New Jersey

Summary Demographic State Data (and Source)
Population (2009 CB est):	8,707,739
Population (2000 Census):	8,414,350
Foreign-Born Population (2009 CB est.):	1,759,467
Foreign-Born Population (2000 Census):	1,476,327
Share Foreign-Born (2009):	20.2%
Share Foreign-Born (2000):	17.5%
Naturalized U.S. Citizens (2009 CB est.):	880,704
Share Naturalized (2009):	50.1%
Legal Immigrant Admission (DHS 2000-2009):	539,599
Refugee Admission (HHS 2000-2009):	12,810
Illegal Alien Population (2010 FAIR est):	410,000
Cost of Illegal Aliens - (2010 FAIR):	$3,477,600,000
Projected 2050 Population - (2006 FAIR):	13,896,000

New Jersey: Census Bureau Data

STATE POPULATION

Using the American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that in July 2009 New Jersey’s population had increased to 8,707,739 residents, i.e., an increase of 293,389 residents since 2000. That is a rate of increase of about 0.4 percent per year. The comparable national annual rate of increase was 1.0 percent.

The 2000 Census found 8,414,350 persons resident in New Jersey. This was an increase of 684,162 persons above the 1990 Census. The annual average increase of 0.9 percent was lower than the national annual average of 1.2 percent population increase.

The 2000 population was about 236,000 more persons than the Census Bureau had expected to find in the state in 2000 when it issued its state population projections in 1996. The significance of this is that the Census Bureau concluded that much of the shortfall in their population estimates during the 1990s was due to an underestimation of the illegal alien population.

Between the 1980 and 1990 Censuses, the population of New Jersey grew by 5 percent (from about 7,365,010 to 7,730,188). That was an annual rate of increase of 0.5 percent. The national rate of change was 1.0 percent.

FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION

Based on the ACS, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the foreign-born population of New Jersey was 1,759,467 persons in 2009. This meant a foreign-born population share of 20.2 percent.

NET INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION (NIM)

Based on the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Census Bureau estimated that between the 2000 Census and July 2009 the state’s population increased by about 399,805 residents from net international migration (more foreign-born arriving than leaving). That was an annual average increase of about 42,990 residents, i.e., more than the total population increase (107%), and this does not include the children born to the immigrants after their arrival in the United States).

FOREIGN-BORN CHANGE

The amount of change since the 2000 Census indicates an average annual rate of increase in the foreign-born population of about 30,445 people, which is nearly all (96.5%) of the state’s annual average population increase. Since 2000, the foreign-born population has increased by 19.2 percent compared to a 0.1 percent increase in the native-born population.

Immigration also contributes to population growth through the children born to immigrants in this country. Nationally the share of births to the foreign-born is about double their share of the population. A 40.4 percent share of the state’s current births is large enough to account for about 45,145 births a year. Combining the increase in the foreign-born population and estimated immigrant births suggests that immigration may account for nearly 75,600 persons added to the state’s population annually, i.e., more than double (239.6%) the state’s overall population increase.

The 2000 Census found that 41.6 percent of New Jersey' foreign-born population had arrived in the state since 1990. This demonstrates the effects of the current mass immigration, and it is slightly lower than the national average (43.7%). According to the 2009 ACS estimate, 32.1 percent of the foreign-born population had entered since the 2000 Census compared to a national share of 31.6 percent.

FOREIGN-BORN CHARACTERISTICS

An indicator of the change in New Jersey's immigrant population may be seen in data on the share of the population over five years of age that speaks a language other than English at home. Between 1990 and 2000, the share of non-English speakers increased from 12.1 percent to 14.3 percent. More than one-third (37.3%) of those persons in 2000 also said they spoke English less than very well. In the 2009 ACS, the share had increased to 28.5 percent and of those 42.5 percent spoke English less than very well. Spanish speakers were 50.4 percent of those who spoke other than English at home, and 57.5 percent of those who spoke English less than very well.

Speakers of Foreign Languages (at home in New Jersey in the 2000 Census)
Spanish	967,700
Italian	116,365
Polish	74,665
Portuguese	72,835
Tagalog	66,850
Chinese	66,415
Korean	55,340
Gujarathi	47,325
Arabic	47,050
French	45,675
(Source: Census Bureau report: Language Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over, April 2004)

The chart above shows the foreign-born population increasing by 19.2 percent since 2000 and the share of that population from Latin America and the Caribbean increasing by 25.4 percent. That region’s share of the state’s immigrant population grew from 43 percent to 45.2 percent in 2009.

