New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by Delaware Bay and the State of Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 8,882,190 residents as of 2019 and an area of 8,722.58 square miles, making it the most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states. Its largest city is Newark. All but one county in New Jersey lie within the combined statistical areas of New York City or Philadelphia. New Jersey was the second-wealthiest U.S. state by median household income as of 2017.

New Jersey was first inhabited by Native Americans for at least 2,800 years, with the Lenape being the dominant group by the time Europeans arrived in the early 17th century. The Dutch and the Swedes founded the first European settlements in the state. The English later seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey after the largest of the Channel Islands, Jersey, and granting it as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. New Jersey was the site of several important battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century.

In the 19th century, factories in the “Big Six” cities of Camden, Paterson, Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, and Elizabeth helped drive the Industrial Revolution. New Jersey’s location at the center of the Northeast megalopolis—between Boston and New York City to the northeast, and Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., to the southwest—fueled its rapid growth and suburbanization in the second half of the 20th century. At the turn of the 21st century, the state’s culturally diverse populace began reverting toward more urban settings within the state, with towns home to commuter rail stations outpacing the population growth of more automobile-oriented suburbs since 2008.

As of 2020, New Jersey was home to the highest number of millionaires per capita of all U.S. states, with 9.76% of households (more than 323,000 of 3.3 million statewide) meeting the criteria. New Jersey’s public school system consistently ranks at or among the top of all fifty U.S. states.

A dumpster is a type of movable waste container designed to be brought and taken away by a special collection vehicle, or to a bin that a specially designed garbage truck lifts, empties into its hopper, and lowers, on the spot. The word is a generic trademark of Dumpster, an American brand name for a specific design. Generic usage of skip or skip bin is common in the UK, Australia and Ireland, as Dumpster is neither an established nor well known brand in those countries.^{[citation needed]}