Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bristol Township is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C− overall, 925th among Pennsylvania's 1032 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $79K. Expect to pay for it: homes are expensive, about $341K for a typical one and 3.7 times the Philadelphia metro’s $91K median household income. Bristol Township is more walkable than 85% of U.S. towns. Only 112 of Pennsylvania’s 1,717 towns score lower on civic life. Its National Register listings include White Hall of Bristol College and Phineas Pemberton House.
Where Bristol Township beats most towns.
Its founding year, 1681, comes before those of 98% of the Pennsylvania towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 511 in 1800, 9,861 in 2020. The archive holds 18 old photos and papers going back to 1776 and 3 maps from 1907 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Pennsylvania), ordered by how far Bristol Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Bristol Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw19 mi MuseumUSS New Jersey
Big draw15 mi MuseumLynnewood Hall
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaLincoln Financial Field
Big draw19 mi Ancient siteIndependence Hall3.0M visitors a year
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaXfinity Mobile Arena
Big draw19 mi MuseumEastern State PenitentiaryUSS New Jersey: Camera Operator: PH3 BRYANT, Public domain · Lynnewood Hall: Shuvaev, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lincoln Financial Field: The original uploader was Betp at French Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Independence Hall: Mys 721tx, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Xfinity Mobile Arena: Jen Smith, CC BY 3.0 · Eastern State Penitentiary: Davidt8, Public domain
Who provides power, water and the rest in Bristol 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 Bristol Township.
Bristol Township is safe by national standards but not by Pennsylvania’s; it also trails Falls Township and its other neighbors on schools and has a long record of flood insurance claims.
10 miles of trail in 5 parks and preserves. Silver Lake Park, at 267 acres with 3.8 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. Bristol Township’s trail network density is 0.6 miles per square mile, close to both Pennsylvania’s towns (0.4) and U.S. towns (0.4).
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Silver Lake Park | 3.8 mi | 267 |
| 2. Neshaminy State Park | 1.6 mi | 86 |
| 3. Marie Lowe Recreation Park | 0.1 mi | 5 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Each of its 4 graded neighbors has a higher School Grade than its C−, Falls Township highest at A.
The public schools here belong to Bristol Township SD. Two of its 9 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. 5 public schools serve Bristol Township, with 4,359 students in all.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keystone El SchLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 988 | C |
| Truman SHSLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,626 | C |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within PA on state tests and graduation
Just over a tenth of Bristol Township working residents work locally, against 6.3% in Pennsylvania’s towns and 8% across U.S. towns. In Bristol Township, the mean commuting time is 27 minutes. The top destinations are Philadelphia (16%), Bensalem Township (8%) and Middletown Township (6%).
| Bristol Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 11% | 6.3% | 8% |
| Work from home | 14% | 12% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 10% | 7.6% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The town’s midsummer high comes in at 87°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
A home in Bristol Township typically sold within 35 days of listing. Home values are up 2.3% over the year to September 2026. Homes in Bristol Township sold for 98.4% of their list price on average.
| Bristol Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 72% | 78% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,245 a month | $1,114 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
At 22 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 79% of Pennsylvania’s graded towns.
Bristol Township’s rate of thefts and burglaries stands at 15 per 1,000 residents. The rate of reported violence locally is 1.6 per 1,000 residents.
| Bristol Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 15 per 1,000 residents | 5.7 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.6 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
In Bristol Township, two in five adults sleep under 7 hours, and 77% had a checkup this year. Nearly a fifth of adults smoke cigarettes locally.
| Bristol Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 16% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 40% | 38% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 77% | 79% | 79% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 34% | 35% |
| What stands out | Bristol Township | PA |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 8.5% | 5.8% |
| More smokers | 18.5% | 15.8% |
| More adults in fair or poor health | 21.1% | 18.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
292 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 25 properties have flooded more than once.
For Bristol Township, the natural-hazard score from FEMA is 45 of 100. The national flood insurance program has paid 292 claims locally since 1978. Expected losses in Bristol Township break down as 71% from inland flooding and 7% from earthquakes.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
16 within 15 miles of the center of Bristol Township
About 4 of every 100 Bristol Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Pennsylvania.
Where Bristol Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
2 places in Bristol Township on the National Register of Historic Places.
Borough in Pennsylvania, US
Bristol is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located 23 miles (37 km) northeast of Center City in Philadelphia opposite Burlington, New Jersey, on the Delaware River. Bristol was settled in 1681 and first incorporated in 1720. After 1834, it became very important to the development of the American Industrial Revolution as the terminus city of the Delaware Canal, providing greater Philadelphia with the day's high quality anthracite coal from the Lehigh Canal via Easton. The canal and a short trip on the Delaware River also gave the town access to the mineral resources available in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York via of the Morris Canal, the Delaware and Huds…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
10 towns share a border with Bristol Township.
All 3 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its C−; Bensalem Township (C) is closest. Middletown Township next door grades higher for schools (B+ to Bristol Township’s C−) and lower for cost of living (D to C).
| Town | PA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol Township | #925 | C− | C | C+ | C− | C+ |
| Bristol | #878 | C | C | B | C | C+ |
| Bensalem Township | #903 | C | C− | C | C | B |
| Croydon | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Middletown Township | #395 | B+ | D | — | B+ | A− |
| Levittown | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Falls Township | #371 | A− | C− | B− | A | A− |
| Tullytown | — | — | C | — | A | C+ |
Tullytown has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Middletown Township and Tullytown report no FBI crime data of their own. Croydon and Levittown aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Bristol Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Bristol Township grades C− overall, better than 24% of U.S. towns and #925 of 1032 in Pennsylvania. It grades C+ for health, C+ for safety and C− for schools. Schools is its weak spot, with a C−.
Pennsylvania has less crime than most states, so among its own towns Bristol Township sits nearer the middle.
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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