NATURALIZATION

Data from the 2006 American Community Survey indicate that 847,665 residents, or 48.3 percent, of the foreign-born population in New Jersey were citizens, compared to 682,304 residents, or 46.2 percent, in 2000.

Nationally, 40.3 percent of the foreign-born population was citizens in 2000 and 42.0 percent were citizens in 2006.

Limited English Proficiency Students

In New Jersey overall enrollment in 2008 (1,380,169) was 18.1 percent above enrollment in 1999. LEP enrollment was 28.2 percent higher than a decade earlier.

POPULATION PROJECTION

We projected New Jersey’s population in 2050 likely would be between13.05 million and 13.89 million depending on what happens with immigration policy. See “Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050: Four Immigration Scenarios,” FAIR 2006.

New Jersey: Extended Immigration Data

REFUGEES

New Jersey received 12,810 refugees over the most recent ten fiscal years (FY'00-'09).

FOREIGN STUDENTS

The 2009/2010 annual report of the Institute of International Education (IIE) lists the number of foreign students attending post-secondary school in New Jersey as 14,246. Five schools in the state are listed as having a majority of these students:

Rutgers-New Brunswick – 2,712
Stevens Inst. Tech. – 1,742
New Jersey Inst. Tech. – 1,478
Princeton U. – 1,409
Fairleigh Dickenson U. – 1,217

Those schools represented three-fifths (60.1%) of the total foreign students in the state.

For information on foreign student issues see: Foreign Students in the United States

New Jersey: Immigrant Admissions

New Jersey Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
2000	40,013
2001	59,920
2002	57,721
2003	40,818
2004	50,303
2005	56,180
2006	65,934
2007	55,834
2008	53,997
2009	58,879
Total	539,599

Recent immigrant admissions are at 296 percent of admissions just after adoption of the current immigration system in 1965. During the 1965-'69 period, annual admissions averaged about 19,643 immigrants. During the most recent five years, admissions averaged about 58,165 persons.

The charts below show recent immigrant admissions and the cumulative immigrant admissions data since 1965. The number of annual admissions has ranged from 15,096 in FY'65 to 65,934 in FY’06. The cumulative total of admissions to New Jersey between fiscal years 1965 and 2009 was about 1,625,995 immigrants.

INS DATA BY NATIONALITY: FY'93 - FY'02

The INS data below are furnished for nationals of the countries with the largest number of immigrants admitted or adjusted to legal residence each year since 1993. The absence of data means that the total number of admissions to the United States by nationals of that country was not enough to merit detailed reporting in that year.

The nationalities may change each year, so the totals in some cases will not reflect all the immigrants of that nationality who have become legal immigrants in Wyoming during this period.

The Department of Homeland Security website has detailed data on immigrant admissions since FY’03 by year and by country. (See http://www.dhs.gov/ximgtn/statistics/data/dslpr.shtm).

