State of New Jersey

State of New Jersey by Wikipedia (Wikipedia)

Non-Hispanic Whites were 58.9% of the population in 2011, down from 85% in 1970.

In 2010, unauthorized immigrants constituted an estimated 6.2% of the population. This was the fourth-highest percentage of any state in the country. There were an estimated 550,000 illegal immigrants in the state in 2010.

The United States Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2017, estimated New Jersey's population at 9,005,644, which represents an increase of 213,750, or 2.4%, since the last census in 2010. As of 2010, New Jersey was the eleventh-most populous state in the United States, and the most densely populated, at 1,185 residents per square mile (458 per km2), with most of the population residing in the counties surrounding New York City, Philadelphia, and along the eastern Jersey Shore, while the extreme southern and northwestern counties are relatively less dense overall. It is also the second wealthiest state according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The center of population for New Jersey is located in Middlesex County, in the town of Milltown, just east of the New Jersey Turnpike.

New Jersey is home to more scientists and engineers per square mile than anywhere else in the world.

On October 21, 2013, same-sex marriages commenced in New Jersey.

Race and ethnicity

New Jersey is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse states in the country. As of 2011, 56.4% of New Jersey's children under the age of one belonged to racial or ethnic minority groups, meaning that they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white. It has the second largest Jewish population by percentage (after New York);the second largest Muslim population by percentage (after Michigan); the largest population of Peruvian Americans in the United States; the largest population of Cubans outside of Florida; the third highest Asian population by percentage; and the third highest Italian population by percentage, according to the 2000 Census. African Americans, Hispanics (Puerto Ricans and Dominicans), West Indians, Arabs, and Brazilian and Portuguese Americans are also high in number. New Jersey has the third highest Asian Indian population of any state by absolute numbers and the highest by percentage, with Bergen County home to America's largest Malayali community. Overall, New Jersey has the third largest Korean population, with Bergen County home to the highest Korean concentration per capita of any U.S. county (6.9% in 2011). New Jersey also has the fourth largest Filipino population, and fourth largest Chinese population, per the 2010 U.S. Census. The five largest ethnic groups in 2000 were: Italian (17.9%), Irish (15.9%), African (13.6%), German (12.6%), Polish (6.9%).

Newark was the fourth poorest of U.S. cities with over 250,000 residents in 2008, but New Jersey as a whole had the second-highest median household income as of 2014. This is largely because so much of New Jersey consists of suburbs, most of them affluent, of New York City and Philadelphia. New Jersey is also the most densely populated state and the only state that has had every one of its counties deemed "urban" as defined by the Census Bureau's Combined Statistical Area.

Bergen County is home to all of the nation's top ten municipalities by percentage of Korean population, led by Palisades Park (above), a borough where Koreans comprise the majority (52%) of the population.

India Square, Jersey City, known as Little Bombay, home to the highest concentration of Asian Indians in the Western Hemisphere. Immigrants from India constituted the largest foreign-born nationality in New Jersey in 2013.

In 2010, 6.2% of its population was reported as under age 5, 23.5% under 18, and 13.5% were 65 or older; and females made up approximately 51.3% of the population.

A study by the Pew Research Center found that in 2013, New Jersey was the only U.S. state in which immigrants born in India constituted the largest foreign-born nationality, representing roughly 10% of all foreign-born residents in the state.

Whenever someone suggests I move to another state far south (or further west) of New Jersey, I like to provide some little known facts about my home state.