Sussex County, New Jersey

Sussex County is a county in New Jersey, United States, about 55 miles northwest of New York
City. It had a population of 144,221 at the 2020 census, an estimated 145,807 by 2023, and
covers 535.54 square miles (1,387.0 km2) centred near 41°08′N 74°41′W.

Newton is the county seat; its postal code is 07860. The county holds 1 town, 9 boroughs and
14 townships — New Jersey has no unincorporated land, so every one of these 24
municipalities is the county seat’s neighbor’s own local government — and it runs on
Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 34037.

Towns & Villages in Sussex County

Sussex County has 24 municipalities on record: 1 town, 9 boroughs and 14 townships. New
Jersey divides every acre of a county into an incorporated municipality, so there is no
Census-style CDP or unincorporated territory at the county level here — the “Township”
label below is the municipality’s own legal form of government, not a subdivision of a larger
town.

Several named lake and mountain communities sit inside these townships without a government
of their own. The largest is Lake Mohawk, a census-designated place split between Sparta and
Byram townships with 9,759 residents in 2020 — bigger than 19 of the 24 municipalities
above. Highland Lakes, in Vernon Township, is a CDP of 4,816. McAfee, Glenwood and Stockholm are
older unincorporated hamlets in Vernon and Hardyston townships with no 2020 CDP count of their
own, and Beemerville is an unincorporated crossroads in Wantage Township.

Branchville is a “doughnut town” — a small independent borough completely
surrounded by Frankford Township, one of 21 such pairs in New Jersey. Andover Borough and
Andover Township are two separate municipalities that do not touch each other; the borough was
carved out of the township in 1904 and now sits detached, several miles east near Green
Township.

ZIP Codes

• 07860 — Newton (also serves Andover Township, Hampton Township and Fredon Township, none of which has its own ZIP)
• 07871 — Andover (post office town for Byram Township and Sparta Township’s southern end)
• 07843 — Hopatcong
• 07461 — Sussex (shared with Wantage Township)
• 07419 — Hamburg (shared with Hardyston Township)
• 07416 — Franklin
• 07826 — Branchville (shared with Frankford and Sandyston townships)
• 07874 — Stanhope
• 07875 — Stillwater
• 07827 — Montague
• 07821 — Andover Borough (shared with Green Township)
• 07439 — Ogdensburg
• 07848 — Lafayette
• 07462 — Vernon, plus three more ZIPs inside the same township: 07422 Highland Lakes, 07418 Glenwood and 07428 McAfee
• 07881 — Walpack Center

Six of the county’s fourteen townships — Andover, Fredon, Hampton, Green, Sandyston and
part of Byram — have no ZIP code of their own and are served entirely by a neighboring
town’s post office, a pattern typical of small New Jersey townships that never grew a commercial
center large enough to justify one.

Geography

Sussex County sits in New Jersey’s northwestern corner, in the Kittatinny Valley and
Kittatinny Mountains, a ridge-and-valley landscape of the Appalachians. High Point, at 1,803
feet in Montague Township, is the highest point in New Jersey; it anchors High Point State Park,
where the Appalachian National Scenic Trail crosses on its way south toward the Delaware Water
Gap. The Delaware River forms the county’s entire western border, and the Wallkill River drains
the eastern side of the county north into New York. Lake Hopatcong, on the county’s southern
edge, is the largest lake in New Jersey and shared with Morris County.

Sussex County is the only county in New Jersey that borders both New York and Pennsylvania.
Orange County, New York, lies to the north; the Delaware River and Pike County, Pennsylvania,
lie to the west; Warren County lies to the south; and Morris County and Passaic County lie to
the southeast and east. Warren
County, Morris County
and Passaic County all border Sussex
directly within New Jersey.

