South Plainfield is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, home to about 24,473 people across 8.3 square miles. Its ZIP code is 07080.
Homes sold for a median of $386 per square foot in the three months ending August 2026, a seller’s market.
Each card is that ZIP code’s whole market, including any part outside South Plainfield. Seller’s market: under 4 months of supply; buyer’s market: over 6. Methodology
The land South Plainfield sits on was Lenape country, and the borough's own history notes that the name Raritan traces to a Lenape group of the area. Under the Elizabethtown Purchase of 1664 it became part of a very large Piscataway Township. Mills were turning on Cedar Brook by the late 1600s, and two small hamlets grew up in the 1700s: Samptown, at today's Sampton and Clinton Avenues on the old road between Elizabeth and New Brunswick, and Brooklyn, near Front Street and South Plainfield Avenue. During the Revolution, British forces occupied the area from December 1776 to June 1777, and Samptown changed hands several times as American and British troops moved through. Its old tavern, a stop on a stage line, still stands as a house at 746 Sampton Avenue, and the hamlet's cemetery also survives.
The railroad decided where the later town center would be. In 1872 the line bypassed Samptown and put its station in what became New Brooklyn, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad added a storage yard and repair shop. A post office opened as New Brooklyn in 1877 and took the name South Plainfield about ten years later. Industry followed the tracks: Spicer Manufacturing built a plant near the station in 1913, Harris Structural Steel started on New Brunswick Avenue in 1915, and from 1936 Cornell-Dubilier made radio condensers in the old Spicer building. Hadley Airport opened on a local farm in 1924, and the first night airmail flight left from there on July 1, 1925.
South Plainfield split from Piscataway and was incorporated as a borough in March 1926, with William Hamilton as its first mayor. After World War II, farms gave way to housing tracts across the north side of town, and the Geary farm on Plainfield Avenue became Geary Park. The Golden Acres Shopping Center and the Middlesex Mall arrived in the 1960s and 1970s. The borough grew fastest in the 1950s and 1960s and has stayed close to the same size since the mid-1970s.
Much of South Plainfield was built out in the decades after World War II, when housing developments replaced farms across the north side of town. Older streets survive around the original railroad-era center near Hamilton Boulevard, Front Street and South Plainfield Avenue, the area once called New Brooklyn. Samptown, the 18th-century hamlet at Sampton and Clinton Avenues, is still a name people use for that corner of the borough.
The civic center runs along Plainfield Avenue. Borough Hall is at 2480 Plainfield Avenue, and nearby are the rescue squad building, Monument Park, a fire department memorial park and Veterans Park, linked by footpaths and a small pedestrian bridge over a branch of the Bound Brook. Spring Lake Park, a 127-acre county park, is across the road, with entrances on residential streets at Lane Avenue and Pearl Place and at Maple Avenue and Joan Street.
Shopping is mostly in centers that date from the 1960s and 1970s, among them Golden Acres and the Middlesex Mall. Industry and offices are concentrated along the rail line and near Interstate 287, including the former factory land on Hamilton Boulevard that is now an industrial tract. Public schools are run by the South Plainfield school district.
Interstate 287 crosses the southern part of the borough, with Exit 4 serving South Plainfield, so most trips start by car. Plainfield Avenue is the main north-south street through the civic center and toward Plainfield.
South Plainfield has no passenger rail station of its own; the rail line through town carries freight. The closest NJ Transit stations are in neighboring towns. Plainfield station, on North Avenue between Watchung and Park Avenues in Plainfield, is on the Raritan Valley Line, which runs east through Westfield and Cranford to Newark Penn Station, with connections there to PATH, Amtrak and other NJ Transit lines, and some trips continue to New York Penn Station. Edison station, at Plainfield and Central Avenues in Edison, is on the Northeast Corridor Line to Newark and New York. As of 2026 both stations have NJ Transit or municipal parking, with daily and permit options; Edison's lots are the larger of the two.
Within the borough, the paths around Monument Park and Borough Hall and the trails and bike path in Spring Lake Park are the main places set up for walking and cycling.
Spring Lake Park, run by Middlesex County, covers 127 acres around a five-acre lake. It has walking trails and a bike path, fishing, tennis and basketball courts, a playground, a gazebo and a performance stage. The county scheduled repaving of the park's roads and parking lots to begin in August 2025.
Monument Park, opened in 2004 beside the rescue squad building and across from Spring Lake Park, holds the borough's veterans monument, a Civil War memorial, police and rescue squad memorials, a four-faced town clock and military pieces including a Cobra helicopter and a ship's anchor. The borough also lists the Dismal Swamp, a natural area that extends into Edison, among its historic places, along with Cedar Brook and the site of Hadley Airport.
