Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Rochester Township gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $149K for a typical one, or 2 years of the Pittsburgh metro’s $76K median household income. It grades C+ overall, 754th among Pennsylvania's 1032 graded towns. The low prices come with trade-offs. Residents are less healthy than 81% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. On the plus side, natural-hazard risk is low. History is its standout character grade: an A, better than 91% of U.S. towns, with 1 place on the National Register. On walkability, just 129 of Pennsylvania’s 1,749 towns do worse. Bridgewater Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Where Rochester Township beats most towns.
Where Rochester Township’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Pennsylvania), ordered by how far Rochester Township is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for hazard risk (better than 97% of comparable towns) to D for walkability (better than 10%), so the C+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 993 in 1850, a peak of 7,726 in 1930, 3,472 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1890 and 4 maps from 1901 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Rochester 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 Rochester Township.
Rochester Township trails Freedom and its other neighbors on schools, but it has lost a quarter or more of its jobs in ten years.
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 94% of U.S. communities. Since 1978, 3 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Rochester Township.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Each of its 4 graded neighbors has a higher School Grade than its C, Freedom highest at B.
Its public schools are run by Rochester Area SD. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester Area Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 346 | B |
| Rochester High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 222 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within PA on state tests and graduation
21% of Rochester Township adults smoke cigarettes, above both the Pennsylvania town median (16%) and the median of U.S. towns (14%). 41% of Rochester Township adults have obesity. Rochester Township beats the Pennsylvania average on 0 of 26 CDC measures and trails it on 11.
| Rochester Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 16% | 14% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 41% | 35% | 35% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 14% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 19% | 19% |
| What stands out | Rochester Township | PA |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 10.4% | 7.7% |
| More uninsured adults | 7.7% | 5.8% |
| More smokers | 20.5% | 15.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Jobs based here fell from 1,370 in 2013 to 777.
Most working residents leave Rochester Township for work: only 4% work in town. Jobs based in Rochester Township fell to 777 in 2023, 593 fewer than in 2013. At $61,000, Rochester Township’s median household income is against $81,000 in Pennsylvania’s towns and $80,000 across U.S. towns.
| Rochester Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $61,000 | $81,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 26 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 3.7% | 6.3% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Rochester Township has chilly winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 21° and about 20 inches of snow falls in a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Rochester Township’s conserved land covers 0.4% of the town. 0.4 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve. The trail density in Rochester Township is 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Rochester Township | Pennsylvania towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.4% | 8.2% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Vince Ginge Gallo Memorial Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Rochester Township. Close and well known come first.
Big draw23 mi Stadium & arenaAcrisure Stadium
23 mi LandmarkFort Duquesne
23 mi Stadium & arenaPNC Park
31 mi Theme parkKennywood
24 mi Stadium & arenaPPG Paints Arena
23 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
5 within 15 miles of the center of Rochester Township
About 5 of every 100 Rochester Township residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Pennsylvania.
Borough in Pennsylvania, US
Rochester is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Beaver and Ohio rivers 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. The population was 3,472 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Like many towns around Pittsburgh, Rochester was a former industrial hub, home to the H. C. Fry Glass Company, and was a major junction on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rochester has been a background for films, including the 1986 movie Gung Ho, the 1996 movie Kingpin, and the 2000 movie Wonder Boys.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
9 towns share a border with Rochester Township.
| Town | PA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester Township | #754 | C+ | A | — | C | C− |
| Daugherty Township | #737 | B− | B+ | — | C+ | B− |
| Rochester | #980 | C− | B+ | D | C | D− |
| Pulaski Township | — | — | A | — | C+ | B− |
| East Rochester | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Bridgewater | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Freedom | — | — | A | — | B | D |
| Fallston | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Pulaski Township and Freedom have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Rochester Township, Daugherty Township, Pulaski Township and Freedom report no FBI crime data of their own. East Rochester, Bridgewater and Fallston aren’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Rochester Township with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Rochester Township grades C+ overall, better than 44% of U.S. towns and #754 of 1032 in Pennsylvania. It grades C− for health and C for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.
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