Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. It is the county seat of Hudson County and is the county's most populous city and its largest by area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 292,449, an increase of 44,852 (+18.1%) from the 2010 census count of 247,597, in turn an increase of 7,542 (+3.1%) from the 240,055 enumerated at the 2000 census. The Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 291,657 for 2023, making it the 72nd-most populous municipality in the nation. With more than 40 languages spoken in more than 52% of homes and as of 2020, 42.5% of residents born outside the United States, it is the most ethnically diverse city in the United States.
The third most-populous city in the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City is bounded on the east by the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay and on the west by the Hackensack River and Newark Bay. A port of entry, with 30.7 miles (49.4 km) of waterfront and extensive rail infrastructure and connectivity, the city is an important transportation terminus and distribution and manufacturing center for the Port of New York and New Jersey with Port Jersey as the city's intermodal freight transport facility and container shipping terminal. The Holland Tunnel, PATH rapid transit system, and NY Waterway ferry service connect across the Hudson River with Manhattan.
The area was settled by the Dutch in the 17th century as Pavonia and later established as Bergen; the first permanent settlement, local civil government and oldest municipality in what became the state of New Jersey. The area came under English control in 1664. Jersey City was incorporated in 1838 and annexed Van Vorst Township in 1851. On May 3, 1870, following a special election in 1869 with a majority of county support, Jersey City annexed Bergen City and Hudson City to form "Greater Jersey City" with Greenville joining in 1873. Jersey City grew into a busy port city on New York Harbor by the late 19th and early 20th century. Jersey City's official motto, displayed on the city seal and flag, is "Let Jersey Prosper" referencing its 19th century border dispute with New York City.
Jersey City is home to several institutions of higher education such as New Jersey City University, Saint Peter's University and Hudson County Community College. As the county seat, Jersey City is home to the Hudson County Courthouse and Frank J. Guarini Justice Complex. Cultural venues throughout the city include the Loew's Jersey Theatre, White Eagle Hall, the Liberty Science Center, Ellis Island, Mana Contemporary and the Museum of Jersey City History. Large parks in Jersey City are Liberty State Park, Lincoln Park and Berry Lane Park. Redevelopment of the Jersey City waterfront has made the city one of the largest hubs for banking and finance in the United States and has led to the district and city being nicknamed Wall Street West. Since the 1990s, Jersey City has been a destination for artists and hipsters. With the city's proximity and connections to Manhattan, its growing arts, culture, culinary and nightlife scene and its own finance and tech based economy, apartment rents in the city have grown to become some of the highest in the United States. In response, Jersey City has instituted zoning and legislation to require developers to include affordable housing units in their developments. In 2023, Travel + Leisure ranked Jersey City as the best place to live in New Jersey.
The land that is now Jersey City was inhabited by the Lenape, a collection of Native American tribes (later called Delaware Indian). In 1609, Henry Hudson, seeking an alternate route to East Asia, anchored his small vessel Halve Maen (English: Half Moon) at Sandy Hook, Harsimus Cove and Weehawken Cove, and elsewhere along what was later named the North River. After spending nine days surveying the area and meeting its inhabitants, he sailed as far north as Albany. The contemporary flag of the city is a variation on the Prince's Flag from the Netherlands. The stripes are blue, white and yellow, with the center of the flag showing the city seal, depicting Hudson's ship, the Half Moon, and other modern vessels.
By 1621, the Dutch West India Company was organized to manage this new territory and in June 1623, New Netherland became a Dutch province, with headquarters in New Amsterdam. Michael Reyniersz Pauw received a land grant as patroon on the condition that he would establish a settlement of not fewer than fifty persons within four years. He chose the west bank of the Hudson River and purchased the land from the Lenape for 80 fathoms (146 m) of wampum, 20 fathoms (37 m) of cloth, 12 kettles, six guns, two blankets, one double kettle, and half a barrel of beer. This grant is dated November 22, 1630, and is the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken and Jersey City. Pauw, however, was an absentee landlord who neglected to populate the area and was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. That year, a house was built at Communipaw for Jan Evertsen Bout, superintendent of the colony, which had been named Pavonia (the Latinized form of Pauw's name, which means "peacock" or "land of the peacock"). Shortly after, another house was built at Harsimus Cove in 1634 and became the home of Cornelius Henrick Van Vorst, who had succeeded Bout as superintendent, and whose family would become influential in the development of the city. Relations with the Lenape deteriorated, in part because Director-General Willem Kieft attempted to tax and drive out the Lenapes, which led to a series of raids and reprisals and the virtual destruction of the settlement on the west bank. During Kieft's War, approximately 120 Lenapes were killed by the Dutch in a massacre ordered by Kieft at Pavonia on the night of February 25, 1643. On May 11, 1647, Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Amsterdam to replace Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland. On September 15, 1655, Pavonia was attacked as part of a Munsee occupation of New Amsterdam called the Peach War that saw 40 colonists killed and over 100, mostly women and children, taken captive and held at Paulus Hook. They were later ransomed to New Amsterdam.
On January 10, 1658, Stuyvesant "re-purchased" the scattered communities of farmsteads that characterized the Dutch settlements of Pavonia: Communipaw, Harsimus, Paulus Hook, Hoebuck, Awiehaken, Pamrapo, and other lands "behind Kill van Kull". The village of Bergen (located inside a palisaded garrison) was established by the settlers who wished to return to the west bank of the Hudson on what is now Bergen Square in 1660, the first town square in North America, and officially chartered by Stuyvesant on September 5, 1661, as the state's first local civil government. The village was designed by Jacques Cortelyou, the first surveyor of New Amsterdam. The word berg taken from the Dutch means "hill", while bergen means "place of safety". The charter partially removed Bergen from the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam and put the surrounding settlements under its authority. As a result, it is regarded as the first permanent settlement and oldest municipality in what would become the state of New Jersey. It is also the home of Public School No. 11, the nation's longest-continuous school site and the site of the first free and public school building in New Jersey, and Old Bergen Church, the oldest continuous congregation in New Jersey. In addition, the oldest surviving houses in Jersey City are of Dutch origin including the Newkirk House (1690), the Van Vorst Farmhouse (1740), and the Van Wagenen House (1740).
In 1661, Communipaw Ferry began operation as the first ferry service between the village of Communipaw (Jersey City) and New Amsterdam (Manhattan) shortly after the village of Bergen was established.
On August 27, 1664, four English frigates sailed into New York Harbor and captured Fort Amsterdam, and by extension, all of New Netherland, a prelude to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Under the Articles of Capitulation, the Dutch residents of Bergen were allowed to continue their way of life and worship. Later in 1664, James, the Duke of York, granted the land between the Hudson and Delaware River to Sir George Carteret as a debt settlement. Carteret named it New Jersey after his homeland the island of Jersey. The Concession and Agreement was issued soon after providing religious freedom and recognition of private property in the colony. In exchange, residents were required to pledge loyalty to their new government.
Following the Treaty of Westminster, New Jersey split into East Jersey and West Jersey. From 1674 to 1702, Bergen was part of East Jersey and became a town in Bergen County on March 7, 1683, one of the four newly independent counties in East Jersey. In 1702, New Jersey was reunified and became a royal colony. Bergen was chosen as the county seat in 1710 and was re-established by royal charter on January 4, 1714.
By the 1760s, Paulus Hook was known for its convenient stagecoach and ferry services. In 1764, Cornelius Van Vorst (1728–1818) established the Paulus Hook Ferry (later called "Jersey City Ferry") and operated the service from Paulus Hook to Cortland Street. To further attract patrons to his ferry landing, Van Vorst created a mile-long circular horse racing track that attracted tourists from both sides of the Hudson and built the Van Vorst Tavern near Grand and Hudson Streets as a one-story building with a Dutch roof and eaves and an overhanging porch that faced the river. To further ensure the profitability of his business ventures on the small island of Paulus Hook, he created an embankment road above the tidal marshes to the mainland. Ahead of the Revolutionary War, Van Vorst declared himself a patriot and in 1774 was appointed to one of the committees of correspondence, representing Bergen County and attended a meeting in New Brunswick to elect delegates to the Second Continental Congress.
In 1776, even before the war, General George Washington ordered American patriots to construct several forts to defend the western banks of the Hudson River, one of which was located at Paulus Hook. The fort was a naturally defensible position that guarded New York from British attack, guarded the Hudson River channel and the gateway to New Jersey. After suffering defeats in New York City, on September 23, 1776, the American patriots abandoned Paulus Hook, leaving the fort to become the first New Jersey territory invaded and occupied by the British.
In mid-summer 1779, a 23-year-old Princeton University graduate, Major Henry Lee, recommended to General Washington a daring plan for the Continental Army to attack the fort, in what became known as the Battle of Paulus Hook. The assault was planned to begin shortly after midnight on August 19, 1779. Lee led a force of about 300 men, some of whom got lost during the march through the swampy, marshy land. The attack was late to start but the main contingent of the force was able to reach the fort's gate without being challenged. It is believed that the British mistook the approaching force for allied Hessians returning from patrol, though this has not been definitively documented.
The attacking Patriots succeeded in damaging the fort and took 158 British prisoners, but were unable to destroy the fort and spike its cannons. As daytime approached, Lee decided the prudent action was to have his Patriots withdraw before British forces from New York could cross the river. Paulus Hook remained in British hands until after the war but the battle was a small strategic victory for the forces of independence as it forced the British to abandon their plans for taking additional rebel positions in the New York area.
Later that August, General Washington met with the Marquis de Lafayette in the village of Bergen to discuss war strategy over lunch and to bait the British into attacking Bergen from New York. The meeting purportedly took place at the Van Wagenen House on Academy Street. Additionally, a nearby "point of rocks" at the east end of the street provided an ideal vantage point for military surveillance of the Hudson River.
One day in September 1780, a local Bergen farmer, Jane Tuers, was selling her goods in British-occupied Manhattan when she stopped in Fraunces Tavern and spoke with the owner, Samuel Fraunces. He informed Tuers that British soldiers were in his tavern toasting General Benedict Arnold, who was to deliver West Point to the British. Tuers returned to Bergen later that day and informed her brother Daniel Van Reypen about the conspiracy. Van Reypen, a staunch patriot, rode to Hackensack to meet with General Anthony Wayne who then sent Van Reypen to inform General Washington of the conspiracy. The information provided by Tuers confirmed what Washington had suspected of Arnold and led to the arrest, trial, conviction and hanging of co-conspirator John André for treason and stopped the plot to surrender West Point. Arnold would later defect to the British to escape prosecution.
On November 22, 1783, the British evacuated Paulus Hook and sailed home three days before they left New York on Evacuation Day. While these events occupy a small portion of U.S. Revolutionary War history, they are important events in the history of New Jersey and New Jersey's role in the American Revolution and hold an even greater significance in the history of the local neighborhoods. In 1903, a obelisk was erected at Paulus Hook Park at the intersection of Washington and Grand Streets, the site of the fort, to memorialize the Battle of Paulus Hook. In 1924, a plaque honoring Jane Tuer's heroism was installed at the site of her former home now Hudson Catholic Regional High School. In 2021, the restored Van Wagenen House was re-opened as the Museum of Jersey City History.