Immigrant Admissions by Fiscal Year
Country	FY'93	FY'94	FY'95	FY'96	FY'97	FY'98	FY'99	FY'00	FY'01	FY'02	Total
Bangladesh	-	-	-	444	478	511	386	479	-	348	2,646
Canada	437	402	259	442	280	211	324	331	596	548	3,830
China *	3,830	3,039	1,797	3,191	2,241	1,854	1,737	2,623	3,962	3,769	28,043
Colombia	2,170	1,780	1,881	3,275	2,004	2,012	1,683	1,673	2,445	2,699	21,622
Cuba	783	627	805	1,593	1,142	437	802	1,029	1,361	1,274	9,853
Dom. Rep.	5,176	5,384	4,136	5,006	3,240	2,478	2,382	2,477	3,427	3,440	37,146
Ecuador	1,265	-	1,221	2,055	1,390	1,365	1,693	1,337	2,069	2,122	14,517
El Salvador	923	578	436	897	594	541	489	712	2,316	933	8,419
Germany	225	179	171	-	175	182	185	265	323	308	2,013
Guatemala	485	317	339	504	308	281	311	398	652	609	4,207
Guyana	710	657	696	990	559	287	295	626	-	886	5,706
Haiti	970	1,500	1,306	2,008	1,256	1,280	1,692	2,101	1,788	1,643	15,544
Honduras	480	-	-	-	609	544	381	393	-	452	2,859
India	4,725	3,782	3,958	6,185	4,757	4,284	3,531	4,364	9,154	9,683	54,423
Iran	221	188	180	298	160	142	144	167	206	260	1,966
Ireland	1,012	1,137	-	-	59	52	29	63	-	56	2,408
Jamaica	1,138	1,012	1,294	1,712	1,185	1,037	1,178	1,003	1,161	1,171	11,891
Japan	-	257	-	-	142	158	153	254	322	340	1,626
Korea	1,069	1,054	1,043	2,014	1,079	936	867	1,065	1,644	1,476	12,247
Mexico	462	385	375	1,125	655	772	733	700	1,098	1,209	7,514
Nicaragua	-	-	-	-	526	104	178	431	456	299	1,944
Nigeria	-	-	535	1,044	182	568	571	567	-	575	4,042
Pakistan	619	556	738	1,076	1,026	1,008	1,036	1,085	1,298	1,092	9,534
Peru	2,073	1,771	1,534	3,130	2,025	2,033	1,716	1,451	1,949	1,825	19,507
Philippines	4,637	2,945	2,626	3,544	2,392	1,648	1,367	1,845	2,905	3,111	27,020
Poland	3,887	3,751	1,651	2,421	1,485	974	1,040	1,209	1,726	1,808	19,952
Sov. Un. *	1,875	1,993	1,631	1,972	1,041	1,130	1,506	1,989	1,961	2,659	17,757
Trin.& Tob.	-	415	-	-	416	349	327	399	-	461	2,367
U. Kingdom	950	742	514	787	467	364	381	493	843	844	6,385
Vietnam	937	564	435	630	459	271	276	428	500	557	5,057
Yugo. *	-	-	445	677	452	343	366	543	333	1,152	4,311
Other	9,226	9,068	9,723	16,280	8,400	6,935	6,336	7,513	15,425	10,112	99,018
Total	50,285	44,083	39,729	63,303	41,184	35,091	34,095	40,013	59,920	57,721	465,424

A dash (-) indicates that the data for that year were not published for that country in the INS Statistical Yearbook.
* China data include Hong Kong and Taiwan. Former USSR data continued since break-up (except FY'96-'97 and ‘01 include only Russia and Ukraine). Former Yugoslavia data continued since break-up.

The 31 nationalities above represent more than three-quarters (78.7%) of all immigrant settlement and adjustment in New Jersey during this ten-year period. Immigrants from India accounted for more than one-ninth (11.7%) of all new immigrants during the period. When immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Philippines and China are added to those from India, those countries accounted for more than three-tenths (31.5%) of total admissions.

New Jersey: Illegal Aliens

FAIR Estimate - FAIR estimated the state’s illegal alien population as of 2010 was as many as 410,000 persons. This is part of an overall estimate of the U.S. illegal alien population of about 12 million persons.

INS/DHS Estimate - The INS (now dissolved into the Dept. of Homeland Security) estimated that the resident illegal population in New Jersey was 221,000 as of 2000. This number 86,000 higher than the INS' 1996 estimate. As of 2010, the DHS estimated the illegal alien population at 370,000.

Other Estimates - The Pew Hispanic Center estimated the illegal alien population of the state at 550,000 as of 2010.

COST OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

FAIR’s 2010 fiscal cost study, “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers” estimated the following cost outlays and tax receipts:

New Jersey Fiscal Costs In 2009
Due to Illegal Aliens ($M)		(Pct.)
K-12 educ.	$2,209.8	63.5%
LEP educ.	$228.3	6.6%
Medicaid	$334.4	9.6%
SCHIP	$174.9	5.0%
Justice	$335.7	9.7%
Welfare+	$69.7	2.0%
General	$124.8	3.6%
Total	$3,477.6
Tax Receipts	$135.3
Net Cost	$3,342.3

Source: “The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers,” FAIR 2010.

New Jersey : Poll Data

A Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll in February 2009 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points found:

62% of state residents oppose granting illegal immigrants some type of limited driver's license.
32%, a minority, support in-state tuition rates for children of illegal immigrants while a larger minority (39%) would bar “undocumented aliens” access to public higher education entirely.

A Rasmussen Report poll conducted 500 Likely Voters in New Jersey on December 12, 2007 found:

80% oppose granting drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens.
72% say that when police officers pull someone over for a traffic violation, they should routinely check to see if that person is in the country legally.
58% believe that if an illegal immigrant is discovered in this manner, they should be deported .

A Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll conducted from July 16-19, 2007 of 800 adult residents found that:

89% believe that immigration is either a ‘very serious problem’ (69%) or a ‘somewhat serious problem’ (20%) for the United States.
79% support the hiring of additional border patrol agents.
76% agree that immigration is either a ‘very serious problem’ (46%) or a ‘somewhat serious problem’ (30%) for New Jersey.
73% concur with imposing new fines on business that hire illegal immigrants.
55% agree with building a fence along the border of Mexico.
A plurality of 44% believe that immigration has been a ‘bag thing’ for New Jersey.
58% want a tougher approach on immigration including tightening boarders and cracking down on illegal immigrants. (The Record of Bergen County, January, 2007)

New Jersey: Immigration Impact

POPULATION PROFILE

Population estimates show that New Jersey is adding people faster than any other state in the Northeast, primarily because of the increase in immigrants.¹ This immigration-driven population growth is taking a serious toll on New Jersey, bringing traffic, overcrowded schools, pollution, and lack of affordable housing to the state, decreasing quality of life and straining water and other vital natural resources.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND QUALITY OF LIFE PROFILE Environmental and Quality of Life Profile

Water: By 2050 the state's population is expected to rise from 8.7 million in 2006 to 13.9 million.² New Jersey has a daily, per-capita water demand of 124.8 gallons.³ This means that by 2050 public water usage will have increased by 648.9 million gallons each day.

Water Quality: From 1997 to 2000, 57 percent of New Jersey watersheds declined in quality, and nearly all New Jersey waterways are vulnerable to more decline in the future, according to an EPA study. From 1993 to 1998, water quality declined by 25 percent at five sites on the Wallkill River, where two-thirds of Sussex County's 3,959 new homes were built. ⁴

Traffic: As population growth put more traffic on the roads, the average commute for New Jersey residents increased 19 percent during the 1990s, to 30 minutes in 2000.^5,6 51% of New Jersey's major urban roads are congested, and 71% of New Jersey's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Vehicle travel on New Jersey's highways increased 18% from 1990 to 2003. Driving on roads in need of repair costs New Jersey motorists $3.2 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs — $554 per motorist. ⁷

In the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut area travelers experience an annual delay of 49 hours, and in the Allentown-Bethlehem area travelers experience an annual delay of 17 hours. ⁸ 23 percent of commuters in New Jersey have a commute that is 45 minutes or longer, a figure that ranks 3^rd in the U.S.⁹

Disappearing open space: Developed land increased by 34 percent in New Jersey between 1982 and 1997, making it the most developed state in the nation.¹⁰ Development consumes 40,000 acres of New Jersey farmlands and forests every year.¹¹ The Highlands, a vast mountainous region stretching across New Jersey, lost 5,200 acres a year to development through the late 1990s, according to a U.S. Forest Service report. The development threatens wildlife and the water system for millions.¹²

Sprawl: New Jersey is on course to reach the outer limits of development as early as the 2030s. Experts say the state will be the first in the nation to be "built out," meaning that no new land will be available for construction if trends continue and preservation goals are met.¹³

A study of urban sprawl between 1970 and 1990 that calculated the impact of population increase and per capita land use found that 30.4 square miles of additional land were consumed by urban sprawl in the Trenton, NJ metropolitan area, which crossover into Pennsylvania, and 22.2 percent of that sprawl was attributable to population increase. In the Wilmington, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania metro area sprawl consumed an additional 78.0 square miles and population increase accounted for 35.7 percent of the increase. ¹⁴

Population Density: New Jersey is already the most densely populated and developed state in the nation. ¹⁵ In 2000, New Jersey had 1,000 people per square mile — compared to a national average of 80 people per square mile. By 2025, New Jersey's population density is projected to reach 1,300 people per square mile.

Poverty: In 2005 10.6 percent of immigrants in New Jersey had incomes below the poverty line, an increase of 10.4 percent since 2000. Among non-citizens, the poverty rate climbs to 13.7 percent. ¹⁶

Cost of Immigration: The average immigrant household in New Jersey consumes more public services than it pays for with taxes, incurring a 37 percent higher state fiscal deficit than natives and a 59 percent greater local burden.¹⁷

Crowded housing: In 2005 over 85,000 New Jersey households were defined as crowded or severely crowded by housing authorities. ¹⁸ Studies show that a rise in crowded housing often correlates with an increase in the number of foreign- born.^19,20

Palisades Park has seen a series of raids on overcrowded homes in which officials said they uncovered a network of illegal boarding houses charging immigrants up to $1,100 a month for tiny spaces in converted buildings. Most of the illegal space was partitioned in duplexes and single-family homes. Officials said numerous fire and safety violations have been found in the buildings. In Leonia, borough officials are concerned that illegally crowded apartments pose both a health risk and a fire hazard, and they say the problem is growing as unscrupulous landlords capitalize on families desperate for housing, many of them recent immigrants.²¹

