Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Hawthorne grades B+ overall, 192nd among New Jersey's 466 graded towns. CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 91% of the country and the median household earns $110K. The catch is cost: homes are expensive, about $644K for a typical one and 6.5 times the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Hawthorne is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 90% of U.S. towns. Hawthorne’s density of trails is 1.1 miles per square mile, above both New Jersey’s towns (0.7) and U.S. towns (0.4). Hawthorne has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them John W. Rea House and Goffle Brook Park.
Where Hawthorne beats most towns.
Where Hawthorne’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 Hawthorne is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 2,096 in 1900, 19,637 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1932 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Hawthorne. Close and well known come first.
Big draw16 mi City parkCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw11 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw16 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw16 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw15 mi Stadium & arenaYankee StadiumCentral Park: Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Madison Square Garden: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 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 · Yankee Stadium: Matt Boulton, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Hawthorne, 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 Hawthorne.
Hawthorne is safe by national standards but not by New Jersey’s and is healthy by national standards but mid-pack in New Jersey; it also has a long record of flood insurance claims.
There are 3.7 miles of trail across 3 parks and preserves. Goffle Brook Park, at 92 acres with 2.6 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Goffle Brook Park | 2.6 mi | 92 |
| 2. 8 Acre Woods | 0.7 mi | 10 |
| 3. Rhodes Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Of its 7 schools, two are listed below, each with the reason. The largest public high school is Hawthorne High School, with 569 students. Public schools: the Hawthorne Public School District.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 522 | B− |
| Hawthorne High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 569 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Within New Jersey it is healthier than 59% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar.
The share of adults in Hawthorne who get no exercise outside work is 22%, near the New Jersey town median (22%) and below the median of U.S. towns (25%). 16% of adults have been diagnosed with depression here. This New Jersey town does better than the New Jersey average on 8 of 32 CDC measures and worse on 1.
| Hawthorne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 32% | 35% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 28% | 35% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 16% | 23% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 9.3% | 11% | 14% |
| What stands out | Hawthorne | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults without reliable transportation | 5.8% | 7.4% |
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 5.5% | 7% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 8.3% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
At 9 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 65% of New Jersey’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 194 to 117 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
For Hawthorne, the level of violent crime is 0.1 per 1,000 residents. Its property crime rate stands at 5.7 per 1,000 residents.
| Hawthorne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.1 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.7 per 1,000 residents | 7.5 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Hawthorne’s mean commuting time comes in at 25 minutes. Just 7% of the town’s working residents have a job in town. The share of residents in Hawthorne who live below the poverty line: 4%. The top destinations are New York (9%), Paterson (5%) and Paramus (3%).
| Hawthorne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 25 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 4% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $110,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 12% | 17% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
241 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 23 properties have flooded more than once.
The town has had 241 paid flood insurance claims since 1978. For Hawthorne, the FEMA risk score is 68 of 100. FEMA puts 78% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding. Federal aid has come to Hawthorne households in 11 declared disasters; the latest was in 2021.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
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
Home values are up 5.6% over the year to September 2026. In Hawthorne, the rent at the middle of the market is $1,830 a month. Bidding over the asking price: 81% of homes sold here.
| Hawthorne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,830 a month | $1,778 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 69% | 77% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Since 2020, Hawthorne has grown 2.7%, to 20,169 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate. By age, Hawthorne looks like New Jersey: each broad group is within 4 points. 47% of Hawthorne adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Hawthorne | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 47% | 45% | 29% |
| Aged 65 or older | 21% | 18% | 18% |
| Under 18 | 20% | 21% | 22% |
| Median age | 42.4 years | 42 years | 40.5 years |
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.4 points. Across New Jersey, 50.8% of residents are women. Median age: women 44.9, men 40.6.
| Hawthorne | NJ | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 10.1% | 11.6% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10% | 10.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 5.8% | 8.4% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 16.3% | 12.9% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.1% | 13.3% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13.3% | 12.9% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 12.8% | 13.5% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 12% | 10% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 8.6% | 7.2% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.2% | 9.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 22.6% | 25.3% | 26% |
| Some college | 17.7% | 15% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 8.5% | 6.7% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 30.5% | 26.1% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 16.5% | 17.6% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
49 within 15 miles of the center of Hawthorne
About 6 of every 100 Hawthorne residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
2 places in Hawthorne on the National Register of Historic Places.
3 notable people were born in Hawthorne.
Borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, US
Hawthorne is a borough in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 19,637, an increase of 846 (+4.5%) from the 2010 census count of 18,791, which in turn reflected an increase of 573 (+3.1%) from the 18,218 counted in the 2000 census. Hawthorne was established by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 24, 1898. The borough was created from parts of the now-defunct Manchester Township, which also consisted of present-day Haledon, North Haledon, Prospect Park, Totowa, and parts of Fair Lawn and Paterson. The borough was named for novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Hawthorne.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawthorne | #192 | B+ | D | A− | B− | A |
| North Haledon | #240 | B | D− | — | C+ | A |
| Paterson | #460 | D− | C− | D | D | D |
| Glen Rock | #32 | A+ | D | A− | A | A+ |
| Fair Lawn | #98 | A | D | — | A | A+ |
| Prospect Park | #438 | D− | D | B | D | C− |
| Ridgewood | #42 | A+ | D− | A− | A | A+ |
| Wyckoff Township | #74 | A | D− | — | A− | A+ |
North Haledon, Fair Lawn and Wyckoff Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Hawthorne with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Hawthorne grades B+ overall, better than 72% of U.S. towns and #192 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A for health, A− for safety and B− 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.
3 notable people were born here, including Robert H. Widmer and Dale Memmelaar.
_-_Full_(48124330357).jpg){kind=link}
_-_Central_Park,_NYC.jpg){kind=link}