On February 21, 1798, Bergen became a township by the New Jersey Legislature's Township Act of 1798 as the first group of 104 townships in New Jersey.
In 1804, Alexander Hamilton, now a private citizen, was focused on increasing manufacturing in the greater New York City area. To that end, he helped to create the "Associates of the Jersey Company" which would lay the groundwork for modern Jersey City through private development. While envisioning the future of Jersey City, Hamilton said: "One day, a great city shall rise on the western banks of the Hudson River." The consortium of 35 investors behind the company were predominantly Federalists who, like Hamilton, had been swept out of power in the election of 1800 by Thomas Jefferson and other Democratic-Republicans. Large tracts of land in Paulus Hook were purchased by the company with the titles owned by Anthony Dey, who was from a prominent old Dutch family, and his two cousins, Colonel Richard Varick, the former mayor of New York City (1789–1801), and Jacob Radcliff, a Justice of the New York Supreme Court who would later become mayor of New York City (twice) from 1810 to 1811 and again from 1815 to 1818. They laid out the city squares and streets that still characterize the neighborhood, giving them names also seen in Lower Manhattan or after war heroes (Grove, Varick, Mercer, Wayne, Monmouth and Montgomery among them). John B. Coles, a former New York State senator (1799–1802), purchased the area north of Paulus Hook known as Harsimus and laid out a grid plan centered around a park. Following Hamilton's death, Coles proposed naming the park in his honor as "Hamilton Park".
Despite Hamilton's untimely death in July 1804, the Association carried on with the New Jersey Legislature approving Hamilton's charter of incorporation on November 10, 1804. However, the enterprise was mired in a legal boundary dispute between New York City and the state of New Jersey over who owned the waterfront. This along with the associated press coverage discouraged investors who wanted lots on the waterfront for commercial purposes. The unresolved dispute would continue until the Treaty of 1834 where New York City formally ceded control of the Jersey City waterfront to New Jersey. Over that time though, the Jersey Company opened the city's first hospital, known as the "pest house", in 1808 and applied to the New Jersey Legislature to incorporate the "Town of Jersey" in 1819. The legislature enacted "An Act to incorporate the City of Jersey, in the County of Bergen" on January 28, 1820. Under the provision, five freeholders (including Varick, Dey, and Radcliff) were to be chosen as "the Board of Selectmen of Jersey City", thereby establishing the first governing body of the emerging municipality. The city was reincorporated on January 23, 1829, and again on February 22, 1838, at which time it became completely independent of Bergen and was given its present name. On February 22, 1840, Jersey City became part of the newly created Hudson County which separated from Bergen County and annexed the Essex County land of New Barbadoes Neck.
In 1812, Robert Fulton began steam ferry service via "The Jersey" between Paulus Hook and Manhattan, eight years after building a shipyard at Greene and Morgan Streets. In 1834, the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company opened the city's first rail line from Jersey City Ferry to Newark. From 1834 to 1836, the Morris Canal was extended from Newark to Jersey City and New York Harbor linking the Delaware River with the Hudson River. This extension connected Jersey City to Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley and New Jersey's interior providing a steady and easy supply of coal and anthracite pig iron for the growing iron industry and other developing industries adopting steam power in Jersey City and the region.
In 1839, Provident Savings Institution was charted by the state as the first mutual savings bank in New Jersey and the first bank in Jersey City and Hudson County. Co-founded by the city's first mayor, Dudley S. Gregory (1838–1840), in the wake of the Panic of 1837, there was a general mistrust of banks by the public. In response, the bank's charter established it as a "mutual savings bank" to assist the city's immigrant poor. In 1901, the bank headquarters was the temporary home of the first branch of the Jersey City Free Public Library.
On April 12, 1841, the New Jersey Legislature incorporated Van Vorst Township from portions of Bergen. Land was donated by the Van Vorst family for a town square style park that became Van Vorst Park. The township was later annexed by Jersey City on March 18, 1851. From 1854 to 1874, the kitchen step of the Van Vorst Mansion, home of former mayor Cornelius Van Vorst (1860–1862), was known to be the slab of marble that was originally the base of the statue of King George III that was toppled by the Sons of Liberty at Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan in 1776. Van Vorst also constructed the neighboring Barrow Mansion where his sister Eliza lived.
By mid century, Jersey City's rapidly urbanizing population began to encounter significant challenges gaining access to freshwater. In 1850, Jersey City Water Works engineer William S. Whitwell, proposed a three-reservoir complex in the Jersey City Heights (then part of North Bergen) connected to a pumping station near the Passaic River in Belleville by a massive underground aqueduct to deliver freshwater to the city. Reservoir No. 1 was built between 1851–1854 and Reservoir No. 3 was built between 1871 and 1874 under the direction of engineer John Culver. Reservoir No. 2 was never constructed and later became Pershing Field.
During the 19th century, former slaves reached Jersey City on one of the four main routes of the Underground Railroad that all converged in the city. On Bergen Hill, the Hilton-Holden House, named after noted abolitionist and astronomer David Le Cain Holden, was a "station" for fugitive slaves to stop over and seek refuge and is one of the last remaining in the city. Slaves would then be hidden in wagons en route to the Jersey City waterfront and Morris Canal Basin where abolitionists would hire ferry and coal boats to transport former slaves up to Canada or New England to freedom.
In 1868, the Jersey City Board of Alderman took over the pest house and renamed it "Jersey City Charity Hospital" and operated it as a public medical facility, the first in the city and state, where physicians provided free medical care to city residents. In 1885, the hospital expanded to a new 200-bed facility on Bergen Hill to remove the hospital from the increasing industrial development at Paulus Hook.
Soon after the Civil War, the idea arose of uniting all of the towns of Hudson County east of the Hackensack River into one municipality. A bill was approved by the state legislature on April 2, 1869, with a special election to be held on October 5, 1869. An element of the bill provide that only contiguous towns could be consolidated. While a majority of the voters across the county approved the merger, the only municipalities that had approved the consolidation plan and that adjoined Jersey City were Hudson City and Bergen City. The consolidation began on March 17, 1870, taking effect on May 3, 1870. Three years later the present outline of Jersey City was completed when Greenville agreed to merge into the Greater Jersey City.
Following consolidation, the city's first university, Saint Peter's College, was charted in 1872 and classes began on September 2, 1878, in Paulus Hook. Decades later, it would adopt the peacock as its mascot in partial reference to the original settling of the Jersey City area as "Pavonia", land of the peacock.
On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland just off the city's shores at Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor. The statue would welcome millions of immigrants as they arrived by ship at Ellis Island (opened in 1892) in the coming decades.
By the late 1880s, three passenger railroad terminals opened in Jersey City along the Hudson River (Pavonia Terminal, Exchange Place and Communipaw) making Jersey City a terminus for the nation's rail network. Tens of millions, roughly two-thirds, of immigrants that were processed at Ellis Island entered the United States through Communipaw Terminal to then settle in Jersey City or make their way westward. The railroads transformed the geography of the city by building several tunnels and cuts, such as the Bergen Arches, through the city and filling in the coves at Harsimus and Communipaw for the construction of several large freight rail yards along the waterfront.
Jersey City became an important port, railroad and manufacturing city during the 19th and 20th centuries. Much like New York City, Jersey City has always been a destination for new immigrants to the United States. German, Russian, Polish, Scottish, Irish and Italian immigrants settled in local tenements and found work at the local docks, railroads and adjacent companies such as American Can, Colgate, Chloro, Lorillard Tobacoo and Dixon Ticonderoga. During this time, concern grew for the social issues of the city's immigrant poor. Cornelia Foster Bradford founded Whittier House in Paulus Hook in 1894 as the first "settlement house" in New Jersey. Whittier House led to several social reforms and city "firsts" such as free kindergarten, a dental clinic, a visiting nurse service, a milk and medical dispensary, diet kitchen for mothers and babies and a playground. Mary Buell Sayles, a settlement resident, wrote The Housing Conditions of Jersey City in 1902 about the lives of immigrants in and around Paulus Hook. In response, mayor Mark M. Fagan (1902–1907) created the Municipal Sanitary League and opened the city's first public bath house on Coles Street in 1904. That same year, the first "State Tenement House Commission" was formed and the New Jersey Legislature passed the "Tenement House Act".
By the turn of the 20th century, the City Beautiful movement had spread throughout cities in the United States. Part of its mission was to preserve public space for recreational activities in urban industrial communities. The Hudson County Parks Commission was created in 1892 to plan and develop a county wide park and boulevard system similar to those found in other cities. From 1892 to 1897, Hudson Boulevard (now John F. Kennedy Boulevard) was built to connect the future park system from Bayonne to North Bergen through Jersey City. In 1905, Lincoln Park opened on the city's West Side as the largest park in Jersey City and the first and largest park in the county system. Designed by Daniel W. Langton and Charles N. Lowrie, the 273.4 acres (110.6 ha) park was mostly built on undeveloped wetlands and woodlands known as "Glendale Woods", stretching from the Boulevard to the Hackensack River. The Jersey City government was also inspired by the City Beautiful movement to build more open space creating Dr. Leonard J. Gordon Park in the Heights along Hudson Boulevard, Mary Benson Park in Downtown and Bayside Park in Greenville. The movement also inspired the construction of grand civic buildings in the city such as City Hall and the Hudson County Courthouse.
In 1908, the city's water supply was the first permanent chlorinated disinfection system for drinking water in the United States. Devised by John L. Leal and designed by George W. Fuller, the system was installed at the city's new Boonton Reservoir, which replaced the Passaic River as the city's freshwater source in 1904. The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now the PATH system) opened between 1908 and 1913 as New Jersey's first underground rapid transit system. For the first time, Jersey City and the rail terminals at Hoboken, Pavonia and Exchange Place were directly linked with Midtown and Lower Manhattan under the Hudson River, providing an alternative to transferring to the extensive ferry system.
In 1910, William L. Dickinson High School opened as the first purpose-built high school in Jersey City. The design of the school, built during the City Beautiful movement, is thought to have been inspired by that of the Louvre Colonnade and Buckingham Palace. The prominent hilltop location of the school has been an important location throughout the city's history. During the Revolutionary War, it was used as a lookout by General Washington and Marquis de Lafayette to observe British movements at the forts at Paulus Hook and in Lower Manhattan. After the start of the War of 1812, the site assisted in defending New York Harbor with an arsenal built on the property's west side and with the east side serving as a troop campground. During the Civil War, the arsenal served as barracks for Union soldiers and a hospital. The school was used as an army training facility during World War I and World War II.