Solid Waste: New Jersey generates 1.23 tons of solid waste per capita. ²²

Air Quality: 13 of New Jersey's 21 counties received a grade of "F" from the American Lung Association in their "State of the Air 2005" report. Essex County received a grade of "D". ²³

IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION ON SCHOOLS

Concerns over crowded classrooms, a shortage of adequate staff, and steeper property tax bills are mounting. Between 1990 and 2000, New Jersey's elementary and high school enrollment increased 21 percent — a rate even the state Department of Education did not predict. ²⁴ Between 2000 and 2006, New Jersey's K-12 student enrollment increased by over 106,000 students, ^25,26 and it projected to increase by an additional 14,000 students by 2015. ²⁷

The biggest factor in underestimating substantial enrollment increases was immigration.²⁸ One-fifth of school-aged children in New Jersey have immigrant parents. Six percent are foreign-born themselves.²⁹ In Bloomingdale; the district is unable to accommodate all the students in need of bus transportation to school. More than two dozen students have been told they will need to provide their own transportation, as school buses are overcrowded.³⁰ In Greenwich Township, in Warren County, an area that is quickly being transformed from a rural area into a suburb, the school population is growing so rapidly that a week after a new school opened in 2001, ground was broken on an addition that would double its size.³¹ In Wayne, some classes are being held in the cafeteria and stage area. "It's very hard to say when the growth is going to stop," said Superintendent Richard Linkh. "We simply need more schools". ³²

Endnotes:

Robert Strauss, "A Welcome Mat for Immigrants," New York Times, January 13, 2002.
Jack Martin and Stanley Fogel. "Projecting the U.S. Population to 2050." FAIR. March 2006.
U.S. Geological Survey 2000
Bob Groves, "Better Water Quality Pushed," The Record, November 22, 2001.
"Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000," Census 2000, U.S. Census Bureau.
"Table DP-1-4, Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 1990," 1990 Census, U.S. Census Bureau.
Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
"The 2005 Urban Mobility Report", Texas Transportation Institute.
"U.S. Population 2007 Data Sheet," Population Reference Bureau.
Bob Groves, op. cit.
Matthew Brown, " New Jersey Approves Plan to Limit Sprawl," The Record, March 2, 2001.
"Forest Service Study Sounds Alarm on Building in the Highlands," Associated Press, April 5, 2002.
Karen Masterson, "New Jersey Enters Era of Maximum Sprawl," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 10, 2000.
Beck, Roy and Leon Kolankiewicz, "Weighing Sprawl Factors in Large U.S. Cities," Numbers USA, March 2001.
Suzette Parmley, "McGreevey, Schundler Far Apart on Land Use," Philadelphia Inquirer, September 9, 2001.
"New Jersey State Factsheet," Migration Information Source, Migration Policy Institute.
Deborah Garvey, Thomas Espenshade, James Scully, "Are Immigrants a Drain on the Public Fisc? State and Local Impacts in New Jersey," Social Science Quarterly, June 2002.
Selected Housing Characteristics: 2005 Data Set - 2005 American Community Survey, American Fact Finder, U.S. Census Bureau.
Haya El Nasser, "U.S. Neighborhoods Grow More Crowded," USA Today, July 7, 2002.
Randy Capps, "Hardship Among Children of Immigrants: Findings from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families," Urban Institute, 2001.
"Landlords of Crowded Palisades Park Home Fined $10,000", Associated Press, August 23, 2001.
Report Card for America's Infrastructure 2005," American Society of Civil Engineers.
"State of the Air 2005: New Jersey", American Lung Association.
Debra Nussbaum, "A Number Story," New York Times, September 29, 2002.
"Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 1999-2000," National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
"Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2005-06', National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, June 2007.
Projections of Education Statistics to 2015, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
Debra Nussbaum, "A Number Story," New York Times, September 29, 2002.
"Check Points," Urban Institute, September 2, 2000.
Eman Varqua, "Crowded Buses Leave Some Kids Without Rides," The Record, September 11, 2002.
Debra Nussbaum, op. cit.
Scott Fallon, "Wayne Schools Struggle with Enrollment Surge," Bergen Record, November 20, 2001.

Other Resources

State Local Reform Organizations

State Representatives Voting Record

Updated December 2011

Page Tools