List of counties in New Jersey

New Jersey's 21 counties

There are 21 counties in the U.S. state of New Jersey. These counties together contain 566 municipalities, or administrative entities composed of clearly defined territory; 250 boroughs, 52 cities, 15 towns, 245 townships, and 4 villages.^[1] In New Jersey, a county is a local level of government between the state and municipalities. County government in New Jersey includes a Board of Chosen Freeholders,^[2] sheriff, clerk, and surrogate,^[3] all of which are elected officials. Counties organized under the Optional County Charter Law may also have an elected county executive.^[4] Counties traditionally perform state-mandated duties such as the maintenance of jails, parks, and certain roads.^[5] The site of a county's administration and courts is called the county seat.

History

See also: History of New Jersey

New Jersey was governed by two groups of proprietors as two distinct provinces, East Jersey and West Jersey, between 1674 and 1702. New Jersey's first counties were created as administrative districts within each province, with East Jersey split in 1675 into Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth counties, while West Jersey's initial counties of Burlington and Salem date to 1681.^[6][7] The most recent county created in New Jersey is Union County, created in 1857 and named after the union of the United States when the Civil War was imminent. New Jersey's county names derive from several sources, though most of its counties are named after place names in England and prominent leaders in the colonial and revolutionary periods. Bergen County is the most populous county—as of the Census Bureau's 2008 population estimate—with 894,840 people, while Salem County is the least populous with 66,141 people.^[1]

Representation in the New Jersey Senate

Until the 1960s, the New Jersey Senate had 21 representatives, one from each county regardless of population. In the wake of the 1964 decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in Reynolds v. Sims, establishing the one man, one vote principle that state legislative districts must be approximately equal in size, David Friedland filed suit in New Jersey Supreme Court on behalf of two union leaders, challenging a system under which each county was represented by a single member in the New Jersey Senate. The senate enacted a proposal whereby each senator's vote would be weighted based on the population of the county represented, under which Cape May County's senator would receive one vote while the senator from Essex County would receive 19.1, in direct relation to the ratio of residents between counties.^[8] In a decision issued on December 15, 1964, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the weighted voting system as adopted was unconstitutional. The court ordered that interim measures be established for the 1965 legislative elections, in which weighted voting could be used as a temporary measure, and that the needed constitutional changes to restructure the New Jersey Legislature to be in compliance with "one man, one vote" requirements be in place before elections took place in 1967.^[8] The legislature's final decision was to establish 40 districts statewide, each represented by one senator and two assemblymembers, without relation to county boundaries.

FIPS code

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) code, used by the United States government to uniquely identify counties, is provided with each entry. FIPS codes are five digit numbers, for New Jersey the codes start with 34 and are completed with the three digit county code. The FIPS code for each county in the table links to census data for that county.^[9]

Counties

County	FIPS Code[9]	County Seat[10]	Created[10]	Formed from[6][7]	Named for[11]	Population [12]	Area[10]	Map
Atlantic County	001	Mays Landing	1837	Gloucester County	The Atlantic Ocean, which forms the county's eastern border	&10000000000274549000000274,549	&10000000000000561000000561 sq mi (&100000000000014530000001,453 km2)
Bergen County	003	Hackensack	1683	One of four original counties created in East Jersey	Bergen, New Netherland settlement, itself named for Bergen, North Holland	&10000000000905116000000905,116	&10000000000000234000000234 sq mi (&10000000000000606000000606 km2)
Burlington County	005	Mount Holly Township	1694	One of two original counties created in West Jersey	The old ancient name for an inland market near Bridlington, England	&10000000000448734000000448,734	&10000000000000805000000805 sq mi (&100000000000020850000002,085 km2)
Camden County	007	Camden	1844	Gloucester County	Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (1714–1794), an English supporter of the colonists during the American Revolution[13]	&10000000000513657000000513,657	&10000000000000222000000222 sq mi (&10000000000000575000000575 km2)
Cape May County	009	Cape May Court House	1692	Burlington County	The 17th-century Dutch explorer Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, who explored and surveyed the Delaware Bay to the south of the county	&1000000000009726500000097,265	&10000000000000255000000255 sq mi (&10000000000000660000000660 km2)
Cumberland County	011	Bridgeton	1748	Salem County	Prince William, Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765), second son of George II of England and military victor at the Battle of Culloden in 1746	&10000000000156898000000156,898	&10000000000000489000000489 sq mi (&100000000000012670000001,267 km2)
Essex County	013	Newark	1683	One of four original counties created in East Jersey	The county of Essex in England	&10000000000783969000000783,969	&10000000000000126000000126 sq mi (&10000000000000326000000326 km2)
Gloucester County	015	Woodbury	1686	Burlington County	The city of Gloucester, England	&10000000000288288000000288,288	&10000000000000325000000325 sq mi (&10000000000000842000000842 km2)
Hudson County	017	Jersey City	1840	Bergen County	The English explorer Henry Hudson (d. 1611), who explored portions of New Jersey's coastline	&10000000000634266000000634,266	&1000000000000004700000047 sq mi (&10000000000000122000000122 km2)
Hunterdon County	019	Flemington	1714	Burlington County	Robert Hunter (1664–1734), the Colonial Governor of New Jersey from 1710 to 1720	&10000000000128349000000128,349	&10000000000000430000000430 sq mi (&100000000000011140000001,114 km2)
Mercer County	021	Trenton	1838	Burlington County, Hunterdon County, Middlesex County, and Somerset County	The Continental Army General Hugh Mercer (1726–1777), who died at the Battle of Princeton[14]	&10000000000366513000000366,513	&10000000000000226000000226 sq mi (&10000000000000585000000585 km2)
Middlesex County	023	New Brunswick	1683	One of four original counties created in East Jersey	The former county of Middlesex in England	&10000000000809858000000809,858	&10000000000000311000000311 sq mi (&10000000000000805000000805 km2)
Monmouth County	025	Freehold Borough	1683	One of four original counties created in East Jersey	The historic county of Monmouthshire in Wales	&10000000000630380000000630,380	&10000000000000472000000472 sq mi (&100000000000012220000001,222 km2)
Morris County	027	Morristown	1739	Hunterdon County	Colonel Lewis Morris (1671–1746), colonial governor of New Jersey at the time of the county's formation[15][16]	&10000000000492276000000492,276	&10000000000000469000000469 sq mi (&100000000000012150000001,215 km2)
Ocean County	029	Toms River	1850	Monmouth County	The Atlantic Ocean, which forms the eastern border of New Jersey	&10000000000576567000000576,567	&10000000000000916000000916 sq mi (&100000000000023720000002,372 km2)
Passaic County	031	Paterson	1837	Bergen County and Essex County	"Pasaeck", a Lenape word meaning "valley"	&10000000000501226000000501,226	&10000000000000185000000185 sq mi (&10000000000000479000000479 km2)
Salem County	033	Salem	1694	One of two original counties created in West Jersey	A Hebrew word meaning "peace"	&1000000000006608300000066,083	&10000000000000338000000338 sq mi (&10000000000000875000000875 km2)
Somerset County	035	Somerville	1688	Middlesex County	The county of Somerset in England	&10000000000323444000000323,444	&10000000000000305000000305 sq mi (&10000000000000790000000790 km2)
Sussex County	037	Newton	1753	Morris County	The county of Sussex in England	&10000000000149265000000149,265	&10000000000000521000000521 sq mi (&100000000000013490000001,349 km2)
Union County	039	Elizabeth	1857	Essex County	The union of the United States, which was being threatened by the dispute over slavery	&10000000000536499000000536,499	&10000000000000103000000103 sq mi (&10000000000000267000000267 km2)
Warren County	041	Belvidere	1824	Sussex County	The American Revolutionary War General Joseph Warren (1741–1775), killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill	&10000000000108692000000108,692	&10000000000000358000000358 sq mi (&10000000000000927000000927 km2)

