Check out the article from the Mendham Chester Patch here:
Mendham Borough Makes Top NJ Towns List For 2025 — Here's Where Others Landed
Niche recently unveiled its annual Best Places to Live rankings. Here's where Mendham and Chester stand.
Patch Staff
Posted Tue, May 27, 2025, at 10:02 am ET
Access To 'Critical
MENDHAM, NJ — Living in Mendham Borough just got top marks — Niche.com gave the borough an “A+” in its latest rankings of the best places to live.
Niche.com, which ranks school districts and locales across the nation through various criteria, unveiled its annual Best Places to Live in New Jersey rankings last week and placed Mendham and Chester among the state’s top 100.
Mendham Borough was ranked the highest, coming in at the 69th best place to live in New Jersey for 2025, according to Niche, out of 639 towns evaluated statewide. In Morris County, Mountain Lakes earned the highest ranking at No. 10, followed by Chatham Township at No. 20.
In New Jersey, Mendham Borough ranked 21st on Niche’s list of “Places with the Best Public Schools” and 41st for “Best Suburbs to Raise a Family.”
Coming in just behind was Mendham Township, which ranked 75th on Niche’s list of the Best Places to Live in New Jersey for 2025. The township also earned high marks in other categories, placing 36th for “Suburbs with the Best Public Schools in New Jersey” and 43rd for “Best Suburbs to Raise a Family in New Jersey.”
Next in line was Chester Borough, which ranked 90th on Niche’s list of the Best Places to Live in New Jersey for 2025. The borough also earned high marks in other categories, placing 57th for “Places with the Best Public Schools in New Jersey” and 100th for “Best Suburbs to Buy a House in New Jersey.”
Finally, Chester Township was the only local town not to crack the top 100, landing at No. 113 on Niche’s 2025 list of the Best Places to Live in New Jersey. However, it still ranked well in other areas—coming in 58th for “Places with the Best Public Schools in New Jersey” and 85th for “Best Places to Retire in New Jersey.”
Now in its 11th year, Niche’s data-driven rankings are designed to help individuals at all life stages—from young professionals and families to retirees—make informed decisions about where to live. The annual report evaluates communities of all sizes, including large cities, suburbs, and neighborhoods across the country.
Mendham Borough also received an overall Niche grade of A+ for 2025. Here's how Niche graded the borough in the following categories:
Public Schools: A+
Crime & Safety: A
Housing: B+
Nightlife: B-
Good for Families: A+
Diversity: C+
Jobs: A-
Weather: B-
Cost of Living: C+
Health & Fitness: A
Outdoor Activities: B+
Commute: B
Niche combines millions of resident reviews with data from sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read more about Niche's methodology.
However, rankings like Niche’s have drawn criticism, including from some of the very agencies that provide the underlying data. The FBI, which supplies crime statistics used in the analysis, has cautioned against using the data to directly compare one community to another.
"Data users should not rank locales because there are many factors that cause the nature and type of crime to vary from place to place," the FBI says. "UCR (uniform crime reporting) statistics include only jurisdictional population figures along with reported crime, clearance, or arrest data. Rankings ignore the uniqueness of each locale."