Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 4,178.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Shrewsbury grades B+ overall, ranked 185th of 466 in New Jersey. Few places in the country are easier to get around without a car. Residents are healthier than 93% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates and the median household earns $179K. What holds it back is price: the typical home is worth about $1.0 million, 10.3 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Shrewsbury’s rent at the middle of the market is $3,472 a month, where New Jersey’s towns sit at $1,778 a month and U.S. towns at $1,185 a month. Shrewsbury has 4 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Allen House and Wardell House.
Where Shrewsbury beats most towns.
Where Shrewsbury’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 Shrewsbury 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 B+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 857 in 1930, 4,184 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1904 and 6 maps from 1888 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Explore the history →Shrewsbury takes its name from Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England, 3,350 miles across the Atlantic.
UKUK editionShrewsbury takes its name from Shrewsbury, a large town in Shropshire, England.
2 more U.S. towns are named after Shrewsbury:Shrewsbury, MA39,627Shrewsbury Township, NJ1,078
Named after: each U.S. town’s Wikipedia article. Grades compare each town with towns in its own country, so they aren’t a head-to-head.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Shrewsbury. Close and well known come first.
Big draw30 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw32 mi City parkCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw18 mi BeachConey Island
Big draw31 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw34 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw32 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 · Coney Island: OptimumPx, Public domain · Studio 54: Americasroof (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 · MetLife Stadium: babyknight, CC BY 2.0 · Metropolitan Museum of Art: Hugo Schneider, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Shrewsbury, 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 Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury draws workers from Middletown Township and beyond and is safe by national standards but not by New Jersey’s; it also has homes that cost more against local pay than most of New Jersey.
At 10.3 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $1.02M) costs more against local pay than in 89% of New Jersey towns; that ratio is one input to that grade.
Homes sold in Shrewsbury spent a median 12 days on the market. Home values are up 11% over the year to September 2026. 86% of households own their home here.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
One of its 3 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. The public schools here belong to the Shrewsbury Borough School District. 439 students attend the town’s public school.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shrewsbury Borough Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–8 | Grades PK–8 | 439 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
5,739 jobs are based in Shrewsbury, 3.4 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. 26.4% of workers work from home, against 16.8% across New Jersey.
The mean commuting time in Shrewsbury is 35 minutes. For half of commuters, work is under 14 miles away. In Shrewsbury, 3.6% of residents live below the poverty line. The top destinations are New York (7%), Middletown Township (5%) and Red Bank (4%).
| Shrewsbury | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $179,000 | $113,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 35 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 3.6% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 5.6% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Within New Jersey it is healthier than 66% of the 468 graded towns: New Jersey sets a high bar. Its widest gap with New Jersey is food insecurity: 7.2% of its 3,207 adults worry about having enough food, against 14.3% statewide.
For adults in Shrewsbury, the share who binge drink is 15%. This New Jersey town beats the New Jersey average on 16 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 2. In Shrewsbury, 15% of adults have been diagnosed with depression, and 31% sleep under 7 hours.
| Shrewsbury | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 32% | 33% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 16% | 23% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 36% | 36% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 17% |
| What stands out | Shrewsbury | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.2% | 14.3% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 5.8% | 11.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 11.1% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The range runs from 26° on a January night to 85° on a July afternoon, with about 25 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
0.3 miles of trail wind through 2 parks and preserves. For Shrewsbury, the density of trails is 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Shrewsbury | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.7 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 8.1% | 11% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Manson Park | — | 16 |
| 2. John Parker Park | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The FEMA hazard score for Shrewsbury comes to 59 of 100. Households here have drawn federal disaster aid in 5 declared disasters, most recently in 2020. FEMA puts 41% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 32% to strong winds. 6 flood insurance claims have been paid in the town since 1985.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
At 21.4 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 75% of New Jersey’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 100 to 65 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Shrewsbury’s property offense rate is 14.9 per 1,000 residents. In Shrewsbury, the violent crime rate is 0.7 per 1,000 residents.
| Shrewsbury | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 14.9 per 1,000 residents | 7.4 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.7 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
4 within 15 miles of the center of Shrewsbury
About 3 of every 100 Shrewsbury residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Jersey.
4 places in Shrewsbury on the National Register of Historic Places.
Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, US
Shrewsbury is a borough in eastern Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located within the heart of the northern Jersey Shore region, the borough is a bedroom community of New York City. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,184, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 375 (+9.8%) from the 2010 census count of 3,809, which in turn reflected an increase of 219 (+6.1%) from the 3,590 counted in the 2000 census. Shrewsbury was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 22, 1926, from portions of Shrewsbury Township, based on the results of a referendum held on May 11, 1926. The borough's name comes from Shrewsbury…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Shrewsbury.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shrewsbury | #185 | B+ | D | C+ | A− | A |
| Eatontown | #329 | C+ | D | C+ | B− | A− |
| Oceanport | #91 | A | D | A | A− | A+ |
| Tinton Falls | #219 | B+ | D | — | B | A |
| Little Silver | #20 | A+ | D | A | A | A+ |
| Red Bank | #323 | C+ | D− | B− | C | A− |
Tinton Falls reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Shrewsbury with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Shrewsbury grades B+ overall, better than 74% of U.S. towns and #185 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A for health, C+ 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.
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