On July 30, 1916, the Black Tom explosion occurred killing 7 people, damaging the Statue of Liberty and causing millions of dollars in damage in Jersey City and throughout the New York metropolitan area. The explosion was an act of sabotage on American munitions by German spies of the Office of Naval Intelligence to prevent the ammunition from being shipped to the Allies for use during World War I. This event, coupled with the torpedoing of the RMS Lusitania, which killed 136 Americans in 1915, pushed the United States into entering the War in 1917.
From 1917 to 1947, Jersey City was governed by Mayor Frank Hague. Originally elected as a candidate supporting reform in governance, his name is "synonymous with the early twentieth century urban American blend of political favoritism and social welfare known as bossism". Hague ran the city with an iron fist while, at the same time, molding governors, United States senators, and judges to his whims while also being a close political ally to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Boss Hague was known to be loud and vulgar, but dressed in a stylish manner, earning him the nickname "King Hanky-Panky". In his later years in office, Hague would often dismiss his enemies as "reds" or "commies". Hague lived like a millionaire, despite having an annual salary that never exceeded $8,500. He was able to maintain a fourteen-room duplex apartment in Jersey City, a suite at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan, and a palatial summer home in the seaside community of Deal, and travel to Europe yearly in the royal suites of the best ocean liners.
Hague's time as mayor was also marked by his direct influence in the construction of several important infrastructure, educational, open space, healthcare and public works projects that became functional civic landmarks that define the city to this day. Some of these projects are the construction of Journal Square and its theaters, the Holland Tunnel, the Wittpenn Bridge, the design of New Jersey Route 139, the Pulaski Skyway, Lincoln High School, Snyder High School, A. Harry Moore School, New Jersey City University, the Heights, Miller and Greenville branches of the library system, Pershing Field, Audubon Park, five public housing complexes, Harborside Terminal, the Seventh Police Precinct and Criminal Court, the expansion of Jersey City Hospital to Jersey City Medical Center, the Jersey City Armory and Roosevelt Stadium. Hague financed several of these projects with WPA funds secured by congresswoman Mary Teresa Norton (1925–1951), the first woman elected to represent New Jersey or any state in the Northeast.
After Hague's retirement from politics, a series of mayors including John V. Kenny, Thomas J. Whelan and Thomas F. X. Smith attempted to take control of Hague's organization, usually under the mantle of political reform. None were able to duplicate the level of power held by Hague, but the city and Hudson County remained notorious for political corruption for decades to come.
Following World War II, returning veterans created a post-war economic boom and were beginning to buy homes in the suburbs with the assistance of the G.I. Bill. During the Great Depression and the war years, not much new housing was constructed, leaving cities with older and overcrowded housing stock. In response, Jersey City looked to build new housing on undeveloped tracts around the city. College Towers was built on the West Side as the first middle-income housing cooperative apartment complex in New Jersey in 1956. Country Village was built in the 1960s as a middle-income "suburbia-in-the-city" planned community in the Greenville/West Side area to offer the "out of town" experience without leaving the city. The city had hoped that new residential neighborhoods and housing stock would keep the city's population stable.
In 1951, Seton Hall University School of Law opened on the site of John Marshall Law School at 40 Journal Square and would relocate to Newark by the end of the year. From 1956 to 1968, Jersey City Medical Center was the home of the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry, the predecessor to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), which would relocate to Newark in 1969.
In 1956, the Newark Bay (Hudson County) Extension (I-78) of the New Jersey Turnpike opened. As the first limited-access section of I-78 to be built in the state, the extension connected Jersey City and the Holland Tunnel to the mainline of the Turnpike in Newark via the Newark Bay Bridge and at an estimated cost of $2,765 per foot, it was deemed the "world's most expensive road". That same year, the standard shipping container debuted along with the maiden voyage of the container ship SS Ideal X from Port Newark to the Port of Houston. These innovations changed forever the way the maritime industry shipped goods by sea and led to the transformation of Port Newark into the leading container port in New York Harbor. As a result, the Jersey City waterfront, along with the other traditional waterfront port facilities in the harbor, quickly became antiquated and fell into a steep decline. Additionally, by the late 1960s, the rail terminals and associated ferry service that were so vital to the city's economic health had closed and were later abandoned after the host railroads declared bankruptcy. In response to adapt to this economic shift, Port Jersey was created on Upper New York Bay adjacent to Greenville Yard between 1972 and 1976 as the city's own modern intermodal freight transport facility and container shipping terminal.
By the 1970s the city experienced a period of urban decline spurred on by deindustrialization that saw many of its wealthy residents leave for the suburbs, due to rising crime, civil unrest, political corruption, and economic hardship. From 1950 to 1980, Jersey City lost 75,000 residents, and from 1975 to 1982, the city lost 5,000 jobs, or 9% of its workforce.
On Flag Day 1976, Liberty State Park opened on New York Harbor to coincide with the nation's bicentennial. At 1,212 acres (490.5 ha) with a two-mile waterfront walkway, it is the largest park in Jersey City and the largest urban park in New Jersey. The park was built on the site of the former railyards of the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh Valley Railroad. The idea for the park dated back to the late 1950s and its creation was advocated for and spearheaded by several Jersey City residents: Audrey Zapp, Theodore Conrad, Morris Pesin and J. Owen Grundy. Jersey City donated 156 acres (63.1 ha) of land to the development of the park through their advocacy. The Liberty Science Center opened in the park in 1993.
Beginning in the 1980s, the restoration of brownstones in neighborhoods such as Paulus Hook, Van Vorst Park, Hamilton Park, Harsimus Cove and Bergen Hill along with the development of the waterfront previously occupied by railyards, factories and warehouses helped to stir the beginnings of an economic renaissance for Jersey City. The rapid construction of numerous high-rise buildings, such as the mixed-use community of Newport, increased the population and led to the development of the Exchange Place financial district, also known as "Wall Street West", one of the largest financial centers in the United States. Large financial institutions such as UBS, Goldman Sachs, Chase Bank, Citibank, and Merrill Lynch occupy prominent buildings on the Jersey City waterfront, some of which are among the tallest buildings in New Jersey. With 18,000,000 square feet (1,700,000 m) of office space as of 2011, Jersey City has the nation's 12th-largest downtown and the state's largest office market. Since 1988, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has mandated by law that developers building along the waterfront preserve and develop the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway to provide the public with access and recreation by creating a linear park along the Hudson River.
Simultaneous to this building boom, new transit projects were prioritized. By the late 1980s, trans-Hudson ferry service was restored along the waterfront by NY Waterway with ferry terminals now at Paulus Hook, Liberty Harbor and Port Liberté. From 1996 to 2011, NJ Transit constructed the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail as one of the largest public works projects in state history. The system was developed and extended throughout the city and its Downtown utilizing the former right-of-ways of the railroads that defined the city and county during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The system links Jersey City with its neighboring cities while connecting to several NJ Transit bus lines, PATH stations and ferry terminals.
Jersey City was directly affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center where 38 city residents lost their lives. One of the 38 victims was Joseph Lovero, a Jersey City Fire Department dispatcher, who was killed by a piece of falling debris while responding. The Jersey City Fire Department was the only New Jersey fire department to receive an official call for assistance from the New York City Fire Department that day. Following the attacks, the Jersey City waterfront became the largest triage center in the area for survivors escaping Lower Manhattan by ferry during the "9/11 Boatlift". In the days and weeks after, Jersey City became a staging area for rescue and aid workers headed to "Ground Zero" for rescue and recovery efforts. The collapse of the Twin Towers destroyed the World Trade Center PATH station and the firefighting efforts flooded the Downtown Hudson River tunnels and the Exchange Place PATH station severing the rail connection between Jersey City and Lower Manhattan until 2003. Over the years several memorials have been erected along the waterfront including the Jersey City 9/11 Memorial and the official New Jersey state memorial Empty Sky. On November 19, 2015, while campaigning for president in Birmingham, Alabama, Donald Trump falsely claimed a conspiracy theory that he witnessed people celebrating the attacks in Jersey City on television. Trump said:
Trump continued to repeat the conspiracy theory to multiple news outlets for weeks despite no confirmed reports, evidence or footage from that time being found to confirm his repeated falsehood.
Jersey City was heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012 with extended power outages for multiple days, severe wind damage in several neighborhoods and extensive flooding throughout the city especially in Downtown, the Country Village neighborhood, the city's West Side and Liberty State Park. The flooding damaged the city's utility infrastructure and led to a days long shutdown of the PATH system, both of its Hudson River tunnels and the Holland Tunnel.
In October 2013, City Ordinance 13.097 passed requiring employers with ten or more employees to offer up to five paid sick days a year. The bill impacts an estimated 30,000 workers at all businesses who employ workers who work at least 80 hours a calendar year in Jersey City. The passage of the ordinance made Jersey City the first municipality in New Jersey and the sixth in the United States to guarantee paid sick leave.
From 2018 to 2023, Jersey City built a new municipal complex called Jackson Square in the Jackson Hill section of the Bergen-Lafayette neighborhood. Planned since 2014, the city had previously rented office space throughout the city for its multiple agencies. The complex is made up of a City Hall Annex for several agencies, parking garage and public safety headquarters for the Jersey City Police and Fire Departments.
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County and the second-most-populous city in New Jersey. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total area of 21.13 square miles (54.74 km), including 14.74 square miles (38.19 km) of land and 6.39 square miles (16.55 km) of water (30.24%). As of the 1990 census, it had the smallest land area of the 100 most populous cities in the United States.
Jersey City is bordered to the east by the Hudson River, to the north by Secaucus, North Bergen, Union City and Hoboken, to the west, across the Hackensack River, by Kearny and Newark, and to the south by Bayonne.
Jersey City includes most of Ellis Island (the parts awarded to New Jersey by the 1998 U.S. Supreme Court in the case of New Jersey v. New York). Liberty Island is surrounded by Jersey City waters in the Upper New York Bay. Given its proximity and various rapid transit connections to Manhattan, Jersey City (along with Hudson County as a whole) is sometimes referred to as New York City's sixth borough.
Jersey City (and most of Hudson County) is located on the peninsula known as Bergen Neck, with a waterfront on the east at the Hudson River and New York Bay and on the west at the Hackensack River and Newark Bay. Its north–south axis corresponds with the ridge of Bergen Hill, the emergence of the Hudson Palisades. The city is the site of some of the earliest European settlements in North America, which grew into each other rather than expanding from a central point. This growth and the topography greatly influenced the development of the sections of the city and its various neighborhoods.
The city is divided into six wards.
Bergen-Lafayette, formerly Bergen City, New Jersey, lies between Greenville to the south and McGinley Square to the north, while bordering Liberty State Park and Downtown to the east and the West Side neighborhood to the west. Communipaw Avenue, Bergen Avenue, Martin Luther King Drive, and Ocean Avenue are main thoroughfares. The former Jersey City Medical Center complex, a cluster of Art Deco buildings on a rise in the center of the city, has been converted into residential complexes called The Beacon. Completed in 2016 at a cost of $38 million, (~$47.3 million in 2023) Berry Lane Park is located along Garfield Avenue in the northern section of Bergen-Lafayette; covering 17.5 acres (7.1 ha), it is the largest municipal park in Jersey City. The Jersey City Municipal Complex opened in phases at Jackson Square in the Jackson Hill neighborhood from 2018 to 2023.
