Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Wayne Township grades B+ overall, 214th of 466 graded towns in New Jersey. It is healthier than 95% of U.S. towns and the median household earns $153K. The trade-off is money: homes are expensive, about $747K for a typical one and 7.5 times the New York metro’s $99K median household income. Wayne Township’s median household income is $153,000, above both the New Jersey town median ($113,000) and the median of U.S. towns ($80,000). Wayne Township is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns. Wayne Township is home to William Paterson University of New Jersey.
Where Wayne Township beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Jersey), ordered by how far Wayne Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for health (better than 95% of comparable towns) to D− for cost of living (better than 4%), so the B+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,162 in 1850, 54,838 in 2020. The archive holds 20 old photos and papers going back to 1695 and 7 maps from 1888 on.
4 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Wayne Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw18 mi City parkCentral Park40.0M visitors a year
Big draw19 mi Stadium & arenaMadison Square Garden
Big draw13 mi Stadium & arenaMetLife Stadium
Big draw19 mi TheatreStudio 54
Big draw19 mi MuseumMetropolitan Museum of Art2.0M visitors a year
Big draw19 mi Stadium & arenaYankee StadiumCentral Park: Ed Yourdon from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Madison Square Garden: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 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 · Yankee Stadium: Matt Boulton, CC BY-SA 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Wayne 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 Wayne Township.
Wayne Township trades workers with New York City and other neighbors, but it reports more crime than Fairfield Township and its other graded neighbors and has homes that cost more against local pay than most of New Jersey.
Its widest gap with New Jersey is utility shut-off threats: 4.3% of its 44,473 adults were threatened with a utility shut-off, against 7% statewide. Against the 2,553 U.S. towns with household incomes like Wayne Township’s, it is healthier than 76%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
Among adults in Wayne Township, 32% sleep under 7 hours. Of 32 CDC measures, Wayne Township beats the New Jersey average on 17 and trails it on 1. In Wayne Township, 16% of adults have been diagnosed with depression, and 8.1% smoke cigarettes.
| Wayne Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 28% | 35% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 16% | 23% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8.1% | 11% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 36% | 36% |
| What stands out | Wayne Township | NJ |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing a utility shut-off | 4.3% | 7% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 9.4% | 14.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.1% | 7.5% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Public schools: the Wayne Township Public School District. Three of the 24 schools are below, and why each made the list. 6 public schools serve Wayne Township, with 2,331 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schuyler Colfax Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 650 | A− |
| Passaic County Technical InstituteLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 3,565 | A− |
| Passaic County Technical Institute STEM AcademyTop results in townGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,040 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NJ on state tests and graduation
Across 44 parks and preserves: 31 miles of trail. The biggest place to walk is High Mountain Park Preserve, 1,222 acres with 16.5 miles of trail. In Wayne Township, the trail density is 1.3 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. High Mountain Park Preserve | 16.5 mi | 1,222 |
| 2. Laurelwood Arboretum | 2.4 mi | 29 |
| 3. Wayne Area Park | 1.4 mi | 37 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
At 7.5 years of the New York metro’s $99K median household income, the typical home (about $747K) costs more against local pay than in 76% of New Jersey towns; that ratio is one input to that grade.
Typical home values rose 7.1% in the year to September 2026. For Wayne Township, the midpoint rent is $2,164 a month. Also worth knowing: in Wayne Township, 79% of households live in a home they own.
| Wayne Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,164 a month | $1,778 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 79% | 77% | 73% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 48% | 52% | 48% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 22° and about 24 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Wayne Township has about as many jobs (31,383) as working residents, but only 3,010 people both live and work here.
The top destinations are New York (11%), Paterson (4%) and Parsippany-Troy Hills Township (3%). For workers in Wayne Township, the share who do their job from home is 21%. The town had 31,383 jobs in 2023, down 3,214 from 2013. The typical journey to work here is 29 minutes.
| Wayne Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 21% | 16% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 3.4% | 6.1% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 30 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 11% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Each of the 4 graded towns on its borders reports less crime per resident, from Fairfield Township (B−) to Lincoln Park (A). At 22.9 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 77% of New Jersey’s graded towns.
The rate of reported violence for Wayne Township comes to 0.9 per 1,000 residents. Wayne Township’s property crime rate is 17.6 per 1,000 residents.
| Wayne Township | New Jersey towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 17.6 per 1,000 residents | 7.4 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.9 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
5,568 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 697 properties have flooded more than once.
Since 1978, 5,568 flood insurance claims have been paid out in the town. Wayne Township’s natural-hazard score from FEMA comes in at 59 of 100. 82% of the town’s expected losses from natural hazards come from inland flooding. Federal disaster aid has reached households in Wayne Township after 11 declared disasters, most recently in 2021.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
28 within 15 miles of the center of Wayne Township
About 9 of every 100 Wayne Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Jersey.
4 places in Wayne Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
14 notable people were born in Wayne Township.
Township in Passaic County, New Jersey, US
Wayne is a township in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Home to William Paterson University and located less than 20 miles (32 km) from Midtown Manhattan, the township is a bedroom suburb of New York City and regional commercial hub of North Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 54,838, an increase of 121 (+0.2%) from the 2010 census count of 54,717, which in turn reflected an increase of 648 (+1.2%) from the 54,069 counted in the 2000 census. Wayne was formed as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 12, 1847, from portions of Manchester Township. Totowa was formed from portions of Wayne and Manchester Township on Ma…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Wayne Township.
| Town | NJ rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wayne Township | #214 | B+ | D− | C+ | B+ | A+ |
| Lincoln Park | #119 | A | D | A | A− | A |
| Pequannock Township | #92 | A | D− | A | A− | A |
| Totowa | #278 | B− | D− | — | C+ | A− |
| Pompton Lakes | #129 | A | C− | A | B+ | A |
| Pompton Plains | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Fairfield Township | #216 | B+ | D− | B− | A− | A+ |
| Singac | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Totowa reports no FBI crime data of its own. Pompton Plains and Singac aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Wayne Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Wayne Township grades B+ overall, better than 67% of U.S. towns and #214 of 466 in New Jersey. It grades A+ for health, C+ for safety and B+ 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−.
14 notable people were born here, including Pellegrino Matarazzo and Susan Walsh.
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