New Jersey is a state within the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic areas of the United States. Based on the United States 2010 Census, its population was 8,791,894. It is surrounded on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by the state of Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware. The state of New Jersey lies mostly in the sprawling metropolitan parts of New York City and Philadelphia and is the most densely inhabited state within the US. It is also the third wealthiest by 2009-2010 median household income.
For more than 2,800 years, Native Americans have inhabited the area, such as the Lenape tribes who lived along the coast. The Swedes and Dutch made the first European settlements in the area, during the early 17th century. The British later seized control of the region, calling it the Province of New Jersey. It was granted as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. At this time, it was named after the biggest of the British Channel Islands, Jersey, where Carteret had been born. New Jersey was the location of some decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War.
During the 19th century, factories within cities such as Trenton, Elizabeth and Paterson helped to drive the Industrial Revolution. New Jersey's position at the center of the Northeast megalopolis, between New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C. and Baltimore, fueled its rapid growth through the suburban boom of the 1950s and beyond.
The area which is now New Jersey, was first settled by Native Americans tribes, as the Lenni-Lenape people dominating the area at the time Europeans arrived. The Lenape were groups of loosely organized peoples who practiced a mobile hunter-gatherer society and minor agricultural productions in the regions all-around the western Long Island Sound, the Delaware River and the lower Hudson River. The Lenape society was divided into matrilinear clans which were based upon common female ancestors. These clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign: Turkey, Wolf and Turtle. They first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, and their first relationship together with the Europeans was through fur trade.
New Jersey's economy is centered on the pharmaceutical business, the financial business, telecommunications, chemical development, electric equipment, food processing, printing and publishing, and tourism. New Jersey's agricultural outputs are nursery stock, horses, fruits and nuts, vegetables, seafood, and dairy products. The state of New Jersey ranks third in spinach and cranberries, fourth in bell peppers, peaches and head lettuce and second amongst states in blueberry production.
The state of New jersey has a strong scientific economy. The state of New jersey is home to major pharmaceutical firms such as Sanofi-Aventis, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Novartis, Merck, Wyeth, Schering-Plough, Hoffman-LaRoche and Bristol-Myer Squibb. The state of New Jersey is home to major telecommunications companies like Avaya, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Communications and Alcatel-Lucent. Moreover, the state of New Jersey draws upon its well-educated and large labor pool which also supports the myriad of companies that exist these days.