Downtown Jersey City is the area from the Hudson River westward to the Newark Bay Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike (Interstate 78) and the New Jersey Palisades; it is also bounded by Hoboken to the north and Liberty State Park to the south.
Historic Downtown is an area of mostly low-rise buildings to the west of the waterfront that is highly desirable due to its proximity to local amenities and Manhattan. It includes the neighborhoods of Van Vorst Park and Hamilton Park, which are both square parks surrounded by brownstones. This historic downtown also includes Paulus Hook, the Village and Harsimus Cove neighborhoods. Newark Avenue & Grove Street, are the main thoroughfares in Downtown Jersey City, both have seen a lot of development and the surrounding neighborhoods have many stores and restaurants. The Grove Street PATH station has been renovated and made fully ADA compliant. and a number of new residential buildings are being built around the stop, including a 50-story building at 90 Columbus. Historic Downtown is home to many cultural attractions including the Jersey City Museum, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse (planned to become a museum and artist housing) and the Harsimus Stem Embankment along Sixth Street, which a citizens' movement is working to turn into public parkland that would be modeled after the High Line in Manhattan.
Newport and Exchange Place are redeveloped waterfront areas consisting mostly of residential towers, hotels and office buildings that are among the tallest buildings in the city. Newport is a planned mixed-use community, built on the old Erie Lackawanna Railway yards, made up of residential rental towers, condominiums, office buildings, a marina, schools, restaurants, hotels, Newport Centre Mall, a waterfront walkway, transportation facilities, and on-site parking for more than 15,000 vehicles. Newport had a hand in the renaissance of Jersey City although, before ground was broken, much of the downtown area had already begun a steady climb (much like Hoboken).
The Heights or Jersey City Heights is a district in the north end of Jersey City atop the New Jersey Palisades overlooking Hoboken to the east and Croxton in the Meadowlands to the west. Previously the city of Hudson City, The Heights was incorporated into Jersey City in 1869. The southern border of The Heights is generally considered to be north of Bergen Arches and the Covered Roadway, while Paterson Plank Road in Washington Park is its main northern boundary. Transfer Station is just over the city line. Its postal area ZIP Code is 07307. The Heights mostly contains two- and three-family houses and low rise apartment buildings, and is similar to North Hudson architectural style and neighborhood character.
Journal Square is a mixed-use central business district. The square was created in 1923, creating a broad intersection with Hudson Boulevard which itself had been widened in 1908. Other major squares in the neighborhood are Bergen Square, India Square and Five Corners. McGinley Square is located in close proximity to Journal Square, and is considered an extension of it. Hudson County Community College is located throughout the neighborhood. Journal Square is currently undergoing a massive wave of economic growth and development not seen since the neighborhood was first established with more than 4,400 residential units under construction.
Greenville is on the south end of Jersey City. In the 2010s, the neighborhood underwent a revitalization. Considered an affordable neighborhood in the New York City area, a number of Ultra-Orthodox Jews and young families purchased homes and built a substantial community there, attracted by housing that costs less than half of comparable homes in New York City. In a December 2019 shooting incident, three bystanders were killed in a kosher market in Greenville. The two assailants, who had earlier killed a police detective, were also shot and killed.
The West Side borders Greenville to the south and the Hackensack River to the west; it is also bounded to the east and north by Bergen-Lafayette and the broader Journal Square area, including McGinley Square. It consists of various diverse areas on both sides of West Side Avenue, one of Jersey City's leading shopping streets. The West Side is the home of New Jersey City University and Saint Peter's University.
The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally cool to cold winters with moderate snowfall. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Jersey City has a humid subtropical climate (closely bordering on a humid continental climate), similar to its parallel cities like Newark and New York City.
As of the 2020 census, Jersey City had a population of 292,449, and a population density of 19,835.1 inhabitants per square mile (7,658.4/km) an increase of 44,852 residents (18.1%) from its 2010 census population of 247,597. Since it was believed the earlier population was under-counted, the 2010 census was anticipated with the possibility that Jersey City might become the state's most populated city, surpassing Newark. The city hired an outside firm to contest the results, citing the fact that development in the city between 2000 and 2010 substantially increased the number of housing units and that new populations may have been under-counted by as many as 30,000 residents based on the city's calculations. Preliminary findings indicated that 19,000 housing units went uncounted.
Per the American Community Survey's 2014–2018 estimates, Jersey City's age distribution was 7.7% of the population under 5, 13.2% between 6–18, 69% – from 19 to 64, and 10.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age 34.2 years. Females made up 50.8% of the population and there were 100.1 males per 100 females. 86.5% of the population graduated high school, while 44.9% of the population had a bachelor's degree or higher. 7.1% of residents under 65 were disabled, while 15.9% of residents live without health insurance.
There were 110,801 housing units and 102,353 households in 2018. The average household size was 2.57. The average per capita income was $36,453, and the median household income was $62,739. 18.7% of residents lived below the poverty line. 67.9% of residents 16+ were within the civilian labor force. The mean travel time to work for residents was 36.8 minutes. 28.6% of housing units are owner-occupied, with the median value of the homes being $344,200. The median gross rent in the city was $1,271.
From 2005 to 2023, Jersey City led New Jersey and the Northeastern United States in housing construction with a 43% increase producing twice as much housing as the rest of the state and 16.7% more than the United States average. Additionally, the city's population increased by 18% with a 20% increase in housing units resulting in housing development surpassing population growth. During this time, the median household income in Jersey City grew by 133%, the fourth-highest increase in the Untied States with the median home price increasing by 86%. Over this time, Jersey City has matched or surpassed the number of housing units created in Manhattan in a given year.
Jersey City has been called "one of the most diverse cities in the world" and for several years has been ranked as the most ethnically diverse city in the United States. The city is a major port of entry for immigration to the United States and a major employment center at the approximate core of the New York City metropolitan area; and given its proximity to Manhattan, Jersey City has evolved a globally cosmopolitan ambiance of its own, demonstrating a robust and growing demographic and cultural diversity concerning metrics including "nationality, religion, race, and domiciliary partnership."
Jersey City has undertaken several measures to engage its different immigrant communities. In 2017, Jersey City designated itself a "sanctuary city". In 2018, Jersey City created the Division of Immigrant Affairs within the Department of Health and Human Services. The office works to address the concerns of immigrant communities and build partnerships with nonprofit organizations that serve them specifically in health and human services, immigration legal services, education and English language acquisition, job training, enrollment in public benefits and civic engagement. In 2020, Jersey City became the first municipality in the United States accredited for offering free legal services to immigrants as part of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Recognition and Accreditation Program. Additionally, The New American Economy (NAE) Research Award named Jersey City to receive NAE research to further address socioeconomic disparities within immigrant populations.
The U.S. Census accounts for race by two methodologies. "Race alone" and "Race alone less Hispanics" where Hispanics are delineated separately as if a separate race.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the racial makeup (including Hispanics in the racial counts) was 27.32% (79,905) White alone, 19.87% (58,103) Black alone, 0.66% (1,916) Native American alone, 28.01% (81,903) Asian alone, 0.06% (178) Pacific Islander alone, 14.35% (41,970) Other Race alone, and 9.74% (28,474) Multiracial or Mixed Race.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the racial and ethnic makeup (where Hispanics are excluded from the racial counts and placed in their own category) was 23.81% (69,624) White alone (non-Hispanic), 18.53% (54,199) Black alone (non-Hispanic), 0.22% (638) Native American alone (non-Hispanic), 27.84% (81,425) Asian alone (non-Hispanic), 0.03% (101) Pacific Islander alone (non-Hispanic), 1.44% (4,204) Other Race alone (non-Hispanic), 3.24% (9,481) Multiracial or Mixed Race (non-Hispanic), and 24.89% (72,777) Hispanic or Latino.
There were an estimated 55,493 non-Hispanic whites in Jersey City, according to the 2013–2017 American Community Survey, representing a 4.2% increase from 53,236 non-Hispanic whites enumerated in the 2010 United States census.
An estimated 63,788 African Americans resided in Jersey City, or 24.0% of the city's population in 2017, representing a slight decrease from 64,002 African Americans enumerated in the 2010 United States census. This is in contrast with Hudson County overall, where there were an estimated 84,114 African Americans, according to the 2013–2017 American Community Survey, representing a 2.3% increase from 83,925 African Americans enumerated in the county in the 2010 United States census. However, modest growth in the African immigrant population, most notably the growing Nigerian American and Kenyan American populations in Jersey City, is partially offsetting the decline in the city's American-born black population, which as a whole has been experiencing an exodus from northern New Jersey to the Southern United States.
Approximately 76,637 Latino and Hispanic Americans lived in Jersey City, composing 28.8% of the population in 2017, representing a 12.3% increase from 68,256 Latino or Hispanic Americans enumerated in the 2010 United States census. Stateside Puerto Ricans, making up a third of the city's Latin American or Hispanic population, constituted the largest Hispanic group in Jersey City. Since 1961, Jersey City has hosted its annual Puerto Rican Day Parade and Festival which has grown to be the largest in the state. While Cuban Americans are not as highly concentrated in Jersey City as they are in northern Hudson County, Jersey City has hosted the annual Cuban Parade and Festival of New Jersey at Exchange Place on its downtown waterfront since it was established in 2001.
An estimated 67,526 Asian Americans live in Jersey City, constituting 25.4% of the city's population, representing a 15.2% increase from 58,595 Asian Americans enumerated in the 2010 United States census.
India Square, also known as "Little India", "Little Bombay", or "Little Gujarat", home to the highest concentration of Asian Indians in the Western Hemisphere, is a rapidly growing Indian American ethnic enclave in Jersey City. Indian Americans constituted 10.9% of the overall population of Jersey City in 2010, the highest proportion of any major U.S. city. India Square has been home to the largest outdoor Navratri festivities in New Jersey as well as several Hindu temples; while an annual, color-filled spring Holi festival has taken place in Jersey City since 1992, centered upon India Square and attracting significant participation and international media attention. In 2017 there were an estimated 31,578 Indian Americans in Jersey City, representing a 16.5% increase from 27,111 Indian Americans enumerated in the 2010 United States census.
