NEW JERSEY HEALTH STATISTICS, 2004

POPULATION

Postcensal estimates show that New Jersey ’s population as of July 1, 2004 was 8,698,879. The tables in this section contain statewide population estimates by age, race/ethnicity, and sex and totals by county.

Federal standards (OMB-15) required that the 2000 Census allow respondents to choose White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, some other race, or any combination of these six race groups to describe themselves. The OMB-15 guidelines went into effect for New Jersey death data collection in 2004, but birth data were still collected under the previous guidelines. Therefore informants could only select one of five mutually exclusive race groups on birth certificates in 2004: White, Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, or other. This complicates the calculation of race-specific rates since race data were not measured the same way in the numerator (the number of births) and the denominator (the population). To address this statistical problem, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau, developed population estimates which assign multiple-race respondents to only one of the single-race categories to bridge the gap between the 2000 Census and the implementation of new vital event certificates. Hence, these estimates are referred to as “bridged-race” population estimates (Table P1).

With the switch to multiple-race reporting on death certificates in 2004, for the first time some New Jersey vital events data can be displayed for persons of more than one race. Table P2 presents population data for four single-race categories: White, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native and a combined category (Two or More Races) for those persons who selected more than one race.

Estimates of the Hispanic population are also presented in Tables P1 and P2. Hispanic ethnicity is collected separately from race data in the Census and on vital events certificates. For these summary tables, Hispanic ethnicity is shown for all races combined.

Population estimates by county are in Table P3.

The National Center for Health Statistics' website has bridged postcensal population estimates by county, single-year of age, bridged-race, Hispanic origin, and sex.

The Department of Labor’s website has unbridged county population estimates and other Census data.

The Technical Notes section contains information on sources of data and racial and ethnic classification.

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