Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 25,437, settled in 1804.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Scotch Plains Township grades A overall, ranked 72nd of 466 in New Jersey. It is among the healthiest towns in the country on CDC estimates. The median household earns $184K and it reports less crime per resident than 84% of U.S. towns. The trade-off is money: the typical home is worth about $834K, 8.4 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Scotch Plains Township’s median household income is $184,000, above both the New Jersey town median ($113,000) and the median of U.S. towns ($80,000). Scotch Plains Township is more walkable than 94% of U.S. towns. Scotch Plains Township has 6 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Old Baptist Parsonage and Scotch Plains School.
Where Scotch Plains Township beats most towns.
| Widest gap | Scotch Plains Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.6% | 14.3% |
Census counts: 1,167 in 1880, 24,968 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1740 and 8 maps from 1888 on.
6 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Scotch Plains Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Scotch Plains Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw24 mi GardenCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw20 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw22 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw24 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw20 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 Scotch Plains 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 Scotch Plains Township.
Scotch Plains Township has less food insecurity than most of New Jersey, but it has homes that cost more against local pay than most of New Jersey and has a long record of flood insurance claims.
15 miles of trail in 8 parks and preserves. Scotch Plains Township’s trail density is 1.7 miles per square mile. The biggest place to walk is Watchung Reservation, 467 acres with 8.6 miles of trail.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Watchung Reservation | 8.6 mi | 467 |
| 2. Ash Brook Reservation | 1.1 mi | 278 |
| 3. Ponderosa Farm Park | — | 21 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District. Three of its 22 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malcolm E Nettingham Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 5–8 | Grades 5–8 | 913 | B+ |
| Scotch Plains-Fanwood High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,562 | A |
| Academy For Allied Health SciencesTop results in townGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 308 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Its widest gap with New Jersey is food insecurity: 7.6% of its 18,672 adults worry about having enough food, against 14.3% statewide.
Scotch Plains Township beats the New Jersey average on 19 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 15% of Scotch Plains Township adults have been diagnosed with depression.
| Scotch Plains Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 28% | 35% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 9.6% | 12% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 17% |
| What stands out | Scotch Plains Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.6% | 14.3% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 6.6% | 11.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Reported crimes fell from 194 to 120 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings. Violent crime is rare: 8 reported in 2025, 0.3 per 1,000 residents.
The property crime rate in Scotch Plains Township is 4.4 per 1,000 residents.
| Scotch Plains Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 4.4 per 1,000 residents | 7.5 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.3 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
At 8.4 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $834K) costs more against local pay than in 82% of New Jersey towns; that ratio is one input to its D for cost of living.
Typical home values rose 5.6% in the year to September 2026.
| Scotch Plains Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,060 a month | $1,778 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 79% | 77% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
225 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 35 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 79% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 225 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Scotch Plains Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
25.5% of workers work from home, against 16.8% across New Jersey.
Most working residents leave Scotch Plains Township for work: only 7% work in town. 26% of workers work from home in Scotch Plains Township. The top destinations are New York (15%), Newark (4%) and Edison Township (3%).
| Scotch Plains Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 26% | 16% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 34 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 2.5% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Scotch Plains Township has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 87°, January nights drop to 23° and about 21 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
25 within 15 miles of the center of Scotch Plains Township
About 6 of every 100 Scotch Plains Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Jersey.
21.3% of the town is conserved land, across 8 parks and preserves.
6 places in Scotch Plains Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
18 notable people were born in Scotch Plains Township.
Township in Union County, New Jersey, US
Scotch Plains is a township in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is located on a ridge in northern-central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 24,968, an increase of 1,458 (+6.2%) from the 2010 census count of 23,510, which in turn reflected an increase of 778 (+3.4%) from the 22,732 counted in the 2000 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
6 towns share a border with Scotch Plains Township.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotch Plains Township | #72 | A | D | A− | A− | A+ |
| Clark Township | #189 | B+ | D | C+ | B+ | A |
| Berkeley Heights Township | #38 | A+ | D | A | A− | A+ |
| Watchung | #272 | B− | D− | C− | A− | A+ |
| Fanwood | #28 | A+ | D | A | A− | A+ |
| Westfield | #14 | A+ | D | A | A | A+ |
| Plainfield | #451 | D− | D | — | D− | C− |
Plainfield reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Scotch Plains Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Scotch Plains Township grades A overall, better than 92% of U.S. towns and #72 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.
18 notable people were born here, including Thomas W. Osborn and Abraham Coles.
_-_Full_(48124330357).jpg){kind=link}
_-_Central_Park,_NYC.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}