Filipino Americans, numbering 16,610 residents, made up 6.2% of Jersey City's population in 2017. The Five Corners district serves as a prominent Little Manila of Jersey City, being home to a thriving Filipino community that forms the second-largest Asian-American subgroup in the city. A variety of Filipino restaurants, shippers and freighters, doctors' offices, bakeries, stores, and even an office of The Filipino Channel have made Newark Avenue their home in recent decades. The largest Filipino-owned grocery store on the East Coast, Phil-Am Food, has been established on the avenue since 1973. An array of Filipino-owned businesses can also be found in the West Side section of the city, where many residents are of Filipino descent. In 2006, Red Ribbon Bakeshop, one of the Philippines' most famous food chains, opened its first branch on the East Coast: a new pastry outlet in Jersey City. Manila Avenue in Downtown Jersey City was named for the Philippine capital city because of the many Filipinos who built their homes on the street during the 1970s. A memorial dedicated to the Filipino-American veterans of the Vietnam War was built in a small square on Manila Avenue. A park and statue dedicated to Jose P. Rizal, a national hero of the Philippines, are also located in Downtown Jersey City. Furthermore, Jersey City hosts the annual Philippine–American Friendship Day Parade, an event that occurs yearly on the last Sunday in June. The City Hall of Jersey City raises the Philippine flag in correlation with this event and as a tribute to the contributions of the local Filipino community. The city's annual Santacruzan procession has taken place since 1977 along Manila Avenue.
Behind English and Spanish, Tagalog is the third-most-common language spoken in Jersey City.
Jersey City was home to an estimated 9,379 Chinese Americans in 2017, representing a notably rapid growth of 66.2% from the 5,643 Chinese Americans enumerated in the 2010 United States census. Chinese nationals have also been obtaining EB-5 immigrant visas by investing US$500,000 apiece in new Downtown Jersey City residential skyscrapers.
New Jersey's largest Vietnamese American population resides in Jersey City. There were an estimated 1,813 Vietnamese Americans in Jersey City, according to the 2013–2017 American Community Survey, representing a 12.8% increase from 1,607 Vietnamese Americans enumerated in the 2010 United States census.
Arab Americans numbered an estimated 18,628 individuals in Hudson County per the 2013–2017 American Community Survey, representing 2.8% of the county's total population. Arab Americans are the second- highest percentage in New Jersey after Passaic County. Arab Americans are most concentrated in Jersey City, led by Egyptian Americans, including the largest population of Coptic Christians in the United States.
In 2010, there were 2,726 same-sex couples in Hudson County, with Jersey City being the hub, prior to the commencement of same-sex marriages in New Jersey on October 21, 2013. Following the ruling, Jersey City was one of the first municipalities in New Jersey to issue marriage licenses and officiate ceremonies for same-sex couples. Jersey City is considered one of the most LGBT-friendly communities in New Jersey and has achieved a perfect score from the Municipal Equality Index (MEI) for LGBTQ+ equality in municipal law, policies, and services for 12 consecutive years.
Founded in 1993, the Hudson Pride Connections Center is located in Journal Square and is largest LGBTQ+ social services center in New Jersey that advocates for the physical, mental, social and political well-being of the diverse LGBTQ+ community and its supporters.
Every August since 2000 Jersey City hosts the Jersey City LBGTQ+ Pride Festival (JC Pride) and has grown to become one of the largest pride festivals in New Jersey attracting over 25,000 attendees. The celebrations begin on the first of the month with a Progress Pride Flag raising ceremony at City Hall.
Nearly 59.6% of Jersey City's inhabitants are religious adherents, of which 46.2% are Catholic Christians and 7.3% are Protestant Christians. Muslims constituted 3.4% of religious adherents in Jersey City.
South Asian religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism make up 1.5% of the city's religious demographic, with Judaism at 0.6%. Jersey City has a growing Orthodox Jewish population, centered in the Greenville neighborhood.
Jersey City is a regional employment center and one of the largest in the state with over 100,000 private and public sector jobs, which creates a daytime swell in population. Many jobs are in the financial and service sectors, as well as in shipping, logistics, and retail. From 2020 to 2021, Jersey City's employment rate increased by 8.12% from 140,000 to 151,000 employees. Tech and IT jobs made up 15.5% of all jobs created during that span.
Jersey City's tax base grew by US$136 million in 2017, giving Jersey City the largest municipal tax base in the State of New Jersey. As part of a 2017 revaluation, the city's property tax base is expected to increase from $6.2 billion to $26 billion.
Jersey City's Hudson River waterfront, from Exchange Place to Newport, is known as Wall Street West and has over 13,000,000 square feet (1,200,000 m) of Class A office space and over 18,000,000 square feet (1,700,000 m) of total office space for the nation's 12th-largest downtown and the state's largest office market. One-third of the private sector jobs in the city are in the financial services sector: more than 60% are in the securities industry, 20% are in banking and 8% in insurance.
Jersey City is the headquarters of the National Stock Exchange. Jersey City is also home to the headquarters of Verisk Analytics and Lord Abbett, a privately held money management firm. Companies such as Computershare, ADP, IPC Systems, and Fidelity Investments also conduct operations in the city. Fintech firms such as Revenued also have a large presence to service the financial sector in Jersey City. In 2014, Forbes magazine moved its headquarters to the district, having been awarded a $27 million tax grant in exchange for bringing 350 jobs to the city over ten years. Also in 2014, RBC Bank announced it was moving 900 jobs to 207,000 sq ft (19,200 m) of office space at 30 Hudson Street at Exchange Place. In 2015, JPMorgan Chase expanded their presence in Jersey City by relocating 2,150 jobs from Manhattan to a company owned office building in Newport. The Bank of Montreal renewed its lease of 10,365 sq ft (962.9 m) office space in 2024 at Harborside. In 2024, Bank of America announced that they leased approximately 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m) of office space over 21 floors at Newport Tower in the Newport neighborhood. It represents the largest New Jersey office space lease in the last decade.
The life science and technology industry is a rapidly growing and expanding sector for Jersey City. In 2024, Jersey City was ranked as the 5th top tech city in the United States and now houses 394 different Tech and IT firms with 15.5% of all jobs in Jersey City being created in that sector from 2020 to 2021.
In 2020, Merck & Co spin-off Organon International leased 110,000 sq ft (10,000 m) of office space and locate its headquarters at the Goldman Sachs Tower via WeWork.
In 2021, the Liberty Science Center broke ground on SciTech Scity, a 30 acres (0.12 km) campus across the street from the science center that will serve as a hub for life sciences, health care and technology. The $450 million campus will include Edge Works, an eight-story facility that will feature laboratories, research and development spaces, office suites, co-working spaces for startups, a tech exhibition hall and a state-of-the-art conference center. Sheba Medical Center is an anchor tenant and will develop a "hospital of the future" simulation space that will be known as "Liberty Science ARC HealthSpace 2030". Additionally, the campus will include Liberty Science Center High School, a new STEM public high school that will be administered by the Hudson County Schools of Technology and Scholars Village, a 500-unit residential project that will marketed toward families and individuals in tech related industries.
Another life science and innovation hub called "The Cove" was announced in 2022. The 13 acres (0.053 km) campus site is near SciTech Scity and will be a mixed-use development with 1,400,000 sq ft (130,000 m) of life science office and research space, 1,600,000 sq ft (150,000 m) of residential space and feature a 3.5 acres (0.014 km) public waterfront park.
In 2023, the biotechnology firm EpiBone, a company that grows bone and cartilage for skeletal reconstruction, announced it would move from Brooklyn to Jersey City and lease 28,089 sq ft (2,609.6 m) of lab space at 95 Greene Street, a purpose built life science facility at Exchange Place. The following year in 2024, RegenLab USA, which manufactures devices for the production of regenerative cell therapy, announced that they would also move from Brooklyn to Jersey City and lease 15,792 sq ft (1,467.1 m) of lab space in the same facility.
In 2024, biopharmaceutical company Eikon Therapeutics moved into 36,000 sq ft (3,300 m) of office space at Harborside.
In 2025, AI and IT company Hexaware Technologies leased the entire the 24th floor of Harborside 5 for their global headquarters.
Jersey City has quickly grown to be a leader in the sports betting industry and the sports betting epicenter of the United States. BetMGM and Caesars Sports Book have established their headquarters at Exchange Place along the Hudson River Waterfront and several other sports book such as FanDuel, Draft Kings and Fanatics have offices in Jersey City. FanDuel expanded their operations with a new 12,000 square feet (1,100 m) office at Newport in 2025. With New Jersey having a long history of legalized gambling and also being a hub for tech employees, Jersey City has become an extension of the gaming industry in Atlantic City.
Jersey City has several shopping districts, some of which are traditional main streets for their respective neighborhoods, such as Central, Danforth, Newark and West Side Avenues. Lower Newark Avenue in Downtown Jersey City was converted to a permanent three-block long pedestrian plaza in 2022 becoming a hub for the city's dining, nightlife and cultural arts scene. Journal Square is a major historic commercial and central business district that includes neighborhoods in the broader area such as Bergen Square, McGinley Square, India Square, the Five Corners and portions of the Marion Section. Jersey City has two malls, Newport Centre Mall, a regional indoor shopping mall in Downtown Jersey City, and Hudson Mall, a "non traditional" indoor shopping mall on the city's West Side.
Portions of the city are part of an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ). Jersey City was selected in 1983 to be part of the initial group of 10 zones chosen to participate in the program. In addition to other benefits to encourage employment and investment within the Zone, shoppers can take advantage of a reduced 3.3125% sales tax rate (half of the 6.625% rate charged statewide) at eligible merchants. Established in November 1992, the city's Urban Enterprise Zone status expires in November 2023. Jersey City is the state's largest and most productive Urban Enterprise Zone encompassing one-third of the city.
In 2013, Imperial Dade opened its 535,000 square feet (49,700 m) distribution center and headquarters on U.S. Route 1/9 Truck in the Marion neighborhood on the city's West Side.
East Coast Warehouse and Distribution expanded its warehouse operations by 200,000 square feet (19,000 m) in 2017.
Goya Foods, which had been headquartered in adjacent Secaucus, opened a new headquarters including a 600,000-square-foot (56,000 m) warehouse and distribution center in Jersey City in April 2015.
In 2019, Nuts.com moved its headquarters to 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m) of office space at Exchange Place in Jersey City.
In 2024, CVS Health leased 427,000 square feet (39,700 m) of space at the newly constructed 86 acres (0.35 km) HRP Hudson Logistics Park in the Croxton section of Jersey City.
Port Jersey is an intermodal freight transport facility that includes a container terminal located on the Upper New York Bay in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The municipal border of the Hudson County cities of Jersey City and Bayonne runs along the long pier extending into the bay.
The north end of the facility houses the Greenville Yard, a rail yard located on a manmade peninsula that was built in the early 1900s by the Pennsylvania Railroad. New York New Jersey Rail is a switching and terminal railroad headquartered in Greenville Yard that operates the only car float in New York Harbor between Jersey City and Brooklyn. Operations were expanded in 2017 with a new barge, NYNJR100, that features four tracks that can carry up to 18 rail cars of 60-foot (18 m) length, with up to 2,298 long tons (2,335 tonne) of cargo. A second barge of the same capacity, NYNJR200, was delivered in 2018 with an older 14-car barge, the 278, still in service. In 2019, the $600 million expansion was completed with the construction of an Express Rail facility that features 9,600 ft (2,900 m) of track over eight tracks serviced by two rail mounted gantry cranes with a yearly capacity of 250,000 container lifts.