The Plainfield Curling Club, founded in 1963, is based in South Plainfield just off Exit 4 of I-287. It is the only curling club in New Jersey with its own ice, and it runs leagues from October through April along with learn-to-curl sessions and open houses. The Labor Day parade is a long-running borough tradition held with a festival afterward; the 2025 parade was on September 1. The borough also runs a Restaurant Week and has its own public library.
Researched and drafted from the public sources below. Updated October 2026. Spot something wrong or out of date? Tell us.
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Get matched| Nearest major airport | Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)15 miles away |
|---|---|
| Nearest city of 250,000+ | Newark, NJ16 miles away |
| Nearest city of 1 million+ | New York, NY26 miles away |
Straight-line distances from the center of South Plainfield; driving is longer.
Source: Airports from OurAirports (scheduled passenger service); city centers and populations from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Source: Members of Congress from the congress-legislators project; districts from the Census Bureau’s relationship files; governor and mayor from Wikidata.
South Plainfield had 24,338 residents in the 2020 census, up 12% since 2000.
It’s the 109th largest of 565 towns in New Jersey by population.
Middlesex County grew from 79,762 residents in 1900 to 863,162 in 2020.
Middlesex County, 1900–2020
Source: U.S. Census Bureau decennial censuses (counties 1900–1990 from the Bureau’s historical county file).
Average highs peak around 88°F in summer, and winter lows average 24°F. About 48.7 inches of rain and melted snow fall in a typical year, with about 21 inches of snow.
Source: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, Plainfield, NJ weather station (2 miles away).
434,143 jobs at 22,314 businesses in Middlesex County. The biggest industries by employees:
Source: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 (private employers; jobs counted where people work).
216 doctors and other health care providers list an office in South Plainfield.
Nearest hospitals
Providers with an office here
| Primary care doctors | 28 |
|---|---|
| Specialist doctors | 43 |
| Dentists | 32 |
| Nurse practitioners and physician assistants | 20 |
| Mental health providers | 39 |
| Physical and occupational therapists | 32 |
| Optometrists | 12 |
| Chiropractors | 10 |
| Pharmacies | 28 |
Source: Hospitals from CMS Hospital General Information (ratings are CMS overall star ratings); straight-line distances; providers from the CMS National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES), by practice address and primary specialty.
Parks (14 nearby)
Grocery stores (3 nearby)
Pharmacies
Libraries (2 nearby)
Museums
Theaters and performance venues
Counts are within about 2 miles of the center of town.
Source: Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (openstreetmap.org/copyright), as mapped by volunteers; it can miss places or include closed ones.
Public schools here are run by South Plainfield School District. Check each district’s attendance zones for a specific address.
| School | Grades | Students | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riley Preschool AnnexSouth Plainfield | Pre-K | 145 | Public | 0.8 mi |
| Roosevelt Preschool AnnexSouth Plainfield | Pre-K | 92 | Public | 0.9 mi |
| Franklin Elementary SchoolSouth Plainfield | K–4 | 270 | Public | 1.1 mi |
| John E. Riley Elementary SchoolSouth Plainfield | K–4 | 367 | Public | 0.9 mi |
| John F Kennedy Elementary SchoolSouth Plainfield | K–4 | 256 | Public | 0.8 mi |
| Roosevelt Elementary SchoolSouth Plainfield | K–4 | 472 | Public | 0.9 mi |
| Grant Elementary SchoolSouth Plainfield | 5–6 | 568 | Public | 0.5 mi |
| South Plainfield Middle SchoolSouth Plainfield | 7–8 | 553 | Public | 0.4 mi |
| South Plainfield High SchoolSouth Plainfield | 9–12 | 1,044 | Public | 0.4 mi |
| School | Grades | Students | Affiliation | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greatstart Early LearningSouth Plainfield | Pre-K–K | 2 | Nonsectarian | 2.2 mi |
| Holy Savior AcademySouth Plainfield | Pre-K–8 | 121 | Roman Catholic | 0.3 mi |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, NCES: Common Core of Data (2024-2025) for public schools; Private School Universe Survey (2023-2024) for private schools. Listed by address; we don’t rate schools.
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Town boundaries don’t always match ZIP codes: a ZIP code can cross into neighboring towns, and a town can share a ZIP code with its neighbors. Facts describe the town itself; market figures describe whole ZIP codes.