Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Because it does well by almost any measure. Harding Township earns an A+, 10th among New Jersey's 466 graded towns. The median household earns $222K, it is healthier than 98% of U.S. towns, and its schools outperform 96% of the state's. The exception is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $1.1 million, 11.5 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. 74% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Harding Township, above both the New Jersey town median (45%) and the median of U.S. towns (29%). The biggest place to walk is Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, 3,791 acres with 8.3 miles of trail. Crime is low: it reports less per resident than 94% of U.S. towns.
Where Harding Township beats most towns.
51.6% of the town is conserved land, across 8 parks and preserves.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Harding Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for jobs and income (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 7%), so the A+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,206 in 1930, 3,871 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1750 and 7 maps from 1888 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Harding Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw26 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw28 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw23 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw27 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw28 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw25 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 Harding 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 Harding Township.
Harding Township has schools in the top 5% of New Jersey, keeps more of its land conserved than most of New Jersey and trades workers with New York City and other neighbors.
Its 6,752 conserved acres are a larger share of the town than in 98% of New Jersey towns.
45 miles of trail in 8 parks and preserves. The trail density in Harding Township is 2.2 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge | 8.3 mi | 3,791 |
| 2. Great Swamp Wilderness | 5.7 mi | 1,629 |
| 3. Lewis Morris County Park | 5.2 mi | 187 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its A+ ranks #7 of the 465 New Jersey towns we grade for schools. Its A+ is the best School Grade on its borders; Bernards Township (A) is next.
Its public schools are run by the Harding Township School District. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harding Township SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 291 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests
Its widest gap with New Jersey is food insecurity: 8% of its 24,269 adults worry about having enough food, against 14.3% statewide. Against the 681 U.S. towns with household incomes like Harding Township’s, it is healthier than 57%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
23% of adults have obesity in Harding Township. Harding Township beats the New Jersey average on 20 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1. 12% of adults report frequent mental distress in Harding Township.
| Harding Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 28% | 35% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 15% | 17% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 7.6% | 11% | 14% |
| What stands out | Harding Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8% | 14.3% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 7.2% | 12.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.3% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Reported crimes fell from 21 to 6 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings. Violent crime is rare: 0 reported in 2025, 0 per 1,000 residents.
Harding Township’s property crime rate is 1.5 per 1,000 residents.
| Harding Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.5 per 1,000 residents | 7.5 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Harding Township has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 21° and about 24 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Harding Township has about as many jobs (1,570) as working residents, but only 58 people both live and work here.
Most working residents leave Harding Township for work: only 4% work in town. 3.3% of Harding Township residents live below the poverty line. Since 2013, Harding Township has lost 268 jobs, to 1,570 in 2023.
| Harding Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $222,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 32 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 3.3% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 17% | 16% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 52% of U.S. communities. Since 1996, 18 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Harding Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
13 within 15 miles of the center of Harding Township
About 3 of every 100 Harding Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Jersey.
4 places in Harding Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
Township in Morris County, New Jersey, US
Harding Township is a township in Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located in the Passaic Valley region within the New York metropolitan area. The township was formed as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on September 1, 1922, from portions of Passaic Township (since renamed as Long Hill Township), based on the results of a referendum passed on May 9, 1922. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 3,871, an increase of 33 (+0.9%) from the 2010 census count of 3,838, which in turn reflected an increase of 658 (+20.7%) from the 3,180 counted in the 2000 census. The long-established hamlets of New Vernon and Green Village (also wit…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Harding Township.
At #10 in NJ, it grades higher overall than all 4 graded towns on its borders; Bernards Township (A+) comes closest.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harding Township | #10 | A+ | D | A | A+ | A+ |
| Bernards Township | #17 | A+ | D | A+ | A | A+ |
| Basking Ridge | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Morris Township | #200 | B+ | D | — | C+ | A+ |
| Bernardsville | #41 | A+ | D | A | B+ | A+ |
| Chatham Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Green Village | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Long Hill Township | #187 | B+ | D | — | A− | A+ |
Morris Township and Long Hill Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Basking Ridge, Chatham Township and Green Village aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Harding Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Harding Township grades A+ overall, among the top 2% of U.S. towns and #10 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A+ for health, A for safety and A+ 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.
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