Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Today 25,281 people live in this town, first established in 1868.
Trash day: look up yoursOverall, Raritan Township earns an A, better than 92% of U.S. towns. The ranking puts it 71st of 466 in New Jersey. Its best grade is for safety: it reports less crime per resident than 97% of U.S. towns. Add health to its strengths (A): residents are healthier than 95% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. What counts against it is cost of living — the typical home is worth about $564K, 5.7 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. This New Jersey town has 4 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them John Reading Farmstead and Raritan-Readington South Branch Historic District. The town’s middle household income is $165,000, where New Jersey’s towns sit at $113,000 and U.S. towns at $80,000. 15% of the land locally is conserved, against 11% in New Jersey’s towns and 4.3% across U.S. towns.
Figures: FBI crime data, 2025 · health, CDC PLACES · home values, Zillow · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · National Register of Historic Places · USGS PAD-US.
Where Raritan Township beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Raritan Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,009 in 1870, 7,835 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1725 and 5 maps from 1890 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Raritan Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw35 mi MuseumLynnewood Hall
Big draw37 mi Theme parkSix Flags Great Adventure2.2M visitors a year
29 mi LandmarkDrew University
23 mi Stadium & arenaSHI Stadium
34 mi Theme parkDorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
15 mi Park & preserveDuke FarmsLynnewood Hall: Shuvaev, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Six Flags Great Adventure: Unknown, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Drew University: CUBJONES83 (talk), Public domain · SHI Stadium: Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom: Coasterman1234 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Duke Farms: Ekem, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Raritan 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 Raritan Township.
Raritan Township reports less crime than Delaware Township or any other graded neighbor and has less tooth loss than most of New Jersey, but it trails Readington Township and its other neighbors on schools.
That grade tops all 4 graded towns on its borders; Delaware Township (A+) comes closest. Violent crime is rare: 4 reported in 2025, 0.2 per 1,000 residents.
Raritan Township’s violent offense rate stands at 0.2 per 1,000 residents. Its property crime rate stands at 1.5 per 1,000 residents.
| Raritan 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) | 0.2 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Each of its 5 graded neighbors has a higher School Grade than its B, Readington Township highest at A−.
The largest public high school is Hunterdon Central Regional High School District, with 2,238 students. The public schools here belong to the Flemington-Raritan Regional School District. Of its 8 schools, three are listed below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| J.P. Case Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 7–8 | Grades 7–8 | 730 | A− |
| Hunterdon Central Regional High School DistrictLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,238 | B+ |
| Copper Hill Elementary SchoolTop results in townGrades PK–4 | Grades PK–4 | 572 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with New Jersey is tooth loss: 5.4% of those 65+ have lost all their teeth, against 9.6% statewide. Against the 1,882 U.S. towns with household incomes like Raritan Township’s, it is healthier than 67%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
Against the New Jersey average, Raritan Township comes out ahead on 15 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 1. For adults here, the share who smoke cigarettes is 8.8%. Among adults locally, 26% have obesity and 32% sleep under 7 hours.
| Raritan Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 17% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 28% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 36% | 36% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8.8% | 11% | 14% |
| What stands out | Raritan Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 5.4% | 9.6% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 8.3% | 14.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.2% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expect July afternoons of 85° and January nights of 21°, with about 27 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The biggest park or preserve is Clover Hill Park, at 115 acres. Count the trails in 8 parks and preserves and they come to 8.9 miles. The trail density in Raritan Township is 0.2 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bernadette Morales Nature Preserve | 1.8 mi | 53 |
| 2. Uplands Reserve | 1.4 mi | 100 |
| 3. Lenape Park | 1.2 mi | 51 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Federal disaster aid has reached households in Raritan Township after 8 declared disasters, most recently in 2021. FEMA expects less storm and flood damage here than in two thirds of U.S. communities. Also worth knowing: the town has had 50 paid flood insurance claims since 1984. Expected losses in Raritan Township break down as 64% from inland flooding and 12% from strong winds.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Commuting out is the norm in Raritan Township: just over a tenth of working residents work locally. For Raritan Township, the average commute is 34 minutes. The median commute is under 18 miles. The share of workers in Raritan Township who work from home: 23%.
| Raritan Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $165,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 23% | 16% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 34 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 3.4% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
1 within 15 miles of the center of Raritan Township
About 6 of every 100 Raritan Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
4 places in Raritan Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
Borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, US
Raritan is a borough in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 7,835, its highest decennial census count ever and an increase of 954 (+13.9%) from the 2010 census count of 6,881, which in turn had reflected an increase of 543 (+8.6%) from the 6,338 counted at the 2000 census. The borough's name is derived from the Raritans, a Native American group of Lenape. The name of the tribe is said to mean "forked river", "stream overflows", or "point on a tidal river".
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
8 towns share a border with Raritan Township.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raritan Township | #71 | A | C | A+ | B | A |
| Readington Township | #132 | A | C− | A | A− | A+ |
| Delaware Township | #13 | A+ | C+ | A+ | B+ | A |
| East Amwell Township | #168 | A− | C− | — | B+ | A+ |
| Three Bridges | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Clinton Township | #81 | A | D | A | B+ | A+ |
| Franklin Township | #65 | A | D | A | B+ | A |
| Ringoes | — | — | — | — | — | — |
East Amwell Township reports no FBI crime data of its own. Three Bridges and Ringoes aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Raritan Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Raritan Township grades A overall, better than 92% of U.S. towns and #71 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A for health, A+ for safety and B for schools.
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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