Top 10 Fastest-Growing Cities In New Jersey: See The List

NEW JERSEY — Princeton is the fastest-growing city in New Jersey, according to newly released 2020 census data.

The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday released new statistics that illustrate population changes for the nation, states and communities down to the block level. The data, which shows an increase in the population of the nation’s metro areas compared to a decade ago, also shows population changes in smaller cities.

The data represents where people were living as of April 1, 2020.

These are the top 10 fastest growing cities by number of residents added, according to the census data:

1. Jersey City (+44,852)
2. Lakewood (+42,315)
3. Newark (+34,409)
4. Princeton (+18,374)
5. Paterson City (+13,533)
6. Elizabeth City (+12,329)
7. Hoboken (+10,414)
8. Monroe Township (+9,462)
9. Bayonne City (+8,662)
10. Edison Township (+7,621)

The top 10 by percentage growth are

1. Princeton (149.3 percent)
2. Lakewood Township (45.58 percent)
3. Harrison Town (42.8 percent)
4. Weehawken Township (36.98 percent)
5. Secaucus Town (36.38 percent)
6. Wood-Ridge Borough (32.93 percent)
7. Englishtown Borough (27.02 percent)
8. Glassboro Borough (24.6 percent)
9. Edgewater Borough (24.52 percent)
10. Monroe Township (24.18 percent)

New Jersey grew by 513,365 residents (3.05 percent) between the 2010 and 2020 census. It ranked 26th in the nation for growth percentage.

Since the 2010 census, the population of U.S. metro areas has grown by 9 percent. Eighty-six percent of the country’s population was living in metro areas in 2020, compared to 85 percent in 2010.

Metro areas in the south and western United States saw the most growth, according to Marc Perry, a senior demographer at the Census Bureau.

"However, as we've been seeing in our annual population estimates, our nation is growing slower than it used to," Perry said in a news release. "This decline is evident at the local level, where around 52 percent of the counties in the United States saw their 2020 census populations decrease from their 2010 census populations."

Plenty of cities in New Jersey also lost population in the decade between 2010 and 2020. Here are the 10 cities that saw the biggest decrease in population, listed from highest to lowest percentage:

1. Walpack Township (-56.25 percent)
2. Rockleigh Borough (-23.35 percent)
3. Cape May City (-23.26 percent)
4. Maurice River Township (-22.04 percent)
5. West Amwell Township (-21.74 percent)
6. Brigantine City (-18.35 percent)
7. Mannington Township (-18.33 percent)
8. Margate City (-16.32 percent)
9. Seaside Heights Borough (-15.48 percent)
10. Shiloh Borough (-13.95 percent)

Here are some other interesting findings from the data:

• The largest city in the United States in 2020 remains New York, with 8.8 million people.

• The largest county in the United States in 2020 remains Los Angeles County, with over 10 million people.

• The fastest-growing U.S. metro area between the 2010 and 2020 censuses was The Villages, FL, which grew 39 percent, from about 93,000 people to about 130,000.

• The U.S. metro areas with the largest declines in population were Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Danville, Illinois, losing 12.5 percent and 9.1 percent of their populations, respectively.

Read more about the 2020 U.S. Census results.

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