Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Phillipsburg earns a D, ranked 420th of 466 in New Jersey, mostly because of schools. Its public schools trail 76% of New Jersey towns on state tests and graduation. What it does well: it is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. 20% of residents live below the poverty line in Phillipsburg, where New Jersey’s towns sit at 6% and U.S. towns at 9.6%. On incomes, just 23 of New Jersey’s 530 towns do worse. Phillipsburg has 4 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Morris Canal and John Roseberry Homestead.
Where Phillipsburg beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
John Roseberry HomesteadWhere Phillipsburg’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 Phillipsburg is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 5,932 in 1870, 15,249 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1855 and 5 maps from 1890 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Phillipsburg. Close and well known come first.
20 mi Theme parkDorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
in town Park & preserveLehigh River
40 mi GardenDrew University
39 mi Stadium & arenaSHI Stadium
29 mi LakeLake Musconetcong
17 mi Stadium & arenaPPL CenterDorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom: Coasterman1234 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lehigh River: The original uploader was Malepheasant at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0 · Drew University: CUBJONES83 (talk), Public domain · SHI Stadium: Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lake Musconetcong: Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0 · PPL Center: Hunter Kahn, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Phillipsburg, 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 Phillipsburg.
Phillipsburg sends many workers across the state line to New York City and is safe by national standards but not by New Jersey’s; it also carries more natural-hazard risk than most of New Jersey (mostly inland flooding).
The typical Phillipsburg home is worth about $336,000, up 1.9% in a year, 42% below the New Jersey typical home. 58% of Phillipsburg households own their home.
| Phillipsburg | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 58% | 77% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,167 a month | $1,780 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its public schools are run by the Phillipsburg School District. One of its 5 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phillipsburg Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 636 | C− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
2.8 miles of trail in 5 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Walter's Park, at 23 acres. Phillipsburg’s trail density is 0.9 miles per square mile.
| Phillipsburg | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 3.6% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.9 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Walter's Park | 0.2 mi | 23 |
| 2. Delaware Heights Park | 0.2 mi | 13 |
| 3. Delaware River Park | — | 12 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 92% of New Jersey towns, with expected losses of about $566 per resident a year; that rating is what its D for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Phillipsburg is 85 of 100. Since 1979, 59 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Phillipsburg.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
21% of working residents cross a state line to work, New York City among the top destinations.
4.5% of workers work from home in Phillipsburg. Most working residents leave Phillipsburg for work: only 11% work in town. Jobs based in Phillipsburg grew to 5,235 in 2023, 320 more than in 2013.
| Phillipsburg | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 4.5% | 17% | 11% |
| Median household income | $68,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 11% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Phillipsburg beats the New Jersey average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 19.
| Phillipsburg | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 22% | 25% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 36% | 36% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 15% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 11% | 14% |
| What stands out | Phillipsburg | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 16.5% | 9.6% |
| More smokers | 16.5% | 10.9% |
| More adults with COPD | 7.6% | 5.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Phillipsburg has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 20° and about 23 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
At 25.7 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 81% of New Jersey’s graded towns.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
7 within 15 miles of the center of Phillipsburg
About 5 of every 100 Phillipsburg residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
4 places in Phillipsburg on the National Register of Historic Places.
Town in Warren County, New Jersey, US
Phillipsburg is a town located along the Delaware River that is the most populous municipality in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan statistical area. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 15,249, an increase of 299 (+2.0%) from the 2010 census count of 14,950, which in turn reflected a decline of 216 (−1.4%) from the 15,166 counted in the 2000 census. The Norfolk Southern Railway's Lehigh Line, formerly the mainline of the Lehigh Valley Railroad with a mix of mainline trackage combined long leased to the Central Railroad of New Jersey by its builder Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, runs …
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Phillipsburg.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phillipsburg | #420 | D | C+ | C+ | C− | C |
| Lopatcong Township | #257 | B | D | A− | B | B+ |
| Pohatcong Township | #379 | C− | C− | C− | C | B+ |
| Upper Pohatcong | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Upper Pohatcong isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Phillipsburg with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Phillipsburg grades D overall, better than 12% of U.S. towns and #420 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades C for health, C+ for safety and C− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
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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