The central area of the facility contains Port Liberty Bayonne, a major post-panamax shipping facility operated by CMA CGM that underwent a major expansion in June 2014. The largest ship ever to call at the Port of New York-New Jersey, the MOL Benefactor, docked at Port Jersey in July 2016 after sailing from China through the newly widened Panama Canal. In 2024, Port Jersey received four new super post panamax cranes capable of serving 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) vessels raising the number of cranes at the port from eight to twelve. Additionally, work is ongoing to create a third berth for vessels with a depth of 55 feet (17 m).
In 2014, the apparel and foot ware company, VF Corporation, moved 145 workers from Manhattan to 42,000 sq ft (3,900 m) of office space in Newport.
In 2022, the sports memorabilia company, Collectors Holdings, owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, leased 130,000 sq ft (12,000 m) of space for its authentication and grading services at Harborside 3 along the Hudson River Waterfront.
In 2025, electronics company Casio America Inc. leased 13,647 sq ft (1,267.8 m) at Harborside 5 for their new sales and marketing headquarters.
In 2014, Paul Fireman proposed a 95-story tower for Jersey City that would have included a casino next to Liberty National Golf Club. The project, which was endorsed by Mayor Steven Fulop, would cost an estimated $4.6 billion (~$5.83 billion in 2023). In February 2014, New Jersey State Senate President Stephen Sweeney argued that Jersey City, among other distressed cities, could benefit from a casino—were construction of one outside of Atlantic City eventually permitted by New Jersey. In 2016, the New Jersey Casino Expansion Amendment (2016) ballot question was put before New Jersey voters asking them if they would allow the expansion of casino gambling outside Atlantic City via a constitutional amendment. Voters rejected the ballot question by a margin of 77% to 23% effectively ending the casino proposal.
Based upon a 2011 survey of census data on the number of artists as a percentages of the population, The Atlantic magazine called Jersey City the 10th-most-artistic city in the United States. In 2023, Americans for the Arts released the Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6) study on the nation's non-profit arts and culture sector. The study found that in 2022 Jersey City's arts and culture sector generated $46 million in economic activity while supporting 532 jobs, providing $28.2 million in personal income to residents and generating $7.1 million in local, state and federal tax revenue.
The Jersey City Free Public Library is the largest municipal library system in New Jersey. It has a Main Library, bookmobile and ten branches with the newest branch, the Communipaw Branch, opening in 2024 in the Communipaw-Lafayette neighborhood as a public innovation hub for Jersey City and a hub for STEAM learning, equipped with a makerspace that includes a range of tools from 3D printers to a recording studio.
The Main Library Branch features the New Jersey Room, a wing dedicated to historical documents about New Jersey, with a focus on Hudson County and Jersey City. Created in 1964, the room merged the collections of William H. Richardson and the Hudson County Historical Society with material the library already possessed. The New Jersey Room holds over 20,000 volumes, in addition to historical maps and periodicals.
The Afro-American Historical and Cultural Society Museum is located on the upper floor of the Greenville Branch of the Jersey City Public Library and features the heritage of Jersey City's African American community which has been preserved in a special collection. Additionally, a permanent collection of material culture of New Jersey's African Americans as well as African artifacts is also on display.
The Museum of Jersey City History is located in the historic Van Wagenen House on Bergen Square and features rotating and permanent exhibitions on the history of Jersey City.
Liberty State Park is home to the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, the Interpretive Center, and Liberty Science Center, an interactive science and learning center. The center, which first opened in 1993 as New Jersey's first major state science museum, has science exhibits, the world's largest IMAX Dome theater, numerous educational resources, and the original Hoberman sphere. In 2017, the center debuted the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium, the largest in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth largest in the world. From the park, ferries travel to both Ellis Island and the Immigration Museum and Liberty Island, site of the Statue of Liberty.
The Jersey City Museum, Mana Contemporary, and the Museum of Russian Art, which specializes in Soviet Nonconformist Art, include permanent art collections and special exhibits such as the International Center of Photography photographic collection, reading room and archives, the Middle East Center for the Arts (MECA) and the Richard Meier Model Museum at Mana. Some stations of the Hudson Bergen Light Rail feature public art exhibitions, including those at Exchange Place, Danforth Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive station.
Jersey City is also home to several art galleries of various scale and size including the Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery and Visial Arts Gallery at New Jersey City University, the Fine Arts Gallery at Saint Peter's University, the Jersey City Art School 313 Gallery as well as Drawing Rooms, SMUSH Gallery, Pro Arts Jersey City - Art 150 Gallery and Novado Gallery to name a few.
White Eagle Hall is a 400-seat (800 general admission) performing arts venue located in the Village neighborhood of Downtown Jersey City. It first opened in 1910 as a performing arts venue and parish hall for St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. For many years after it was the practice gym of the historic national powerhouse St. Anthony High School Friars basketball team led by Hall of Fame Coach Bob Hurley. It reopened in 2017 after a three-year $6 million renovation as a performing arts, gallery space, and restaurant complex. Starting in 2017, the Jersey City Theater Center performs their dance and theatre programming at White Eagle Hall.
The Loew's Jersey Theatre is a 3,500-seat historic movie palace and performing arts venue in the Journal Square neighborhood of Jersey City. It was built in 1929 and designed by the architectural firm of Rapp and Rapp. It is one of five Loew's Wonder Theatres in the New York metropolitan area and the only one built outside of New York City. When it opened it was called the "most lavish temple of music and entertainment" in New Jersey. In 2021, the theatre closed to undergo a $105 million renovation with a reopening scheduled for 2026 as a modern performing arts venue.
Monty Hall is a live performing arts space owned and operated by WFMU 91.1FM starting in 2014 at their offices and studios at 43 Montgomery Street.
Nimbus Arts Center at The Lively opened in 2020 in the Powerhouse Arts District (PAD) as the home for Nimbus Dance Works. At 15,000 sq ft (1,400 m), the 150-seat performing arts venue hosts the organization's professional dance company, school of dance, performing arts presentations, visual arts program, and office headquarters. It is also home to Segunda Quimbamba and LUX Performing Arts.
Art House Productions Theater Center is located in the Powerhouse Arts District (PAD) and opened in 2023. The two-story facility, gallery and 99-seat black box theater was designed by nationally recognized theater architects Auerbach Consultants. The center hosts plays, comedy shows, film festivals, music performances, dance and visual arts.
The New Jersey Symphony is opening its first permanent venue in 2026 in the Powerhouse Arts District (PAD). The Symphony will be moving from its long time base of operations at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark to a purpose built 550-seat theater called the "Symphony Center". The 44,000 sq ft (4,100 m) Center will be a hub for concerts, classes and other activities. While the Symphony will continue to perform across New Jersey, the theater will serve as its primary location. The center will increase its programming over a five-year period, with about 20 to 30 performances in the 2026–27 season, and rising to about 150 to 200 performances in the 2030–31 season.
Several venues at the universities in Jersey City are also used to present professional and semi-professional theater, dance, and music. New Jersey City University (NJCU) features the historic 1,000 seat Margaret Williams Theatre at Hepburn Hall and the 120-seat black box West Side Theatre. Saint Peter's University features the 200-seat Roy Irving Theatre at Dinneen Hall and the 400-seat "cabaret-style" performing arts space at the Mac Mahon Student Center.
Since 2013, the Jersey City Mural Arts Program (JCMAPS), has partnered with established and emerging local, national and international mural artists, such as JC based graffiti artist DISTORT, local Jersey City teachers, Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra, and American artists and activists such as Shepard Fairey and Kyle Holbrook. The city also engages property owners throughout Jersey City as part of the innovative program that reduces graffiti, engages local residents and beautifies Jersey City by transforming the city into a vibrant outdoor art gallery. To date, over 200 murals have been created by over 138 artists.
In 2014, the Jersey City Youth Mural Arts Program (JCYMAP) started as an extension of JCMAPS. Students throughout Jersey City work together with art instructors on the final layout and design of the murals and engage in hands-on, intensive workshops that are designed to provide young artists with the tools and skills necessary to create public art. The program also works with local universities such as New Jersey City University and Saint Peter's University to engage young-adults to create a mural under the direction of professional mural artists.
Jersey City is home to several annual visual and performing arts festivals, fairs, and other events. These include Jersey City Art & Studio Tour (JCAST), a city-sponsored visual art showcase founded in 1990, Art Fair 14C, a non-profit juried exhibition for New Jersey artists and New Jersey's largest visual arts event, and Your Move Modern Dance Festival, which was founded in 2010 and continues to be produced by Art House Productions. Jersey City has also hosted JC Fridays, a city-wide quarterly seasonal arts festival organized by Art House Productions each March, June, September, and December since 2006. Art House Productions also produces the Jersey City Comedy Festival (formerly known as the 6th Borough Comedy Festival), which presents stand up, improv, and sketch comedy. Since 2008, Art House Productions also hosts the annual Snow Ball Gala with a different theme every year. The gala celebrates Jersey City's vibrant arts and culture scene by honoring those who support artists and enrich Hudson County through arts programming.
Groove on Grove is a free weekly summer music series that takes place every Wednesday from May to August at Grove Street PATH Plaza.
Since 1992, the Hudson Shakespeare Company has been the resident Shakespeare festival of Hudson County performing a free Shakespeare production for each month of the summer throughout various parks in the city. The group regularly performs at Hamilton Park (9th Street & Jersey Avenue), Van Vorst Park (Jersey Avenue & Montgomery Street), and The Historic Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery (435 Newark Avenue).
The Ghost of Uncle Joe's is an annual weekend long music festival fundraiser that takes place in October and benefits The Historic Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery. Started in 2010 and named after Uncle Joe's, a popular former rock club in Downtown Jersey City, performances are held at the cemetery and the festival is Halloween themed and features a mix of local musicians covering well known artists and bands.
Starting in 2010, the annual Jersey City Ward Tour is a recreational cycling event that takes riders on a 16-mile (26 km) tour through all six wards of Jersey City and attracts over 3,000 cyclists. The tour is a fundraising event held by Bike JC, a nonprofit organization that advocates on making the streets safer for cyclists by promoting bike-friendly policies such as protected bike lanes and bicycle safety education.
The annual Jersey City Jazz Festival, started in 2013, is the largest jazz festival in the New York metropolitan area and features performances throughout Jersey City over the course of four days. The festival has been so successful that in 2024, the Jersey City Latin Jazz Festival began as its own event. Both festivals are held at Exchange Place and are produced by Riverview Jazz, a Jersey City-based non-profit.
