Census 2000 Profile of General Demographic Characteristics for New Jersey

State Highlights

• The median age of New Jersey’s population increased from 34.4 years in 1990 to 36.7 years in 2000. The national median age increased by 2.4 years, from 32.9 in 1990 to 35.3 in 2000, a reflection of the aging of the baby boomers.

• The growth of the population aged 65 and over during the past decade (7.8%) was slower than the total population (8.9%) in both the state and the nation (12.0% for the over 65 and 13.2% for the total) due to the relatively low number of births in the Great Depression era.

• As the nation’s life expectancy for males edged closer to that for females, the state’s sex ratio (males per 100 females) rose from 93.5 in 1990 to 94.3 in 2000, parallel to the national trend. However, the ratio was lower in New Jersey than in the nation in both 1990 and 2000. The national ratios were 95.1 and 96.3, respectively.

• Total housing units increased by 234,965 (or 7.6 %) to 3.1 million in New Jersey between 1990 and 2000 while there was a 13.3 percent growth in the nation as a whole. The slower growth of housing units in the state, relative to its population growth (8.9%) was due, at least partly, to the state’s limited availability of land.

• The number of nonfamily households grew substantially faster than family households (17.7% vs. 6.6%) between 1990 and 2000 in New Jersey. The rate of growth in the nation was 22.8% and 11.3% for nonfamily and family households, respectively.

• The state’s families headed by women with no husband present (+14.3%) increased more than three times as fast as married-couple families (+3.8%) in the past decade. The increases were 20.9% and 7.5% for the number of female-headed and married-couple families in the nation, respectively.

• New Jersey’s average household size was 2.68 in 2000, down slightly from the 1990’s 2.70, but still larger than the national figure. Nationally, the average household size was 2.63 and 2.59 in 1990 and 2000, respectively.

• Of the more than three million occupied housing units in 2000, approximately two million were occupied by owners and another one million by renters. The state’s homeownership rate increased from 64.9 percent in 1990 to 65.6 percent in 2000. The national homeownership rates were 64.2 percent and 66.2 percent in 1990 and 2000, respectively.

• Among New Jersey’s Asians, Asian Indian was the fastest growing group (+113%) during the 1990s, and continued to be the largest group. Japanese was the only Asian group to experience a decline (-15%) between 1990 and 2000. Consequently, Japanese became the smallest Asian group in the state in 2000, surpassed by the fast growing Vietnamese (+107%). Nationally, the number of Asian Indians (+106%) also grew faster than any other Asian groups while the number of Japanese (-6%) also declined. However, Chinese was the largest Asian group in the nation as a whole, followed by Filipinos and Asian Indians.

(Caution: Multiracial persons (about 2.5% of New Jersey’s total residents) were excluded from this comparison.)

• Like the nation, the state’s Hispanic (or Latino) population soared, led by a hefty 258 percent increase of Mexicans in the past decade. The number of Cubans living in New Jersey decreased by 9.4 percent during the same time period. Puerto Ricans remained the largest Hispanic group in the state and accounted for 32.8% of the state’s total Hispanic population in 2000. Mexican was the largest Latino group in the nation as a whole, accounting for 58.5% of the nation’s total Hispanics in 2000.

• The proportion of non-Hispanic whites in the state decreased to 66.0% in 2000 from 74.0% in 1990. The non-Hispanic white population accounted for 69.1% and 75.6% of the nation’s total population in 2000 and 1990, respectively.

• The proportion of children under 18 years old increased in New Jersey from 23.3% in 1990 to 24.8% in 2000. The 1.5 percentage point increase was the second highest among the nation’s 50 states, next only to Connecticut’s 1.9 percentage point increase. The change was due largely to the influx of foreign immigrants and the slow growth of the state’s adult population. The number of persons 18 years old and over increased 6.7 percent in New Jersey (ranked 40^th in the nation) during the 1990s while the increase in Connecticut was a mere 1.0% (ranked 50^th in the nation).

Prepared by: New Jersey Department of Labor, Division of Labor Market and Demographic Research, May 23, 2001.