Demographics

Sussex County had a population of 144,221 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts
the county near 145,807 residents. Vernon Township and Sparta Township are the two largest
communities, together holding more than a quarter of the county’s population. Median household
income runs $116,186, above New Jersey’s statewide figure of $99,781. Population density works
out to roughly 278 people per square mile of land, low for northern New Jersey and a reflection
of the county’s mountain and park land.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the county, about 10,000
people, followed by educational services at 9,105 and retail trade at 8,926. Newton Medical
Center, a 146-bed acute-care hospital in Newton, is the county’s largest single health care
employer. Selective Insurance Group, a property-and-casualty insurance holding company, has
been headquartered in Branchville since 1926 and remains one of the county’s most notable
corporate employers. Sussex County Community College, also in Newton, is the county’s public
two-year college. Vernon Township’s Mountain Creek ski resort and Crystal Springs Resort in
Hardyston and Vernon townships anchor a winter-sports and golf tourism economy. The county’s
biggest annual event is the New Jersey State Fair & Sussex County Farm and Horse Show,
held each August at the fairgrounds in Frankford Township.

History

New Jersey’s colonial assembly formed Sussex County on 8 June 1753, carving it out of Morris
County and naming it for Sussex, England. Newton grew up around the county courthouse,
completed in 1765; during the Revolutionary War, Loyalist raider Lieutenant James Moody twice
attempted to seize the courthouse’s records and prisoners.

Iron mining shaped the county through the 18th and 19th centuries, and zinc mining at
Franklin and Sterling Hill made the area world-famous among mineral collectors — more than
150 mineral species have been identified there, dozens found nowhere else on Earth, earning
Franklin its nickname “the Fluorescent Mineral Capital of the World.” Thomas Edison
bought up mining claims across the county in the 1880s and ran a magnetic ore-separation plant
near Ogdensburg through the 1890s, a costly venture that ultimately failed. Both the Franklin
and Sterling Hill mines are now museums.

Walpack Township’s near-empty state today traces to the Tocks Island Dam project: starting
in 1962, the Army Corps of Engineers planned a 40-mile reservoir on the Delaware River and used
eminent domain to acquire roughly 72,000 acres across Walpack, Sandyston and Montague townships.
Congress killed the dam in 1978 after cost overruns, soil-stability concerns and local activism,
and protected the river under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, but most of the acquired land
became the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area rather than returning to residents —
Walpack’s population has never recovered, falling to just 7 by the 2020 census.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Sussex County. NJ Route 23 runs the length of the county from
Hardyston Township north through Franklin, Hamburg, Sussex and Wantage Township to the New York
line; NJ Route 15 and NJ Route 206 serve the southern towns, and US Route 209 follows the old
Mine Road along the Delaware River in the northwest.

• New York City — about 55 miles east
• Morristown — about 25 miles southeast
• Scranton, Pennsylvania — about 45 miles west
• Allentown, Pennsylvania — about 45 miles southwest

Newark Liberty International Airport, about 50 miles southeast of Newton, is the nearest
major commercial airport. Sussex Airport, a general-aviation field in Wantage Township, handles
private and charter traffic. The county has no Amtrak or NJ Transit rail station; the closest
Amtrak service is at Newark Penn Station.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Sussex County located?
It sits in New Jersey’s northwestern corner, about 55 miles northwest of New York City, and is
the only New Jersey county bordering both New York and Pennsylvania.

What is the population of Sussex County?
144,221 at the 2020 census, with a 2023 estimate near 145,807.

How big is Sussex County?
535.54 square miles (1,387.0 km2), of which 518.66 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Sussex County?
Newton is the county seat, built up around the 1765 county courthouse.

How many towns and villages are in Sussex County?
24 municipalities — 1 town, 9 boroughs and 14 townships — plus lake communities
such as Lake Mohawk and Highland Lakes that have no separate government.

What ZIP codes does Sussex County use?
Fifteen ZIP codes anchor the county, from 07860 in Newton and 07871 in Andover to 07881 at
Walpack Center; several small townships share a neighboring town’s code.

What is Sussex County known for?
High Point, New Jersey’s highest point; the fluorescent minerals of Franklin and Sterling Hill;
and Walpack Township, nearly emptied by the abandoned Tocks Island Dam project.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in New Jersey.