Jury Pool Profile

Essex County, New Jersey

Democratic +45 (2024)

Population: 854,130
Median household income: $76,712
Unemployment: 6.1%

Who sits on a jury?

Race & ethnicity

White alone 283,278 33.2%
Black or African American alone 315,154 36.9%
Asian alone 49,935 5.8%
American Indian / Alaska Native alone 3,926 0.5%
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander alone 318 0.0%
Some other race alone 104,228 12.2%
Two or more races 97,291 11.4%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 210,724 24.7%

U.S. Census ACS 2023

Age distribution

Median age 37.7

Under 18 202,319 23.7%
18–24 75,823 8.9%
25–44 236,148 27.6%
45–64 220,457 25.8%
65 and over 119,383 14.0%

U.S. Census ACS 2023

Economic context

Local economy

Unemployment (12-mo): 6.1%; +0.84 pp vs. state
County GDP: $76.2B; 9% of state
Avg. annual pay: $88,369
Establishments: 23,692

U.S. BLS 2026M02 · U.S. BEA 2024 · BLS QCEW 2024

Top employment sectors

Average annual employment by supersector

Education & health services 103,851 29.8%
Trade, transportation & utilities 75,299 21.6%
Professional & business services 43,041 12.3%
Leisure & hospitality 30,727 8.8%
Public administration 23,908 6.8%
Financial activities 23,045 6.6%
Manufacturing 16,491 4.7%
Other services 12,466 3.6%
Construction 10,319 3.0%
Information 8,304 2.4%
Unclassified 1,553 0.4%
Natural resources & mining 70 0.0%

BLS QCEW 2024

Housing

Home ownership: 44.5%
Median gross rent: $1,459
Owner-occupied: 141,377
Renter-occupied: 176,096

U.S. Census ACS 2023

Largest employers

Principal employers by headcount

#	Employer	Sector	Employees
1	United Airlines	Airlines / Transportation	14,000
2	Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG)	Energy / Utilities	13,000
3	NJ Transit	Public Transportation	12,502*
4	Newark Public Schools	Public Education (K-12)	6,258*
5	Prudential Financial	Financial Services / Insurance	5,000*
6	Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey	Health Insurance	5,000*
7	University Hospital	Healthcare / Hospital	4,000
8	County of Essex	Government (County)	3,620
9	Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (RWJBarnabas Health)	Healthcare / Hospital	3,200*
10	New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)	Higher Education	2,677
11	Rutgers University-Newark	Higher Education	2,500*

* Headcount is an estimate.

Source: NJBIZ — "Newark's Top Employers" 2026 ranking (ranked by number of New Jersey employees), supplemented by official institutional/agency figures for major Newark/Essex employers omitted from the city-business list (Newark Public Schools, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, NJ Transit, Prudential, Horizon BCBSNJ, Rutgers–Newark) (2026)

Political composition

Presidential results

2024 presidential · 313,283 votes cast

Democratic 224,596 71.7%
Republican 83,908 26.8%
Other / third-party 4,779 1.5%

Election results 2024

Languages, households, faith & health

Languages spoken at home

62.9% speak only English at home

Spanish 159,259 19.9%
Other Indo-European 47,479 5.9%
French (incl. Cajun) 31,395 3.9%
Other 24,890 3.1%
Chinese 8,962 1.1%
Slavic languages 6,365 0.8%
Other Asian/Pacific 5,703 0.7%
Tagalog 5,319 0.7%
Arabic 3,888 0.5%
Korean 1,751 0.2%
German 1,344 0.2%
Vietnamese 504 0.1%

U.S. Census ACS 2023

Household composition

Households: 317,473
Family households: 203,865; 64.2% of households
Married w/ children: 127,018
Single-mother households: 28,896
Veterans: 17,386; 2.7% of civilians 18+

U.S. Census ACS 2023

Religious composition

53.9% overall adherence rate

Catholic 245,360 28.4%
Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 82,666 9.6%
Evangelical Protestant 48,829 5.7%
Black Protestant 44,835 5.2%
Mainline Protestant 35,617 4.1%
Orthodox 8,466 1.0%

US Religion Census 2020

Health & education

Health insured: 88.4%
With a disability: 12.2%
Bachelor's or higher: 37.9%

U.S. Census ACS 2023

Court infrastructure

Trial court: Vicinage 5
Judges: 43 (Superior Court judges administered through this vicinage; vintage 2026 njcourts.gov roster)
Court seats: Newark

Court reference

Traffic safety context

New Jersey statewide totals, 2023 — not county-specific

Traffic fatalities: 53; 8.13 per 100k drivers
Fatal crashes: 49

NHTSA FARS 2023