Essex County area

Population and density of Essex County

The Census Bureau estimates that 896,379 people lived in Essex County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #66 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #2 of 21 in New Jersey. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 862,775, the population has grown by 33,604 (+3.9%), compared with +2.8% for New Jersey as a whole.

With 126.1 square miles of land, that is 7,109 people per square mile (2,745 per km²), placing Essex County #14 nationally for density and #2 in New Jersey. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the New Jersey median is 1,137. Put another way, there are about 0.09 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Essex County

Essex County is divided into 22 municipalities and townships. In New Jersey, county subdivisions are local governments, and together they cover all of the county’s land and residents.

The most populous is Newark city, with 323,808 residents (36.1% of the county), and it is also the largest by land at 24.1 mi². Among those with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Montclair township grew fastest since then (+11.5%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each subdivision inside Essex County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Essex County is a central county of the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area, in the Newark, NJ metropolitan division. Its 22 county equivalents have 20,112,448 residents on 6,139.7 square miles of land; Essex County accounts for 2.1% of the land and 4.5% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #34 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #1 by population. It belongs to the New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

31 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Essex County, and each lies mostly inside the county.

07003070040700607009070170701807021070280703907040070410704207043070440705007052070680707807079071020710307104071050710607107071080710907110071110711207114

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Essex County

Essex County shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. It has more land than 2 of them. The largest neighbor is Morris County (461 mi²) and the smallest is Hudson County (46.2 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Essex County forms a block of 1,155 mi² of land, of which it holds 10.9%.

How big is Essex County compared with U.S. states?

Essex County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 8.2 times as much. New Jersey’s county land could hold about 58 areas the size of Essex County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 11.2 miles (18.1 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Essex County?

Essex County has more land than 144 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Essex County at #3,094 nationally by total area, 16 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 2.6%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.4 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Essex County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.