Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Plenty in its favour, and one clear drawback. On schools it is strong — its schools outperform 94% of the state's. Bethel Park’s overall grade, A+, puts it better than almost every U.S. town. It ranks 11th of 1032 in Pennsylvania. Incomes are a strength too (A): the median household earns $107K. What counts against it is cost of living (C): the typical home is worth about $301K, 4 years of the Pittsburgh metro’s $76K median household income. Its concentration of trails is 1.5 miles per square mile, where Pennsylvania’s towns sit at 0.4 and U.S. towns at 0.4. Only 100 of Pennsylvania’s 1,749 towns score lower on history.
Figures: schools, state test and graduation results · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24 · home values, Zillow · OpenStreetMap · National Register of Historic Places.
Where Bethel Park beats most towns.
11.7% of the town is conserved land, across 17 parks and preserves.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Pennsylvania), ordered by how far Bethel Park is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 11,324 in 1950, 33,577 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1967 and 5 maps from 1904 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bethel Park. Close and well known come first.
Big draw9 mi Stadium & arenaAcrisure Stadium
8 mi LandmarkFort Duquesne
9 mi Stadium & arenaPNC Park
10 mi Theme parkKennywood
8 mi Stadium & arenaPPG Paints Arena
8 mi LandmarkFort PittAcrisure Stadium: Fo2grfr, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fort Duquesne: Sébastien Paquin, CC BY-SA 3.0 · PNC Park: alpineinc, CC BY 2.0 · Kennywood: Ski2007 of English Wikipedia, Public domain · PPG Paints Arena: Jleedev, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fort Pitt: Downtown_Pittsburgh_May_2008.jpg: Allie Caufield derivative work: GrapedApe (tal, CC BY 2.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bethel Park, 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 Bethel Park.
Bethel Park has an unusually large share working from home and is safe by national standards but not by Pennsylvania’s.
In 17 parks and preserves, walkers have 17 miles of trail. South Park, at 634 acres with 10.2 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. South Park | 10.2 mi | 634 |
| 2. Bethel Green | 1.8 mi | 40 |
| 3. Millennium Park | 0.8 mi | 39 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Of its 10 schools, three are listed below, each with the reason. Public schools: Bethel Park SD. 5 public schools serve Bethel Park, with 1,553 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Independence MSLargest public middle schoolGrades 7–8 | Grades 7–8 | 602 | B+ |
| Bethel Park HSLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,244 | B |
| William Penn El SchTop results in townGrades K–4 | Grades K–4 | 212 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within PA on state tests and graduation
In Bethel Park, 28% of adults have obesity. On the CDC’s 26 measures, Bethel Park is ahead of Pennsylvania on 14 and behind on 1.
| Bethel Park | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 16% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 38% | 36% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 35% | 35% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 16% |
| What stands out | Bethel Park | PA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 10.1% | 14.5% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.4% | 5.8% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.9% | 8.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 95% of U.S. communities. Paid flood insurance claims in Bethel Park since 1978: 70. Households locally have drawn federal disaster aid once, in 2004.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
At 9.1 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 59% of Pennsylvania’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 295 to 199 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Bethel Park’s property offense rate comes in at 5.8 per 1,000 residents.
| Bethel Park | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.4 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.8 per 1,000 residents | 5.7 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
23.9% of workers work from home, against 15.6% across Pennsylvania.
Most working residents leave Bethel Park for work: only 11% work in town. The share of workers in Bethel Park who work from home: 24%. The top destinations are Pittsburgh (29%), Cecil Township (3%) and West Mifflin (2%). For half of commuters, work is under 9 miles away.
| Bethel Park | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 24% | 12% | 11% |
| Median household income | $107,000 | $81,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 4% | 7.6% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 11% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
A winter brings about 44 inches of snow, with January nights at 22° and July afternoons at 83°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Home values are up 2.2% over the year to September 2026. A home in Bethel Park typically sold within 47 days of listing. Bidding over the asking price: a third of homes sold locally.
| Bethel Park | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,311 a month | $1,114 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 76% | 78% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
13 within 15 miles of the center of Bethel Park
About 4 of every 100 Bethel Park residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Pennsylvania.
Where Bethel Park’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
8 notable people were born in Bethel Park.
Borough in Pennsylvania, US
Bethel Park is a borough with home rule status in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a suburb within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of Pittsburgh. The population was 33,577 as of the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
7 towns share a border with Bethel Park.
At #11 in PA, it grades higher overall than all 6 graded towns on its borders; South Park Township (A+) comes closest.
| Town | PA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bethel Park | #11 | A+ | C | A− | A | A |
| South Park Township | #21 | A+ | C | A | A− | A |
| Upper St. Clair Township | #90 | A+ | D | B+ | A+ | A+ |
| Baldwin | #82 | A+ | B− | A− | B+ | B+ |
| Castle Shannon | #45 | A+ | B− | A | B+ | B+ |
| Peters Township | #77 | A+ | C− | A− | A+ | A |
| Whitehall | #94 | A+ | B− | A | B+ | B+ |
| Mount Lebanon | — | — | — | A− | A+ | — |
Mount Lebanon isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Bethel Park with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes, by almost any measure. Bethel Park grades A+ overall, among the top 2% of U.S. towns and #11 of 1032 in Pennsylvania. It grades A for health, A− for safety and A 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.
8 notable people were born here, including Scott Hahn and Dave Piontek.
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