N.J. population is going gray fast. Here are the reasons why. – NJ.com

New Jersey is growing, but isn’t getting any younger.

While the population of the Garden State inches forward, the median age of its residents is inching upwards. The steady growth of the population comprises of mostly immigrants, but not necessarily young people.

So what’s making the state grow ‘older?’ Aging Baby Boomers.

The median age in New Jersey is 39.6 years, up by almost a year since 2010, according to the Census Bureau. An analysis of the data also showed that millennials continue to flock towards cities and more urban areas with access to mass transit while older residents dominate the northwest and much of the southeast.

We looked at the data to find some interesting trends.

There’s a lot happening in Bergen County

The largest group of towns that are getting younger are in Bergen County. But the largest group that are getting older are also in Bergen. How? Bergen County has more towns than any other county, and is the most populous in the state.

“Two things are happening. You have a number of communities that have large single family homes and inhabited by baby boomers. These households have empty nesters, left with two people in their late 50s and 60s. That brings the age up in the average. On the other hand you have other communities along the Hudson river waterfront where younger couples raising families are moving in with kids. That is also highly correlated with school system data,” said James Hughes, university professor and dean emeritus of Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

Overall, Bergen has gotten older. The median age has gone up in 47 towns, while in 21 it dropped.

15 miles and 41 years apart

The neighboring towns of Lakewood and Manchester are only 15 miles from each other, but the median ages in the towns are drastically different. Lakewood has a median age of 24.6 years, while Manchester’s is 65.6 years. They’re also among the oldest and the youngest towns in the state.

Lakewood is home to one of the largest yeshivas in the world that draws large numbers of young people from the Jewish Orthodox community. They also have the highest birth rate in the state — more than 50 percent of Lakewood’s population is children.

We also looked at whether men and women have aged differently across the state.

How have men aged?

The median age for men in the 2013-2017 ACS snapshot was 37, a year higher than the 2006-2010 numbers. Here are the top 10 towns where median age of men have increased.

How have women aged?

Median age of women has also gone up across the state, but by a higher margin than men. It went from 39.9 years in 2010 to 41.2 years in 2017. Of the 565 towns, 163 saw a decrease in median age of women. Most of those towns were in Bergen county, followed by Monmouth and Essex.

A note about the data: The data is obtained from the 2006-2010 and 2013-2017 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. Towns with a margin of error of 10 percent and higher have been eliminated. Princeton Township has also been eliminated from the analysis because it was split into two towns during 2006-2010, making a comparison with more recent data unfeasible.

Disha Raychaudhuri may be reached at draychaudhuri@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Disha_RC.