Essex County is a
county located in the northeastern part of the
U.S. state of
New Jersey. As of 2014, Essex County's Census-estimated population was 795,723, an increase of 1.5 rom the
2010 United States Census, when its population was enumerated at 783,987, in turn a decrease of 1.2% (9,664 fewer residents) from the 793,633 enumerated in the
2000 Census and making it the third-most populous county in the state, having dropped behind
Middlesex County, and one of only two counties in the state to see a decline in population during the decade between 2000 and 2010 (
Cape May County being the other). Its
county seat is
Newark. It is part of the
New York Metropolitan Area. The
Bureau of Economic Analysis ranked the county as having the 94th-highest
per capita income of all 3,113 counties in the United States (and the seventh-highest in New Jersey) as of 2009.