The 125 nations where NJ immigrants come from — and where in NJ they live now
With immigrants hailing from more than 125 places around the world, New Jersey represents almost as many countries as the United Nations.
The Garden State, home to 1.9 million foreign-born residents, has one of the highest concentration of immigrants of any state.
Among our state's 565 municipalities, only two — Pine Valley in Camden and Walpack in Sussex — have no immigrant neighbors. But everywhere else in New Jersey, you'll find immigrants.
This week, New Jersey 101.5 explores New Jersey's immigrants — how they've changed our state and how our state has changed them.
We dug deep into the U.S. Census and created an interactive map that shows what the dominant immigrant group is in your town. (You can find the map at the end of this story. It's best viewed on a desktop computer.)
Here's what else we found out:
In Jersey City, with its views of the Statute of Liberty and Ellis Island, immigrants number 105,000. That's more than the population of almost every town in the state.
But the folks putting down roots in the city aren't coming from the same countries that sent the immigrants who once passed under Lady Liberty's torch. Most of Jersey City's immigrants today come from Asia, particularly India. Asians — indicated in our map by the color green — also are the dominant immigrant group across Central Jersey.
But no part of the world sends more people to New Jersey than Latin America (indicated on our map with yellow.) More than 872,000 people in New Jersey were born in Latin America.
European immigrants, many who came to the United States decades ago, still remain in New Jersey. They are the dominant immigrant groups in the northwestern corner of the state as well as the Jersey Shore. (They're represented on our map with blue.)
As new immigrants pour in, the ethnic communities we once associated with certain towns have been supplanted by newcomers.
For example, the top country of origin for immigrants in Newark is not Portugal (7,610 immigrants) or Brazil (8,610), but Ecuador (with 13,762). The Portuguese have moved to Elizabeth, Kearny and South River, and they're the most represented country for immigrants in Hillside, Clark and Mountainside.
Cubans no longer dominate in Union City, which is now home to more Dominican immigrants. The new Cuban immigrant communities today include North Bergen, West New York and Elizabeth.
We found only two towns where the top immigrant nationalities were African. The Camden borough of Magnolia had 70 immigrants from Ghana while the Cape May borough of Woodbine had 23 from the West African nation.
Mapping NJ's immigrants
Zoom in and click on a town to see the geographic breakdown of where its immigrants come from as well as that town's top immigrant nationality. The towns are color-coded based on the region of the world where most of the immigrants come from: Yellow for Latin America, green for Asia, blue for Europe and red for Africa. In some cases, the top nationality differs from the top region.
Best viewed on a desktop computer.
Source: U.S. Census 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-year estimates
The top immigrant nationalities in New Jersey
- INDIA
222,458
The country where the most New Jersey immigrants are from is India, which is the top country of origin of immigrants in 97 municipalities. Most Indian immigrants live in the Central Jersey counties of Somerset and Middlesex.
The top enclaves:
Edison — 23,227
Jersey City — 20,885
Woodbridge — 12,525
Piscataway — 7,848
Parsippany-Troy Hills — 7,612
South Brunswick — 7,587
Franklin (Somerset) — 7,014 - DOMINICAN REP.
138,371
More immigrants in New Jersey come from Latin America than from any other region. The nation in that region that has sent the most immigrants is the Dominican Republican, whose ex-pats are the largest immigrant community in 19 municipalities.
The cities with the most native Dominicans:
Paterson — 18,548
Perth Amboy — 10,784
Union City — 6,842 - Mexico
126,856
The second greatest number of Latin American immigrants come from Mexico. Mexican natives are scattered throughout the state and outnumber other immigrants in 79 municipalities.
Their top cities:
Passaic — 12,162
New Brunswick — 9,942
Lakewood — 5,271 - China
90,636
Chinese immigrants are the top immigrants in 19 municipalities in the state. China has the fourth highest number of immigrants living in New Jersey.
Their top enclaves:
Cherry Hill — 1,357
Livingston — 1,242
Princeton — 793
Bernards — 626 - THE REST
Philippines — 83,847
Ecuador — 83,106
Colombia — 78,218
Korea — 73,241
Peru — 59,816
Poland — 52,470
Cuba — 45,303
El Salvador — 43,230
Italy — 43,029
Guatamala — 41,279
Haiti — 39,564
Jamaica — 39,485
Portugal — 31,809
Brazil — 30,944
Honduras — 27,630
Egypt — 27,590
United Kingdon — 26,567
Germany — 23,646
Pakistan — 22,667
Guyana — 20,972
Russia — 20,276
Vietnam — 19,177
Ukraine — 19,094
Canada — 15,842
Trinidad and Tobago — 15,412
Nigeria — 14,233
Costa Rica — 13,350
Ghana — 12,237
Turkey — 12,150
Argentina — 11,698
Bangladesh — 11,229
Japan — 10,257
Greece — 8,884
Israel — 8,674
Uruguay — 8,674
Spain — 8,596
Ireland — 8,586
Other Eastern Europe — 7,787
France — 7,193
Chile — 7,067
Romania — 6,584
Venezuela — 6,504
Nicaragua — 6,023
Iran — 6,011
Liberia — 5,491
Hungary — 5,374
Czechoslovakia — 5,234
Syria — 5,121
Kenya — 4,977
Macedonia — 4,150
Other Western Asia — 4,109
Lebanon — 3,999
Other Caribbean — 3,873
Other Western Africa — 3,833
Panama — 3,828
Albania — 3,821
Jordan — 3,818
Morocco — 3,654
Barbados — 3366
Other Eastern Africa — 3,073
Sri Lanka — 3,046
Bulgaria — 3,026
Belarus — 2,990
South Africa — 2,926
Australia and New Zealand — 2,779
Bolivia — 2,761
Thailand — 2,704
Other South America — 2,696
Croatia — 2,637
Netherlands — 2,615
Sierra Leone — 2,11
Austria — 2,463
Other Middle Africa — 2,414
Dominica — 2,363
Afghanistan — 2,229
Indonesia — 2,218
Malaysia — 2,139
Other Northern Africa — 1,895
Ethiopia — 1,737
Switzerland — 1,731
West Indies — 1,644
Burma — 1,590
Uzbekistan — 1,581
Moldova — 1,577
Saudi Arabia — 1,552
Bosnia and Herzegovina — 1,536
Serbia — 1,524
Lithuania — 1,482
Latvia — 1,365
Sweden — 1,315
Belize — 1,287
Singapore — 1,268
Iraq — 1,233
Grenada — 1,216
Belgium — 1,210
Nepal — 1,160
Denmark — 1,090
Kuwait — 1,024
Norway — 1,001
Other South Central Asia — 906
Cameroon — 906
Armenia — 892
Cambodia — 788
Kazakhstan — 759
St. Vincent & the Grenadines — 753
Other Northern Europe — 721
Cabo Verde — 572
Sudan — 571
Bahamas — 549
Yemen — 406
Laos — 386
Other Central America — 328
Other Southern Europe — 310
Fiji — 280
Other Northern America — 235
Eritrea — 230
Other Western Europe — 173
Other Eastern Asia — 171
Other South Eastern Asia — 80
Other Southern Africa — 61Getty ImagesGetty Images
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