Newark, New Jersey

Newark (/ˈnuːərk/ NEW-ərk, locally /nʊərk/) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 311,549. The Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 317,303 for 2024, making it the 64th-most populous municipality in the nation.

Settled in 1666 by Puritans from New Haven Colony, Newark is one of the oldest cities in the United States. Its location at the mouth of the Passaic River, where it flows into Newark Bay, has made the city's waterfront an integral part of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Port Newark–Elizabeth is the primary container shipping terminal of the busiest seaport on the U.S. East Coast. Newark Liberty International Airport was the first municipal commercial airport in the United States and has become one of the busiest.

Several companies are headquartered in Newark, including Prudential, PSEG, Panasonic Corporation of North America, Audible.com, IDT Corporation, Manischewitz, and AeroFarms. Higher education institutions in the city include the Newark campus of Rutgers University, which includes law and medical schools and the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies; University Hospital; the New Jersey Institute of Technology; and Seton Hall University's law school. Newark is a home to numerous governmental offices, largely concentrated at Government Center and the Essex County Government Complex. Cultural venues include the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark Symphony Hall, the Prudential Center, The Newark Museum of Art, and the New Jersey Historical Society. Branch Brook Park is the oldest county park in the United States and is home to the nation's largest collection of cherry blossom trees, numbering over 5,000.

Newark is divided into five political wards (East, West, South, North and Central). The majority of Black residents reside in the South, Central, and West Wards of the city, while the North and East Wards are mostly populated by Latinos. Ras Baraka has served as mayor of Newark since 2014.

Newark was settled in 1666 by Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat from the New Haven Colony. It was conceived as a theocratic assembly of the faithful, though this did not last for long as new settlers came with different ideas. On October 31, 1693, it was organized as a New Jersey township based on the Newark Tract, which was first purchased on July 11, 1667. Newark was granted a royal charter on April 27, 1713. It was incorporated on February 21, 1798, by the New Jersey Legislature's Township Act of 1798, as one of New Jersey's initial group of 104 townships. During its time as a township, portions were taken to form Springfield Township (April 14, 1794), Caldwell Township (February 16, 1798; now known as Fairfield Township), Orange Township (November 27, 1806), Bloomfield Township (March 23, 1812) and Clinton Township (April 14, 1834, remainder reabsorbed by Newark on March 5, 1902). Newark was reincorporated as a city on April 11, 1836, replacing Newark Township, based on the results of a referendum passed on March 18, 1836. The previously independent Vailsburg borough was annexed by Newark on January 1, 1905. In 1926, South Orange Township changed its name to Maplewood. As a result of this, a portion of Maplewood known as Ivy Hill was re-annexed to Newark's Vailsburg.

The name of the city is thought to derive from Newark-on-Trent, England, because of the influence of the original pastor, Abraham Pierson, who came from Yorkshire but may have ministered in Newark, Nottinghamshire. But Pierson is also supposed to have said that the community reflecting the new task at hand should be named "New Ark" for "New Ark of the Covenant" and some of the colonists saw it as "New-Work", the settlers' new work with God. Whatever the origins, the name was shortened to Newark, although references to the name "New Ark" are found in preserved letters written by historical figures such as David A. Ogden in his claim for compensation, and James McHenry, as late as 1787.

During the American Revolutionary War, British troops made several raids into the town. The city saw tremendous industrial and population growth during the 19th century and early 20th century, and experienced racial tension and urban decline in the second half of the 20th century, culminating in the 1967 Newark riots, which led to an increase in white flight, with 100,000 white residents leaving the city in the 1960s, though the exodus of white residents from the city had started after World War II as housing availability was limited in the city, while white residents were able to buy homes in the western suburbs of Essex County, where the population grew rapidly.

The city has experienced revitalization since the 1990s, with major office, arts and sports projects representing $2 billion in investment. The city's population, which had dropped by more than a third from 1950 to its post-war low in 2000, has since rebounded, with 38,000 new residents added from 2000 to 2020.