Hillsborough Township is a township in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located in the Raritan Valley region, the township is a suburban and exurban bedroom community of New York City within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 43,276, an increase of 4,973 (+13.0%) from the 2010 census count of 38,303, which in turn reflected an increase of 1,669 (+4.6%) from the 36,634 counted in the 2000 census.
Hillsborough Township was originally created by royal charter issued May 31, 1771, which was revoked and revised on September 12, 1771. It was incorporated on February 21, 1798 by the New Jersey Legislature Township Act of 1798 as one of New Jersey's original group of 104 townships. Portions of the township were taken to form the boroughs of Millstone (May 14, 1894) and Manville (April 1, 1929). The township's name may have come from an earlier name of "Hillsbury", though it may have been named for Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire who was the Earl of Hillsborough. Based on an analysis of data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Report for 2022, Hillsborough Township was ranked as the second-safest small city in the United States.
