New Jersey (nickname: "Jersey") is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is the fourth smallest, tenth most populous and is the most densely populated of the fifty states of the United States. The state is named after the island of Jersey in the English Channel. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania. Parts of New Jersey lie within the metropolitan areas of New York, Philadelphia, and the Delaware Valley.

Inhabitated by Native Americans for more than 11,000 years, the area was settled by the Swedes and Dutch. The British later seized control of the region, which was granted to Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley as the colony of New Jersey. New Jersey was an important site during the American Revolutionary War; several decisive battles were fought there. Cities such as Paterson helped to drive the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. New Jersey's position at the center of the BosWash megalopolis, between Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., fueled its rapid growth through the suburban boom of the 1950s and beyond.

Geography