Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Forks Township grades B overall, 569th of 1032 graded towns in Pennsylvania. The median household earns $110K. Crime is low: it reports less per resident than 85% of U.S. towns and CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 80% of the country. The catch is cost: homes are expensive, about $359K for a typical one and 4.2 times the Allentown metro’s $85K median household income. Forks Township’s trail density is 1.1 miles per square mile, above both the Pennsylvania town median (0.4) and the median of U.S. towns (0.4). Only 18 of Pennsylvania’s 1,749 towns score lower on history. The biggest park or preserve is Forks Community Park, at 50 acres.
Where Forks Township beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Pennsylvania), ordered by how far Forks Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 5,969 in 1990, 16,077 in 2020. The archive holds 10 old photos and papers going back to 2009 and 5 maps from 1890 on.
Explore the history →Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Forks Township. Close and well known come first.
19 mi Theme parkDorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom
3 mi Park & preserveLehigh River
30 mi LakeLake Musconetcong
16 mi Stadium & arenaPPL Center
in town Theme parkBushkill Park
34 mi Park & preserveDuke FarmsDorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom: Coasterman1234 at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Lehigh River: The original uploader was Malepheasant at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0 · Lake Musconetcong: Zeete, CC BY-SA 4.0 · PPL Center: Hunter Kahn, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Bushkill Park: Mr6507, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Duke Farms: Ekem, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Forks 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 Forks Township.
Forks Township trades workers with Bethlehem and other neighbors and is safe by national standards but not by Pennsylvania’s; it also has a long record of flood insurance claims.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Forks Community Park | 0.5 mi | 50 |
| 2. Gollub Park | 0.5 mi | 27 |
| 3. Meco Fields | — | 27 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by Easton Area SD. Three of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easton Area MSLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,879 | C− |
| Career Institute of TechnologyLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 13 | – |
| Shawnee El SchTop results in townGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 567 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within PA on state tests and graduation
At 6.9 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 69% of Pennsylvania’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 123 to 80 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
At 0.2 per 1,000 residents, Forks Township’s violent crime rate is close to Pennsylvania’s towns (0.7) and below U.S. towns (1.6). Forks Township’s property crime rate is 4.5 per 1,000 residents.
| Forks Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.2 per 1,000 residents | 0.7 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 4.5 per 1,000 residents | 5.7 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Against the 7,109 U.S. towns with household incomes like Forks Township’s, it is healthier than 65%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
14% of adults report frequent mental distress in Forks Township. Forks Township beats the Pennsylvania average on 8 of 26 CDC measures and trails it on 0. 21% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Forks Township.
| Forks Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 16% | 17% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 24% | 23% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 14% | 14% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 17% | 14% |
| What stands out | Forks Township | PA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 10.2% | 14.5% |
| Fewer smokers | 12.9% | 15.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Forks Township has chilly winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 85°, January nights drop to 19° and about 23 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Forks Township has about as many jobs (6,132) as working residents, but only 500 people both live and work here.
Most working residents leave Forks Township for work: only 7% work in town. The average trip to work in Forks Township is 30 minutes. Jobs based in Forks Township fell to 6,132 in 2023, 980 fewer than in 2013.
| Forks Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 30 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $110,000 | $81,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 17% | 12% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 4.5% | 7.6% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
162 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 42 properties have flooded more than once.
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 59% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 162 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Forks Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the Pennsylvania average. 42% of Forks Township adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more. Forks Township has grown 4.9% since 2020, to 16,879 residents in the Census Bureau’s 2025 estimate.
| Forks Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 42% | 29% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 19% | 20% | 22% |
| Median age | 44 years | 43.2 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 21% | 21% | 18% |
48% women, 52% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.6 points. Across Pennsylvania, 50.7% of residents are women.
| Forks Township | PA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.3% | 10.8% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.4% | 9.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.7% | 9% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 13.8% | 13% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.7% | 12.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12.3% | 11.9% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 16.2% | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 13% | 11.4% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 7.6% | 8.1% | 7% |
| No diploma | 7.5% | 7.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 26.2% | 32.9% | 26% |
| Some college | 11.5% | 15.1% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 12.5% | 8.9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 28.2% | 20.9% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 14.1% | 14.3% | 14.1% |
Census population estimates, 2025 · U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
5 within 15 miles of the center of Forks Township
About 3 of every 100 Forks Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Pennsylvania.
Township in Pennsylvania, US
Forks Township is a township in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population of Forks Township was 16,077 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Lehigh Valley metropolitan area, which had a population of 861,899 and was the 68th-most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. as of the 2020 census. The township is home to the global headquarters of Crayola, founded in 1885, a global arts supply company and the world's leading manufacturer of crayons. Forks Township is located 20.8 miles (33.5 km) northeast of Allentown, 80.5 miles (129.6 km) north of Philadelphia, and 74.6 miles (120.1 km) west of New York City.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
9 towns share a border with Forks Township.
| Town | PA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forks Township | #569 | B | C− | A | C | A− |
| Palmer Township | #578 | B | C− | B | C | A− |
| Tatamy | — | — | C+ | A+ | A | A− |
| Chestnut Hill | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Easton | #841 | C | C+ | B | C | C+ |
| Stockertown | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Plainfield Township | #730 | B− | C− | — | B+ | B+ |
| Lower Mount Bethel Township | #522 | B | B+ | — | B+ | B− |
Tatamy has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Plainfield Township and Lower Mount Bethel Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Chestnut Hill and Stockertown aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Forks Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Forks Township grades B overall, better than 61% of U.S. towns and #569 of 1032 in Pennsylvania. It grades A− for health, A for safety and C for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. 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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