Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Because it does well by almost any measure. Fanwood earns an A+, 28th of 466 graded towns in New Jersey. The median household earns $196K, it is among the healthiest towns in the country on CDC estimates, and crime is low: it reports less per resident than 90% of U.S. towns. The exception is hazard risk: FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 81% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. 73% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Fanwood, above both New Jersey’s towns (45%) and U.S. towns (29%). Fanwood is more walkable than 98% of U.S. towns. Fanwood Park Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where Fanwood beats most towns.
| Widest gap | Fanwood | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 6.4% | 14.3% |
Where Fanwood’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Fanwood is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for jobs and income (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for hazard risk (better than 13%), so the A+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 399 in 1900, 7,774 in 2020. The archive holds 13 old photos and papers going back to 2005 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Fanwood. Close and well known come first.
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw24 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw20 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw23 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw24 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw20 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 Fanwood, 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 Fanwood.
Fanwood has less food insecurity than most of New Jersey, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of New Jersey and has commutes longer than most of New Jersey.
Its widest gap with New Jersey is food insecurity: 6.4% of its 5,781 adults worry about having enough food, against 14.3% statewide.
Fanwood beats the New Jersey average on 21 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 24% of Fanwood adults have obesity.
| Fanwood | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 28% | 35% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 9.4% | 12% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 17% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 22% | 25% |
| What stands out | Fanwood | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 6.4% | 14.3% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 5.7% | 11.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 8.5% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Violent crime is rare: 1 reported in 2024, 0.1 per 1,000 residents.
The violent crime rate in Fanwood is 0.1 per 1,000 residents.
| Fanwood | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 0.1 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.7 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 7.3 per 1,000 residents | 8.9 | 11.5 |
FBI crime data, 2024 · crimes reported to police
At 8.1 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $803K) costs more against local pay than in 81% of New Jersey towns; that ratio is one input to its D for cost of living.
The typical Fanwood home is worth about $803,000, up 5.2% in a year, 40% above the New Jersey typical home. Fanwood’s median rent is $2,446 a month.
| Fanwood | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,446 a month | $1,778 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 85% | 77% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Since 1979, 12 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Fanwood.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The average commute for its 3,901 working residents takes 41.6 minutes, against 30.5 across New Jersey. Jobs based here grew from 1,065 in 2013 to 1,707.
1% of residents live below the poverty line in Fanwood. Since 2013, Fanwood has added 642 jobs, to 1,707 in 2023. Most working residents leave Fanwood for work: only 3% work in town.
| Fanwood | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 42 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $196,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 1% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 2.5% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Fanwood 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
0.9 miles of trail in 6 parks and preserves.
| Fanwood | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 2.9% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.7 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Forest Road Park | 0.4 mi | 7 |
| 2. Fanwood Nature Center | 0.2 mi | 8 |
| 3. Lagrande Park | 0.2 mi | 7 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
24 within 15 miles of the center of Fanwood
About 5 of every 100 Fanwood residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
4 notable people were born in Fanwood.
Borough in Union County, New Jersey, US
Fanwood is a borough in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located on a ridge in northern-central New Jersey, the borough is a commuter town of New York City in the New York metropolitan area. Fanwood is located in the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 7,774, an increase of 456 (+6.2%) from the 2010 census count of 7,318, which in turn reflected an increase of 144 (+2.0%) from the 7,174 counted in the 2000 census. Fanwood was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on October 2, 1895, from portions of Fanwood Township (now known as Scotch Plains), based on the results of a referen…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Fanwood.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fanwood | #28 | A+ | D | A | A− | A+ |
| Scotch Plains Township | #72 | A | D | A− | A− | A+ |
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Fanwood grades A+ overall, better than 96% of U.S. towns and #28 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A+ for health, A for safety and A− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. That is 8.1 years of the area's median household income ($99,155 across the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metro area). 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 Derrick Caracter and Robert T. Stevens.
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