Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Dennis Township grades C overall, 356th among New Jersey's 466 graded towns, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. The median household earns $106K and it has 50 miles of trail and 59% conserved land. It also does better than most on health: CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 62% of the country. Its lowest everyday mark is in cost of living: homes are expensive, about $360K for a typical one and 4.4 times the Atlantic City metro’s $82K median household income. History is its standout character grade: an A, better than 91% of U.S. towns, with 6 places on the National Register. 59% of the land in Dennis Township is conserved, where New Jersey’s towns sit at 11% and U.S. towns at 4.3%. On walkability, just 22 of New Jersey’s 530 towns do worse. The biggest place to walk is Belleplain State Forest, 6,058 acres with 32 miles of trail.
Where Dennis Township beats most towns.
Census counts: 1,513 in 1830, a low of 1,350 in 1840, 6,285 in 2020. The archive holds 11 old photos and papers going back to 2004 and 6 maps from 1888 on.
6 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Dennis Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Dennis Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw38 mi Park & preservePine Barrens
23 mi Stadium & arenaBoardwalk Hall
18 mi LandmarkLucy the Elephant
15 mi Theme parkMorey's Piers
24 mi Theme parkSteel Pier
14 mi Theme parkGillians Wonderland Pier and Island WaterparkPine Barrens: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Boardwalk Hall: Jack Boucher, Public domain · Lucy the Elephant: User:dtcdthingy 3:30 pm 30th July 2004 (Minolta Dimage X20), Public domain · Morey's Piers: Smallbones, CC0 · Steel Pier: Make Lemons, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Gillians Wonderland Pier and Island Waterpark: Kevin Jarrett from Northfield, NJ, USA, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Dennis 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 Dennis Township.
Dennis Township keeps more of its land conserved than most of New Jersey and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in New Jersey.
Its 23,867 conserved acres are a larger share of the town than in any other New Jersey town.
50 miles of trail in 10 parks and preserves. Dennis Township’s trail density is 0.8 miles per square mile, against 0.7 in New Jersey’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Belleplain State Forest | 32 mi | 6,058 |
| 2. Dennis Creek Wildlife Management Area | 0.8 mi | 4,249 |
| 3. Cape May Coastal Wetlands Wildlife Management Area | — | 3,136 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Dennis Township School District. One of its 3 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dennis Township Elementary/Middle SchoolsLargest public middle schoolGrades 3–8 | Grades 3–8 | 391 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests
Most working residents leave Dennis Township for work: only 13% work in town. Jobs based in Dennis Township grew to 1,718 in 2023, 235 more than in 2013. 8.1% of Dennis Township workers work from home.
| Dennis Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 8.1% | 17% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 13% | 6.3% | 8% |
| Median household income | $106,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Dennis Township has chilly winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 85°, January nights drop to 25° and about 22 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 81% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar. Against the 7,796 U.S. towns with household incomes like Dennis Township’s, it is less healthy than 62%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
29% of adults feel lonely in Dennis Township. Dennis Township beats the New Jersey average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 9. 19% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Dennis Township.
| Dennis Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 32% | 33% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 16% | 23% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 12% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 34% | 36% | 36% |
| What stands out | Dennis Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 9.3% | 11.3% |
| More adults with COPD | 7.1% | 5.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 52% of U.S. communities. Since 2010, 16 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Dennis Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
None within 15 miles of Dennis Township; the nearest are
About 3 of every 100 Dennis Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Jersey.
58.6% of the town is conserved land, across 10 parks and preserves.
6 places in Dennis Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
Township in Cape May County, New Jersey, US
Dennis Township is a township in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township, and all of Cape May County, is part of the South Jersey region of the state and of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, and is part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 6,285, a decrease of 182 (−2.8%) from the 2010 census count of 6,467, which in turn reflected a decline of 25 (−0.4%) from the 6,492 counted in the 2000 census. Dennis Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 1, 1827, from portions of Upper Township. Portions of the township were taken to form Sea Isle Cit…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Dennis Township.
Upper Township next door grades higher for schools (A− to Dennis Township’s C) and lower for cost of living (D to C).
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dennis Township | #356 | C | C | — | C | B |
| Middle Township | #405 | C− | D | C | C+ | B+ |
| Maurice River Township | #462 | D− | C− | — | D | C+ |
| Upper Township | #252 | B | D | — | A− | B+ |
| South Dennis | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sea Isle City | — | — | D− | D | — | A |
| Belleplain | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Ocean View | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Sea Isle City has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Dennis Township, Maurice River Township and Upper Township report no FBI crime data of their own. South Dennis, Belleplain and Ocean View aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Dennis Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Dennis Township grades C overall, better than 31% of U.S. towns and #356 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades B for health and C for schools.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
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