Pemberton Township is a township in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 26,903, The township, and all of Burlington County, is a part of the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden combined statistical area and the Delaware Valley.
Pemberton was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 10, 1846, from portions of New Hanover Township, Northampton Township (now known as Mount Holly Township), and Southampton Township. Portions of the township were taken to form Woodland Township on March 7, 1866. The township is named for James Pemberton, a property owner in the area. The township is part of the South Jersey region of the state.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township had a total area of 62.501 square miles (161.875 km<sup>2</sup>), including 61.284 square miles (158.724 km<sup>2</sup>) of land and 1.217 square miles (3.151 km<sup>2</sup>) of water (1.95%).), Country Lake Estates (3,943 as of 2010), Pemberton Heights (2,423 as of 2010) and Presidential Lakes Estates (2,365 as of 2010) are census-designated places and are located within Pemberton Township, while Fort Dix (1,765 out of a total population of 7,716 as of 2010) is a CDP located in parts of Pemberton Township, New Hanover Township and Springfield Township.
Other unincorporated communities, localities, and places located partially or completely within the township include Birmingham, Browns Mills Junction, Comical Corner, Commercial Corner, Deep Hollow, Earlys Crossing, Hanover Furnace, Lower Mill, Magnolia, Mary Ann Furnace, Mount Misery, New Lisbon, Ong's Hat, South Pemberton Township, Upper Mill, Upton, and Whitesbog.
Within the borders of the township lies the independent municipality of Pemberton borough, one of 21 pairs of "doughnut towns" in the state, where one municipality entirely surrounds another. The township borders Eastampton Township, New Hanover Township, Southampton Township, Springfield Township, Woodland Township and Wrightstown in Burlington County; and Manchester Township and Plumsted Township in Ocean County.
The township is one of 56 South Jersey municipalities that are included within the Pinelands National Reserve, a protected natural area of unique ecology covering , that has been classified as a United States Biosphere Reserve and established by Congress in 1978 as the nation's first National Reserve. Part of the township is included in the state-designated Pinelands Area, which includes portions of Burlington County, along with areas in Atlantic, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester and Ocean counties.