region and is periodically recognized as part of the Somerset Hills. The borough is completely surrounded by Chester Township, making it part of 21 pairs of "doughnut towns" in the state, where one municipality entirely surrounds anot…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
The typical home is worth about $660,000, 15% above the New Jersey typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.
2 notable people were born here, including Peter Stroud and Matt Flanagan.
_-_Full_(48124330357).jpg){kind=link}
_-_Central_Park,_NYC.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}