North Jersey
|
|
North Jersey includes the New Jersey portion of the Hudson Valley in the United States.
New Jersey is sandwiched between two important cities: New York, New York (to which North Jersey locals refer to as "The City") and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (to which South Jersey locals refer to as "The City"). "North Jersey" is theoretically the area within the New York City sphere of influence.
Some people define North Jersey as all points in New Jersey north of a line extending from Interstate 195. Although recently the region has shifted below I-195, down along the Jersey Shore, due to the large numbers of people from New York City and North Jersey that have moved down there trying to find affordable housing. A more accurate approximation for North Jersey is now sometimes considered to be anything north of a straight line connecting the cities of Trenton and Toms River, thus including the more urban and populated parts of Ocean County in the North Jersey area.
Just a few decades ago, Ocean County, along with Monmouth, Hunterdon, Sussex, Warren, Morris, and Mercer counties contained only a fraction of the population and sprawl that they currently have. Traditionally, these counties were vacation areas and farmland. The western counties included woods and mountains that the urban population used for activities such as camping and skiing. Ocean and Monmouth counties were generally open land, beach, and shore area that northerners used only as places for summer homes. Presently, however, more and more people are choosing to permanently live in these once-rural counties in order to escape the even more urban New York City border counties, such as Essex and Bergen, which has led to their rapid urbanization in recent decades.
Before the migration of people from New Jersey's most urban counties to the more rural ones, only the most urban counties, nearest to New York City, were considered "North Jersey": Hudson, Essex, Union, Bergen, and Passaic, although georaphically this was really only "northeastern New Jersey".
The historic province of East Jersey in roughly the same area as the contemporary North Jersey.
See also: Jersey
North Jersey counties
- Bergen County
- Essex County
- Hudson County
- Morris County
- Passaic County
- Sussex County
- Union County
- Warren County
- Hunterdon County
- Somerset County
- Middlesex County
- Mercer County
- Monmouth County
- Ocean County
| Regions of New Jersey | 
|
| Jersey Shore | Meadowlands | North Jersey | Pine Barrens | South Jersey | New York metropolitan area | Delaware Valley | |
| Largest cities | |
|
Atlantic City | Bayonne | Camden | Clifton | East Orange | Elizabeth | Hackensack | Hoboken | Jersey City | Linden | Long Branch | New Brunswick | Newark | Passaic | Paterson | Perth Amboy | Plainfield | Trenton | Union City | Vineland | |
| Counties of New Jersey | |
|
Atlantic | Bergen | Burlington | Camden | Cape May | Cumberland | Essex | Gloucester | Hudson | Hunterdon | Mercer | Middlesex | Monmouth | Morris | Ocean | Passaic | Salem | Somerset | Sussex | Union | Warren |