The most Italian towns in New Jersey

It's no secret that New Jersey is loaded with people of Italian ancestry. You might even think that we are the most "Italian" state in the country. Fuggetabot it!

That distinction goes to the state of Connecticut with 16.11% of their population claiming Italian ancestry. Rhode Island is second with 15.44% and New Jersey is third with 14.52%. New York is a distant third with 11.97%.

If you go to any town big or small here in New Jersey you will find at least one if not a whole variety of Italian restaurants and pizzerias. Much of the Italian immigration here occurred during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

SEE MORE: The best national chicken franchise is only in part of NJ

Canva / Townsquare Media illustration

The reasons so many are in New Jersey are varied. Many of the immigrants from Italy arrived in New York and made their way here to New Jersey with the promise of work in either one of our many factories at the time or abundant farmland.

Many of their descendants stayed here or moved here from immigration points like New York and Philadelphia. Some of the most "Italian" towns are close to those cities and some are a good distance away, like Hammonton, which ranks second with 45.9% of their residents claiming Italian ancestry.

The number one most Italian town in New Jersey is...Fairfield in Essex County right over the river from NYC, with 50.3%.

Coming in third is Dover Beaches South, which is a part of Toms River. You can find the full list here.

With the bulk of Italian immigration over 100 years ago, it's one of the cultures or nationalities that has held onto its identity, especially here in New Jersey. Unfortunately, very few of the people claiming to be Italian here speak the Italian language.

Canva / Townsquare Media illustration

Some have held onto a few words their grandparents and great-grandparents taught them, but most of them are dialect words. However, a good number of people who speak Italian in the United States do live here in the tri-state area.

The most recent data available (from 2013) found that Italian was the fifth most-studied foreign language in the U.S.

New York and New Jersey are the states with the largest number of native Italian speakers, with around 294,000 and 116,000 speakers, respectively.

So don't expect to hear much Italian in the "most Italian" towns here in New Jersey, but you can bet you can find a great pizza or Italian meal just about anywhere here in the Garden State.