Census 2020 is coming up and it’s critical that everyone in New Jersey be counted. But twenty-two percent of New Jersey’s residents live in “hard-to-count” areas. These are the same communities that often have the highest poverty rates and are most in need of the essential services that are provided based on the Census count.

In New Jersey, 668,636 Black people live in “hard-to-count” (HTC) areas where a low percentage of residents completed and returned their most recent Census questionnaire.

That comprises 51% -- over half! – of the total Black population in the State.

New Jersey is eighth in the nation for its numbers of Blacks living in HTC areas.

Hard to count locations include areas with:

• People of color
• Children under 5
• Homeless
• Low internet/computer access or savvy
• Rural residents
• Low-income
• Linguistically isolated
• Frequent movers
• Foreign born residents
• Below the poverty line
• Large households
• Low educational attainment
• Single-parent headed household

Without special, targeted outreach efforts, hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents may go uncounted in 2020.

On this page you will find fact sheets containing key demographic data for the New Jersey communities with the largest Black population in hard-to-count areas, as well as a graph demonstrating the data for all 11 cities.