Jersey City hosts its annual 4th of July fireworks celebration, concert and street fair at Exchange Place. The celebration is one of the largest in the metropolitan area attracting over 100,000 people with Fireworks by Grucci over the Hudson River, Jersey City Night Market and hosting several local and international performing artists over the years such as the Village People (2016), Kool and the Gang (2017), Snoop Dogg (2018), Pitbull (2019), Akon (2018 & 2019), DJ Diesel (2022), Flo Rida (2022), Fat Joe (2024) and Wyclef Jean (2024).
The Jersey City Mural Arts Festival started in 2021 and was born out of the successful Jersey City Mural Arts Program (JCMAPS). The inaugural festival featured over 50 artists and activated more than 30 walls throughout Jersey City.
The city's culinary profile has risen in recent years with Jersey City hosting two annual restaurant weeks during the winter months, Hudson County Restaurant Week and Jersey City Restaurant Fest, to celebrate its local establishments.
Jersey City is located in the New York media market, and most of its daily papers are available for sale or delivery such as The New York Times and the Daily News, which maintained its extensive publishing and distribution facilities at Liberty Industrial Park from 1993 to 2022. As of 2025, Jersey City no longer has a daily print newspaper. The city's former daily newspaper since 1867, The Jersey Journal, formerly located at its namesake Journal Square, covered Hudson County and was its morning daily before ceasing publication in 2025. The Hudson Dispatch merged with the Jersey Journal in 1991. The Jersey City Reporter is part of The Hudson Reporter group of local weeklies and is an online-only news outlet since ceasing physical publication in 2023. The River View Observer is another weekly published in the city and distributed throughout the county. Another countywide weekly, El Especialito, also serves the city. The Jersey City Times began in 2019 as an online-only news outlet dedicated to in-depth coverage of Jersey City. The Jersey City Independent was an online newspaper covering Jersey City and surrounding municipalities. It also published JCI Magazine, a print quarterly magazine.
WSNR AM 620 is a commercial radio station owned by Gregory Davidzon and Sam Katsman and licensed to Jersey City.
WFMU 91.1FM (WMFU 90.1 FM in the Hudson Valley), the longest-running freeform radio station in the United States, moved to Jersey City in 1998.
Jersey City has a long history with the film and television industry dating back to it's early days.
Jersey City has hosted several film festivals over the years. The annual Golden Door Film Festival has taken place at various venues throughout Jersey City since 2011, including the Loew's Jersey Theatre, and is the city's longest running film festival. The Brightside Film Festival has been held at the Brightside Tavern since 2014 and is an annual festival that features short films. The Jersey City Horror Film Festival (JCHFF) began as the Jersey City Popup Film Festival in 2015 and is designed to be a fun and relaxed film festival, offering quality independent films. The Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF) began as the "Black Maria Film Festival" in 1981 as a project of the Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium, an independent non-profit organization originally based at the Media Arts Department at New Jersey City University (NJCU) and was held a Hepburn Hall. The consortium has since moved operations to the Hoboken Historical Museum in neighboring Hoboken and now shows films across New Jersey, the United States and abroad.
The first film studio in the city was built in 1910 in the Jersey City Heights by film production company Pathé Exchange as an outgrowth of the birth of the motion picture industry in Fort Lee at the turn of the 20th century. The most successful film series produced by the studio was The Perils of Pauline starring Pearl White in 1914. The term "cliffhanger" is thought to have originated with the series due to a number of episodes filmed on or around the New Jersey Palisades. Additionally, the hero or heroine was sometimes hanging from the Palisade cliffs, seemingly with no way out, until the next episode.
The Frederick Douglass Film Company was a production company established in 1916 in Lafayette by two prominent residents, Dr. George E. Cannon and Rev. Dr. W.S. Smith of Monumental Baptist Church. Named after the African-American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, the company was founded to produce films to counter the negativity from anti-African-American films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), the stereotypical images of Black entertainers in comedic roles and to improve race relations. The company produced three films, The Colored American Winning His Suit (1916), The Scapegoat (1917) and Heroic Negro Soldiers of the World War (1919).
The Jersey City Armory has been used as a temporary film studio due to its large floor space and ceiling height for several film projects, including Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Tale, the Faye Dunaway thriller Eyes Of Laura Mars, Laura Brannigan's music video "Self-Control", Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry, Terry Kinney's Diminished Capacity, A Perfect Murder by Andrew Davis and Jim Jarmusch's, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.
Parlay Studios is Jersey City's longest serving film studio since it opened in The Heights in 2005. It is now located on the campus of Mana Contemporary and features over 80,000 square feet (7,400 m) of space across three soundstages, three studios, production offices and flex and support spaces.
In 2021, Cinelease Studios-Caven Point opened as the largest film studio in the State of New Jersey. The studio has three soundstages totaling 112,400 square feet (10,440 m) that are 40 feet (12 m) high to the grid and 50 feet (15 m) to the ceiling. In 2023, the Cinelease announced they are planning to double the number of soundstages with a 76,649 square feet (7,120.9 m) expansion that will include three new stages.
Jersey City has been the backdrop and location of several movies, television shows and music videos over the years.
Jersey City is governed under the Faulkner Act (mayor–council) form of municipal government. The city is one of 71 municipalities (of the 564) statewide that use this form of government. The governing body is comprised of the Mayor and the nine-member City Council. The city council has six members elected from wards and three elected at-large, all elected to concurrent four-year terms on a non-partisan basis as part of the November general election. Ward boundaries were redrawn based on the results of the 2020 United States census to rebalance wards based on population changes. The redistricting led to controversy.
As of 2025, the mayor is Steven Fulop, whose term of office ends December 31, 2025. Former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevy announced his candidacy for Jersey City mayor in November 2023. Following a scrutinized public image after admitting to extramarital affairs, McGreevy planned to re-enter politics and work towards providing clean and safe streets and controlled property taxes for working families. [1] Members of the City Council are Council President Joyce Watterman (at large), Richard Boggiano (Ward C – Journal Square), Amy M. DeGise (at large), Frank E. Gilmore (Ward F – Bergen/Lafayette), Mira Prinz-Arey (Ward B – West Side), Denise Ridley (Ward A – Greenville), Daniel Rivera (at large), Yousef J. Saleh (Ward D – The Heights), and James Solomon (Ward E – Downtown), all of whom are serving concurrent terms of office that end December 31, 2025.
In April 2020, Yousef J. Saleh was appointed to fill the Ward D seat that became vacant following the death earlier that month of Michael Yun from complications related to COVID-19; Saleh served on an interim basis until the November 2020 general election, when voters chose him to serve the balance of the term of office.
The Business Administrator is John J. Metro; the City Clerk is Sean J. Gallagher.
Jersey City is split between the 8th and 10th Congressional Districts and is part of New Jersey's 31st and 32nd state legislative districts.
Prior to the 2011 reapportionment following the 2010 census, Jersey City had been in the 31st, 32nd and the 33rd state legislative districts. Prior to the 2010 census, Jersey City had been split between the 9th Congressional District, 10th Congressional District and the 13th Congressional District, a change made by the New Jersey Redistricting Commission that took effect in January 2013, based on the results of the November 2012 general elections. The split, which went into effect in 2013, placed 111,678 residents living in the city's north and east in the 8th District, while 139,519 residents in the southwest portion of the city were placed in the 10th District.
For the 119th United States Congress, New Jersey's 8th congressional district is represented by Rob Menendez (D, Jersey City). For the 119th United States Congress, New Jersey's 10th congressional district is represented by LaMonica McIver (D, Newark). New Jersey is represented in the United States Senate by Democrats Cory Booker (Newark, term ends 2027) and Andy Kim (Moorestown, term ends 2031).
For the 2024-2025 session, the 31st legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Angela V. McKnight (D, Jersey City) and in the General Assembly by Barbara McCann Stamato (D, Jersey City) and William Sampson (D, Bayonne). For the 2024-2025 session, the 32nd legislative district of the New Jersey Legislature is represented in the State Senate by Raj Mukherji (D, Jersey City) and in the General Assembly by John Allen (D, Hoboken) and Jessica Ramirez (D, Jersey City).
Hudson County is governed by the directly elected Hudson County Executive and by a Board of County Commissioners, which serves as the county's legislative body. As of 2025, Hudson County's Hudson County Executive is Craig Guy (D, Jersey City), whose term of office expires December 31, 2027. Hudson County's Commissioners are Kenneth Kopacz (D, District 1 - Bayonne and parts of Jersey City; 2026, Bayonne), William O'Dea (D, District 2 - Western Jersey City; 2026, Jersey City), Vice Chair Jerry Walker (D, District 3 - South Eastern Jersey City Yraida Aponte-Lipski (D, District 4 - North Eastern Jersey City; 2026, Jersey City), Chair Anthony L. Romano Jr. (D, District 5 - Hoboken and parts of Jersey City; 2026, Hoboken), Fanny J. Cedeño (D, District 6 - Union City; 2026, Union City), Caridad Rodriguez (D, District 7 - Weehawken, West New York, and Gutenberg; 2026, West New York), Robert Bascelice (D, District 8 - West New York, North Bergen, Secaucus; 2026, North Bergen) and Albert J. Cifelli (D, District 9 - Secaucus, Kearny, East Newark, Harrison; 2026, Harrison)
Hudson County's constitutional officers are County Clerk E. Junior Maldonado (D, Jersey City, 2027), Register Jeffrey Dublin (D, Jersey City, 2026) Sheriff Frank X. Schillari (D, Jersey City, 2025) and Surrogate Tilo E. Rivas (D, Jersey City, 2029)
As of March 23, 2011, there was a total of 120,229 registered voters in Jersey City, of whom 58,194 (48.4%) were registered as Democrats, 7,655 (6.4%) were registered as Republicans, and 54,293 (45.2%) were registered as Unaffiliated. There were 87 voters registered to other parties.
In the 2012 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 85.5% of the vote (64,052 cast), ahead of Republican Mitt Romney with 13.5% (10,120 votes), and other candidates with 1.0% (751 votes), among the 75,506 ballots cast by the city's 133,197 registered voters (583 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 56.7%. In the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Barack Obama received 81.8% of the vote (65,780 cast), ahead of Republican John McCain with 16.8% (13,529 votes) and other candidates with 0.7% (584 votes), among the 80,381 ballots cast by the city's 139,158 registered voters, for a turnout of 57.8%. In the 2004 presidential election, Democrat John Kerry received 74.5% of the vote (52,979 ballots cast), out polling Republican George W. Bush with 22.8% (16,216 votes) and other candidates with 0.5% (559 votes), among the 71,130 ballots cast by the city's 119,723 registered voters, for a turnout percentage of 59.4.
In the 2013 gubernatorial election, Democrat Barbara Buono received 66.5% of the vote (20,421 cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 31.8% (9,784 votes), and other candidates with 1.7% (514 votes), among the 32,347 ballots cast by the city's 139,265 registered voters (1,628 ballots were spoiled), for a turnout of 23.2%. In the 2009 gubernatorial election, Democrat Jon Corzine received 76.2% of the vote (29,817 ballots cast), ahead of Republican Chris Christie with 18.7% (7,336 votes), Independent Chris Daggett with 3.2% (1,263 votes) and other candidates with 0.9% (371 votes), among the 39,143 ballots cast by the city's 120,269 registered voters, yielding a 32.5% turnout.
