Toms River is a township in Ocean County, New Jersey, home to about 98,143 people across 41 square miles. Its ZIP codes are 08753 and 08755, and parts of 08735 and 08751 are in Toms River too.
Homes sold for a median of $297 per square foot across 2 ZIP codes in the three months ending August 2026, and all of them were seller’s markets.
All in Toms River
All in Toms River
Mostly Lavallette; part is in Toms River
Mostly Seaside Heights; part is in Toms River
Each card is that ZIP code’s whole market, including any part outside Toms River. Seller’s market: under 4 months of supply; buyer’s market: over 6. Methodology
Toms River traces its name to a mid-1700s ferry across the river, traditionally credited to a ferryman named Thomas Luker. A royal charter of March 1, 1768 created Dover Township out of Shrewsbury Township, then part of Monmouth County, and it was incorporated in 1798 as one of New Jersey's original townships. During the Revolution the riverside village had salt works that supplied the militia and served as a base for privateers raiding British shipping. In March 1782 British and loyalist troops attacked the village blockhouse, captured its commander, Captain Joshua Huddy, and burned the salt works and most of the houses. Huddy's later hanging at Sandy Hook became a diplomatic dispute that dragged into the Paris peace talks.
In the 1800s the village lived off shipbuilding, fishing, iron and lumber, and in 1850 it became the seat of the newly created Ocean County. Over the following decades several neighboring townships, among them Brick, Jackson, Lakewood and Berkeley, were carved out of Dover's original territory, and South Toms River broke away as its own borough in 1927.
The village's riverfront marsh became the township's first park in 1905, now named Huddy Park. Voters approved renaming Dover Township as Toms River Township in November 2006, matching the name most people already used. Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 brought record flooding to downtown and Silverton and heavy destruction on the township's barrier-island beaches, which have been rebuilding since.
Toms River is a large township that stretches from the mainland across Barnegat Bay to a section of the Barnegat Peninsula on the ocean. The historic village on the north bank of the Toms River is still the government center: the Ocean County Courthouse sits on Main Street, and the county library's headquarters branch is on Washington Street, a few blocks from the waterfront at Huddy Park.
On the mainland, the township's named sections include Silverton, Gilford Park, Pleasant Plains, East Dover, West Dover, Cedar Grove and Pine View. Hooper Avenue and Route 37 are the busiest roads, and Ocean County College has its campus on Hooper Avenue. Cattus Island County Park preserves a large piece of the bayfront north of downtown.
Across the bay, the township's beach sections line Route 35: Ortley Beach in the south, and the North Beach neighborhoods such as Ocean Beach, Chadwick Beach and Normandy Beach. In Ortley Beach, single-family homes are the norm west of Route 35, while the blocks east of the highway have more seasonal houses; after Sandy, flood codes raised the required height of new and rebuilt homes, and the township planned a mixed-use zone of shops with apartments above along the Route 35 business strip. Toms River Regional Schools is the public school district.
The Garden State Parkway runs through the township: exit 81 serves downtown and the Toms River Park and Ride, and exit 82 connects to Route 37, the main road east across the bay to the barrier-island beaches. U.S. Route 9 and Routes 35, 37, 70 and 166 all pass through, along with county roads including Hooper Avenue (County Route 549) and Bay Avenue (County Route 571).
There is no train station in the township; the nearest rail service is the North Jersey Coast Line at Bay Head and Point Pleasant Beach. Commuters rely on buses instead. As of a 2022 regional transit listing, NJ Transit runs route 67 from Toms River through Lakewood to Newark, route 137 to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, and route 319, which links New York, Toms River and Atlantic City. Academy commuter buses run from the Toms River Park and Ride to Midtown and Lower Manhattan.
Ocean County's Ocean Ride buses handle local trips, including the OC10 between Lavallette and Toms River, the OC2 from Manchester, Lakehurst and Berkeley to the Ocean County Mall, and the OC3 and OC3A linking Toms River with Brick, Lakewood and Point Pleasant. For small planes, Robert J. Miller Air Park is a public-use airport in neighboring Berkeley Township, southwest of downtown.
Huddy Park, on the narrows of the river downtown, was the township's first park. A 2017 renovation for the township's 250th anniversary added new bulkheads, paths, gazebos and lighting, and a walking path of interpretive panels tells the story of the 1782 attack and Joshua Huddy. The park hosts festivals, craft and art fairs and boat shows through the warm months. Each October downtown stages New Jersey's largest Halloween parade, a tradition that dates to the late 1940s and reached its 86th edition in 2025.
Cattus Island County Park covers about 530 acres of salt marsh, forest and Atlantic white cedar on Barnegat Bay, with roughly seven miles of blazed hiking trails, boardwalks over the marsh, and the Cooper Environmental Center, which has nature exhibits and live animals and reopened after Sandy damage. Admission is free and dogs are not allowed. Across the bay, the township's ocean beaches run from Ortley Beach north through the North Beach neighborhoods.
