Essex
County is
a county located
in the northeastern part of the U.S.
state of New
Jersey. As of the United
States 2000 Census, the population was 793,633, ranking
it second in the state after Bergen
County. Its county
seat is Newark.
It is part of the New
York Metropolitan Area.
Essex County is the second most densely
populated county in the state, after Hudson
County. Newark, with a population density of 11,400
people/square mile, is the largest municipality in the
county both in terms of area (24.14 square miles) and population
(280,000). At the opposite end, Caldwell is the smallest
in area (1.2 square miles) and Roseland is smallest in
population (5,298); however even these small towns have
population densities (6,396 people/square mile and 1,464
people/square mile, respectively) that rival many big cities,
and are well above the state's average, which is the highest
in the nation.
While many residents commute to New York
City, Organon, Anheuser-Busch, Automatic
Data Processing, Inc., CIT
Group, Hoffmann-LaRoche, Grainger,
Dun & Bradstreet and Prudential have
large facilities in Essex County or are headquartered
there, and there are numerous factories and large office
parks scattered throughout.
Essex County was one of the quickest counties
in America to become fully urbanized and was the first
county in the country to create a county park system, to
ensure that it did not lose all its land to development.
The various towns of the county, especially
Newark, the Oranges, and the
Caldwells can be seen in every episode of the HBO mob
drama The
Sopranos, which is set in North Caldwell.
The county is also home to Newark
Liberty International Airport and Port
Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal.
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