Jersey City is home to several institutions of higher education.
New Jersey City University is a state public university on the West Side of the city. Chartered in 1927 as "New Jersey State Normal School at Jersey City", it originally specialized in teacher education and first awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in education.
Saint Peter's University is a private Jesuit university on the West Side of Jersey City. It was founded as "Saint Peter's College" by the Society of Jesus in 1872 as a liberal arts college in the Paulus Hook neighborhood.
Hudson County Community College, established in 1974, is a public community college located on an urban style campus in Journal Square offering courses to help students transition into a larger university.
Rutgers University offers MBA classes through the Rutgers Business School at Harborside Financial Center.
New Jersey Institute of Technology offers M.S. programs in artificial intelligence, computer science, data science and cyber security at the Ying Wu College of Computing at 101 Hudson Street at Exchange Place.
The Jersey City Public Schools serve students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts statewide that were established pursuant to the decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Abbott v. Burke which are now referred to as "SDA Districts" based on the requirement for the state to cover all costs for school building and renovation projects in these districts under the supervision of the New Jersey Schools Development Authority. As of the 2021–22 school year, the district, comprised 39 schools, had an enrollment of 27,134 students and 2,110.8 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 12.9:1.
High schools in the district (with 2021–22 enrollment data from the National Center for Education Statistics) are William L. Dickinson High School Academy of the Sciences (2,046; 9–12), James J. Ferris High School Academy of International Enterprise (1,292; 9–12), Infinity Institute (485; 6–12), Innovation High School (286; 9–12), Liberty High School (210; 9–12), Lincoln High School Academy of Governance and Social Sciences (949; 9–12), Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School (704; 9–12), Renaissance Institute (NA; 9–12) and Henry Snyder High School Academy of the Arts (800; 9–12).
Dr. Ronald E. McNair Academic High School was the first-ranked public high school in New Jersey out of 322 schools statewide, in New Jersey Monthly magazine's September 2010 cover story on the state's "Top Public High Schools", after being ranked second in 2008 out of 316 schools. and was selected as 41st best high school in the United States in Newsweek magazine's national 2011 survey. William L. Dickinson High School is the oldest high school in the city and one of the largest schools in Hudson County in terms of student population. Opened in 1906 as the Jersey City High School it is one of the oldest school sites in the city, it is a four-story Beaux-Arts building located on a hilltop facing the Hudson River.
Among Jersey City's elementary and middle schools is Academy I Middle School and Frank R. Conwell Middle School #4, which is part of the Academic Enrichment Program for Gifted Students. Another school is Alexander D. Sullivan P.S. #30, an ESL magnet school in the Greenville district, which serves nearly 800 Pre-k through 5th grade students.
The Hudson County Schools of Technology (which also has campuses in North Bergen and Secaucus) has a campus in Jersey City, which includes County Prep High School.
Jersey City also has 12 charter schools, which are run under a special charter granted by the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education, including the Mathematics, Engineering, Technology and Science Charter School (for grades 6–12) and the Dr. Lena Edwards Charter School (for K–8), which were approved in January 2011. BelovED Community Charter School opened in 2012.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark maintains a network of elementary and secondary Catholic schools that serve every area of Jersey City. Hudson Catholic Regional High School is operated by the Archdiocese, while Saint Dominic Academy and St. Peter's Preparatory School are private, religiously affiliated schools. St. Mary High School closed in June 2011 due to declining enrollment. St. Anthony High School, a prep basketball powerhouse known for its success under Bob Hurley and his 26 state championships in 39 years as a coach, closed in June 2017 due to declining funding and enrollment.
Catholic K-8 elementary schools include Our Lady of Czestochowa School, Sacred Heart School, Saint Aloysius Elementary Academy, St. Joseph School and St. Nicholas School. In 2015, Our Lady of Czestochowa School was one of 15 schools in New Jersey, and one of six private schools, recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School in the exemplary high performing category by the United States Department of Education.
In the face of declining enrollment and rising expenses, the Newark Archdiocese closed Our Lady of Mercy Academy (founded in 1964) and Resurrection School at the end of the 2012–13 school year. St. Anne School closed at the end of the 2011–12 school year after 112 years, as enrollment declined from 700 students in 1976 to 240 in 2010–11 and 188 in the school's final year of operation.
Other private high schools in Jersey City include First Christian Pentecostal Academy and Stevens Cooperative School. Kenmare High School is operated through the York Street Project as part of an effort to reduce rates of poverty in households headed by women, through a program that offers small class sizes, individualized learning and development of life skills. The French American Academy, located in the century-old three-story building of the former St. Mary's High School, is a private bilingual school PK-3. A number of other private schools are also available. Genesis Educational Center is a private Christian school located in downtown Jersey City for ages newborn through 8th grade. The Jersey City Art School is a private art school located in downtown Jersey City for all ages.
Of all Jersey City commuters, 8.17% walk to work, and 46.62% take public transit. This is the second highest percentage of public transit riders of any city with a population of 100,000+ in the United States, behind only New York City and ahead of Washington, D.C. 40.67% of Jersey City households do not own an automobile, the second-highest of all cities in the United States with 50,000 to 250,000 residents.
The Journal Square Transportation Center, Exchange Place and Hoboken Terminal are major origination/destination points for buses. Service is available to numerous points in Jersey City, Hudson County, and some suburban areas as well as to Newark on the 1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 22, 23, 64, 67, 68, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 119, 123, 125, 126, 319 lines.
Also serving Jersey City are various lines operated by Academy Bus. Increased use of jitneys, locally known as dollar vans, has greatly affected travel patterns in Hudson County, leading to decreased bus ridership on traditional bus lines. After studies examining existing systems and changes in public transportation usage patterns it was determined that a Journal Square-Bayonne bus rapid transit system should be investigated. In 2012, the Board of Chosen Freeholders authorized the identification of possible BRT corridors.
A&C Bus Corporation, an independent bus company established in 1927 and headquartered in Jersey City had operated the 30, 31, 32 and 33 bus routes, using a fleet of buses leased from NJ Transit. In July 2023, A&C announced that it would discontinue operations. In October 2023, the four routes that had been operated by A&C were taken over by NJ Transit bus operations.
Since 2016, two Taiwanese airlines, China Airlines and EVA Air, have provided private bus services to and from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City for customers based in New Jersey. These bus services stop in Jersey City.
In February 2020, the city launched its on-demand transit system in partnership with Via Transportation. The city-run microtransit service, Via Jersey City, complements and extends the existing public transit networks, providing better connections between residential neighborhoods, business districts, government facilities, PATH stations, and ferry and light rail stops in the north and south regions of the city. Commuters can use the Via app to book an on-demand ride from their smartphone. As of March 2021, Via Jersey City was expanding to provide a weekend service.
As of May 2010, the city had a total of 218.57 miles (351.75 km) of roadways, of which 189.88 miles (305.58 km) were maintained by the municipality, 10.34 miles (16.64 km) by Hudson County and 12.23 miles (19.68 km) by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, 1.09 miles (1.75 km) by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and 5.03 miles (8.10 km) by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.
A part of the East Coast Greenway, a planned unbroken bike route from Maine to the Florida Keys, will travel through the city. In June 2012, part of the route was officially designated in Lincoln Park and over the Lincoln Highway Hackensack River Bridge. Both the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway and Hackensack RiverWalk are bicycle friendly.
In April 2012, the city initiated the Morris Canal Greenway Plan to investigate the establishment of a greenway, including a bicycle path, that would follow the route of the Morris Canal to the greatest extent possible. In the same month, the city established bikes lanes along the length Grove Street, originally meant to temporary. In December 2012, the city announced that Grove Street lanes would become permanent and that it would add an additional 54 miles (87 km) of both dedicated and shared bike lanes.
The Harbor Ring is an initiative to create a 50-mile bike route along the Lower Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, and Kill van Kull that would incorporate bike paths in the city.
In 2013, the city simplified the application and reduced the cost for business and residences to install bike racks as well as making them obligatory for certain new construction projects.
Also in 2013, Hudson County had initiated exploration of a bike-share program. Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken intended to operate the program starting in 2014 but delayed the launch due to lack of sponsorship. The revamped program officially launched on September 21, 2015, as Citi Bike with membership working in Jersey City and New York City. On May 3, 2021, Citi Bike eventually expanded to neighboring Hoboken with 15 stations and about 200 bikes.
Jersey City has a high percentage of residents who commute without a car. In 2015, 40.1 percent of city Jersey City households were without a car, which decreased to 37.1 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Jersey City averaged 0.85 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8 per household.
Jersey City is home to two hospitals. Jersey City Medical Center (JCMC) is a 352-bed, Level II Regional Trauma Center and teaching hospital that is located on a 15-acre campus in Downtown Jersey City that includes Wilzig Hospital, the Provident Bank Ambulatory Center, the Cristie Kerr Women's Health Center and the Abercrombie Guild Pediatric Emergency Department (ED), the only pediatric ED in Hudson County. It is part of RWJBarnabas Health, New Jersey's largest network of independent hospitals and healthcare facilities. The medical center is Jersey City's largest medical center and oldest hospital dating back to 1868 and was the first medical center in New Jersey and one of the first in the United States. By the 1940s, it had grown to become the third-largest healthcare center in the world. From 1956 to 1968, the medical center was the original home of the Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry, the predecessor to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in Newark.
Christ Hospital is a 376-bed, private for-profit hospital in the Jersey City Heights. Established in 1872, the hospital was originally affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of Newark and is the second oldest and second largest hospital in Jersey City. The hospital is currently part of the CarePoint Health system. Since 1890, it has been home to the Christ Hospital School of Nursing which merged with the Bayonne Medical Center nursing school 2014.
Jersey City Medical Center at Greenville is an outpatient medical center and urgent care operated by JCMC in the Greenville section of Jersey City that opened in 2015 in the former Greenville Hospital. Originally opened in 1898 as the "German Hospital and Dispensary of Hudson County" and Jersey City's third hospital, the facility grew over the years with the current building opening in 1964 and a west wing added in 1971. Greenville Hospital closed in 2008 due to cuts in the state budget and was later used as the home of Jersey City Medical Center's EMS from 2009 to 2011.
Englewood Health ZT Systems Outpatient Center is an outpatient medical center and urgent care operated by Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Journal Square that opened in 2022. The facility occupies over 73,000 square feet (6,800 m) across three-floors at 2 Journal Square.
Saint Francis Hospital was founded in 1864 by the Society of the Sisters of St. Francis and constructed the first hospital building in 1870 across from Hamilton Park in Downtown Jersey City. In 2005, the hospital closed and was sold by the Bon Secours Health System and converted into a residential complex.
Sister cities of Jersey City are: