New Jersey State Map

Regions of New Jersey

New Jersey crosses four physical regions from northwest to southeast: the Ridge and Valley, the Highlands, the Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Coastal Plain covers most of the southern half of the state. People usually divide the state more simply, as shown below.

North Jersey

• Gateway and the New York suburbs: Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth and Bayonne, plus the dense suburbs of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic and Union counties. Bergen is the most populous county.
• Skylands: the hilly northwest, with lakes, farms and forests in Sussex, Warren, Morris and Hunterdon counties.
• Kittatinny Ridge: the long ridge along the Pennsylvania line that holds High Point, the state’s highest point, and the Delaware Water Gap, where the Delaware River cuts through the ridge.

Central Jersey

The corridor between New York and Philadelphia: Trenton on the Delaware River, Princeton, New Brunswick and the Raritan River, and the large townships of Middlesex and Monmouth counties.

South Jersey

• Philadelphia suburbs: Camden, Cherry Hill and the Delaware River towns of Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties. Burlington is the largest county by land area.
• Pine Barrens: a sandy, forested area of about 1.1 million acres protected as the Pinelands National Reserve.
• Delaware Bay shore: farmland and marshes around Vineland, Millville and Salem.

Jersey Shore

A chain of beaches and barrier islands from Sandy Hook in the north to Cape May at the southern tip, including Asbury Park, Long Beach Island and Atlantic City. Barnegat Bay separates much of the shore from the mainland around Toms River.

Rivers and borders

The Delaware River forms the entire western border with Pennsylvania and, with Delaware Bay, the boundary with Delaware. The Hudson River separates northeastern New Jersey from Manhattan, and the Arthur Kill and Kill Van Kull separate it from Staten Island. The land border with New York runs northwest from the Hudson to the Delaware River near Port Jervis. The Passaic River drops over the Great Falls in Paterson and reaches Newark Bay at Newark; the Raritan River flows past New Brunswick into Raritan Bay at Perth Amboy.

New Jersey county map

New Jersey has 21 counties, fewer than its Middle Atlantic neighbors, New York (62) and Pennsylvania (67). Bergen County is the most populous, with 955,732 people in 2020, and Salem County, on Delaware Bay, is the least populous, with 64,837. Hudson County, across the river from Manhattan, is the smallest by land area, about 46 sq mi, and the most densely populated. Burlington County, which stretches from the Delaware River into the Pine Barrens, is the largest by land area. Sussex County is the northernmost county and Cape May County the southernmost.

Major highways

• New Jersey Turnpike (I-95): from the Delaware Memorial Bridge in the south to the George Washington Bridge in the north, past Newark Liberty International Airport.
• Garden State Parkway: north–south along the shore from Cape May to the New York line at Montvale.
• I-80: east from the Delaware Water Gap through Morris and Passaic counties to the George Washington Bridge.
• I-78: from Phillipsburg on the Pennsylvania line east through Newark to the Holland Tunnel.
• I-287: a semicircle around the New York suburbs from Edison through Morristown to the New York line near Mahwah.
• I-295 and I-195: along the Delaware River through Camden County, and across the state from Trenton toward the shore.
• Atlantic City Expressway: from the Philadelphia suburbs southeast to Atlantic City.