The Ocean County Historical Society runs a museum in the Elizabeth Sculthorp Force House, a mid-1800s Victorian house listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with period rooms, local industry artifacts and a research center for maps and genealogy; guided tours are offered on set weekday afternoons. The Ocean County Library's Toms River branch at 101 Washington Street, the system's headquarters, doubled to about 100,000 square feet and includes a 250-seat hall for concerts and talks, an art gallery and a local history room.
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)49 miles away |
|---|---|
| Closer regional airport | Trenton Mercer Airport (TTN)39 miles away |
| Nearest city of 250,000+ | New York, NY48 miles away |
Straight-line distances from the center of Toms River; 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.
Toms River had 95,438 residents in the 2020 census, up 5% since 2010.
It’s the 8th largest of 565 towns in New Jersey by population.
Ocean County grew from 19,747 residents in 1900 to 637,229 in 2020.
Ocean County, 1900–2020
Source: U.S. Census Bureau decennial censuses (counties 1900–1990 from the Bureau’s historical county file).
Average highs peak around 86°F in summer, and winter lows average 22°F. About 52 inches of rain and melted snow fall in a typical year.
Source: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals, Toms River, NJ weather station (3 miles away).
172,650 jobs at 15,020 businesses in Ocean County. The biggest industries by employees:
Source: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 (private employers; jobs counted where people work).
1,786 doctors and other health care providers list an office in Toms River’s ZIP codes.
Nearest hospitals
Providers with an office here
| Primary care doctors | 151 |
|---|---|
| Specialist doctors | 358 |
| Dentists | 142 |
| Nurse practitioners and physician assistants | 287 |
| Mental health providers | 479 |
| Physical and occupational therapists | 267 |
| Optometrists | 32 |
| Chiropractors | 70 |
| Pharmacies | 38 |
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 (23 nearby)
Grocery stores (10 nearby)
Pharmacies (4 nearby)
Libraries (4 nearby)
Museums (5 nearby)
Theaters and performance venues (2 nearby)
Counts are within about 4.5 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.
Established in 1768.
Notable people born here
Source: Wikidata (wikidata.org), the free knowledge base; people are listed by place of birth.
Public schools here are run by Toms River Regional School District, Office of Education Department of Children and Families, Ocean County Vocational Technical School District. Check each district’s attendance zones for a specific address.
| School | Grades | Students | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cedar Grove Elementary SchoolToms River | Pre-K–5 | 931 | Public | 1.3 mi |
| Joseph A. Citta Elementary SchoolToms River | Pre-K–5 | 511 | Public | 3.8 mi |
| North Dover Elementary SchoolToms River | Pre-K–5 | 384 | Public | 2.4 mi |
| Silver Bay Elementary SchoolToms River | Pre-K–5 | 585 | Public | 2.6 mi |
| East Dover Elementary SchoolToms River | K–5 | 584 | Public | 2.1 mi |
| Hooper Avenue Elementary SchoolToms River | K–5 | 693 | Public | 0.8 mi |
| Walnut Street Elementary SchoolToms River | K–5 | 727 | Public | 1.4 mi |
| Washington Street Elementary SchoolToms River | K–5 | 354 | Public | 2.1 mi |
| West Dover Elementary SchoolToms River | K–5 | 387 | Public | 3.0 mi |
| Ocean Regional SchoolToms River | 1–12 | — | Alternative Education | 1.1 mi |
| Toms River Intermediate School EastToms River | 6–8 | 1,271 | Public | 1.0 mi |
| Toms River Intermediate School NorthToms River | 6–8 | 970 | Public | 1.3 mi |
| Ocean County Vocational Technical School Toms River CenterToms River | 9–12 | — | Career and Technical | 0.9 mi |
| Toms River High School EastToms River | 9–12 | 1,377 | Public | 2.5 mi |
| Toms River High School NorthToms River | 9–12 | 1,861 | Public | 0.9 mi |
| Toms River High School SouthToms River | 9–12 | 1,463 | Public | 2.1 mi |
| School | Grades | Students | Affiliation | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean County Christian AcademyToms River | Pre-K–12 | 171 | Baptist | 1.1 mi |
| St Joseph Grade SchoolToms River | Pre-K–8 | 547 | Roman Catholic | 1.8 mi |
| The Goddard SchoolToms River | Pre-K–K | 8 | Nonsectarian | 1.3 mi |
| Westminster Nursery SchoolToms River | Pre-K–K | 7 | Presbyterian | 1.0 mi |
| Donovan Catholic High SchoolToms River | 9–12 | 553 | Roman Catholic | 1.8 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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Shares ZIP codes with Seaside Heights, Lavallette and Berkeley.
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.