See also

New Jersey portal

• Metropolitan Statistical Areas of New Jersey—each New Jersey county is included in a Metropolitan Statistical Area as defined by the federal Office of Management and Budget

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "New Jersey – Place and County Subdivision". U.S. Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=n&_lang=en&mt_name=DEC_2000_PL_U_GCTPL_ST7&format=ST-7&_box_head_nbr=GCT-PL&ds_name=DEC_2000_PL_U&geo_id=04000US34. Retrieved September 6, 2009. 
2. ^ Coppa, Frank J. (2000). County government: a guide to efficient and accountable government. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 39–40. ISBN 9780275968298. http://books.google.com/books?id=SpN8aALBgw0C&source=gbs_navlinks_s. Retrieved August 31, 2009. 
3. ^ Coppa, County government, p. 165
4. ^ Coppa, County government, p. 108
5. ^ "An Overview of County Government". National Association of Counties. http://www.naco.org/counties/pages/overview.aspx. Retrieved February 1, 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "County Formation Map" (PDF). New Jersey Association of Election Officials. http://www.njaeo.us/County%20Formation%20Map.pdf. Retrieved August 30, 2009. 
7. ^ ^{a b} Torp, Kim (2006). "New Jersey County Formation". Genealogy Trails. http://genealogytrails.com/njer/countyformation.html. Retrieved August 30, 2009. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Wright, George Cable (December 16, 1964). "Weighted Voting Voided in Jersey; State's Highest Court Bars Senate's Plan – No Ruling on Its Constitutionality New Jersey Supreme Court Bars Senate's Weighted Vote Plan". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0913F63C5D13738DDDAF0994DA415B848AF1D3. Retrieved September 1, 2009. 
9. ^ ^{a b} "EPA County FIPS Code Listing". US Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/codes/nj.html. Retrieved July 24, 2007. 
10. ^ ^{a b c} "NACo – Find a county". National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on January 12, 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080112181449/http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_County&Template=/cffiles/counties/state.cfm&statecode=nj. Retrieved January 25, 2008. 
11. ^ "The Origin of New Jersey Place Names" (PDF). Federal Writers' Program. 1938. http://www.njstatelib.org/NJ_Information/Digital_Collections/Place_Names/PLACE.pdf. Retrieved April 25, 2008. 
12. ^ http://factfinder2.census.gov
13. ^ Greenberg, Gail (August 30, 2009). "A Brief History of Camden County". Camden County Board of Freeholders. http://www.camdencounty.com/facts/index.html. Retrieved August 31, 2009. ^{[dead link]}
14. ^ "History". Mercer County Cultural & Heritage Commission. http://nj.gov/counties/mercer/about/history/. Retrieved August 31, 2009. 
15. ^ "The Land Past and Present". Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders. http://www.co.morris.nj.us/history/history.asp. Retrieved August 30, 2009. 
16. ^ "How did our county get its name?". Morris County Library. July 26, 2008. http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/county.html#lewis. Retrieved August 31, 2009. 

External links

• Census Bureau Map of New Jersey
• Historical Maps of New Jersey