Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Hillside Township grades D overall, 413th among New Jersey's 466 graded towns, mostly because of safety and schools. Its police reported 51 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025, a higher rate per resident than 82% of U.S. towns. Its public schools trail 81% of New Jersey towns on state tests and graduation. In its favor, it is among the most walkable places in the country. Hillside Township’s property crime rate is 24 per 1,000 residents, above both New Jersey’s towns (7.4) and U.S. towns (9.9). Hillside Township's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 96% of U.S. towns. The typical home is worth about $519K, 5.2 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income.
Where Hillside Township beats most towns.
Where Hillside Township’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 Hillside Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for walkability (better than 99% of comparable towns) to D for cost of living (better than 9%), so the D overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 5,267 in 1920, 22,456 in 2020. The archive holds 8 old photos and papers going back to 1880 and 5 maps from 1947 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Hillside Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw13 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw15 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw12 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw14 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw11 mi MuseumNational September 11 Memorial & Museum
Big draw15 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a yearMadison 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 · National September 11 Memorial & Museum: Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0 · Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hugo Schneider, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Hillside 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 Hillside Township.
Hillside Township has seen reported crime fall beyond ordinary swings and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in New Jersey; it also has a long record of flood insurance claims.
Reported crimes fell from 713 to 598 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Hillside Township’s violent crime rate is 2.2 per 1,000 residents. Hillside Township reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 82% report less.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Its public schools are run by the Hillside Public School District. Two of its 8 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abram P. Morris Early Childhood CenterLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–1 | Grades PK–1 | 625 | – |
| Hillside High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 911 | C− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Most working residents leave Hillside Township for work: only 5% work in town. 8.6% of Hillside Township workers work from home. Jobs based in Hillside Township fell to 7,081 in 2023, 841 fewer than in 2013.
| Hillside Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 8.6% | 17% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 6% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $100,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 30 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
199 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 34 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 73% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 199 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Hillside Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Hillside Township has chilly, snowy winters and warm summers. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 24° and about 32 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
0.4 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves. The trail density in Hillside Township is 0.1 miles per square mile. The biggest park or preserve is Elizabeth River Park, at 30 acres.
| Hillside Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 8.8% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Elizabeth River Park | — | 30 |
| 2. Lightning Brook Park | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The typical Hillside Township home is worth about $519,000, up 0.6% in a year, 10% below the New Jersey typical home. 67% of households own their home in Hillside Township.
| Hillside Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,794 a month | $1,778 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 67% | 77% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Within New Jersey it is less healthy than 87% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar. Against the 8,671 U.S. towns with household incomes like Hillside Township’s, it is less healthy than 71%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Hillside Township beats the New Jersey average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 17.
| Hillside Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 45% | 36% | 36% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 23% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 11% | 14% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 36% | 32% | 33% |
| What stands out | Hillside Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.6% | 7.5% |
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 11.8% | 7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
95 within 15 miles of the center of Hillside Township
About 6 of every 100 Hillside Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
2 places in Hillside Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
5 notable people were born in Hillside Township.
Township in Union County, New Jersey, US
Hillside is a township in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 22,456, an increase of 1,052 (+4.9%) from the 2010 census count of 21,404, which in turn reflected a decline of 343 (−1.6%) from the 21,747 counted in the 2000 census. Hillside was incorporated as a township on April 3, 1913, from portions of Union Township, based on the results of a referendum held on April 29, 1913. The township was named for the surrounding hills. The township is split between area codes 908 and 973.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Hillside Township.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hillside Township | #413 | D | D | C− | C− | B− |
| Union Township | #290 | B− | D | B− | C+ | A− |
| Kean University | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Elizabeth | #435 | D | D | D | C | C |
| Newark | #453 | D− | D | C− | D | D |
Kean University isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Hillside Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Hillside Township grades D overall, better than 14% of U.S. towns and #413 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades B− for health, C− for safety and C− 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.
Hillside Township was incorporated in 1910 and has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places. 5 notable people were born here, including Michael V. Gazzo and Xavier Munford.
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