The center of population shows where Americans are moving and migrating. As people move, the center of population shifts, James Hughes professor at Rutgers Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, which is neighboring New Brunswick.
Hughes added that he’s not surprised that the center of population has lingered in and around East Brunswick.
Between the 1920s and 1930s, population growth was mostly concentrated in big cities like Newark, Trenton, Elizabeth and Jersey City, he said. That shifted the center of population farther north into Edison.
The subsequent shift brought by a suburban explosion has caused the statistical center of population to drift south, though it remains well north of the state’s geographic center. (The state says that’s in Hamilton.)
“Population was really spreading out throughout the state,” Hughes said. Still, the population leans heavily to densely-packed northern counties.