Why is New Jersey, and Middlesex County in particular, a hub for Indian Americans?

New Jersey by the numbers

New Jersey ranks third among states for its Asian Indian population, behind California and Texas, but first for concentration. In 2024, 448,588 New Jersey residents identified as Asian Indian alone, 4.7% of the state's population^1,2. Their median household income was $188,317, compared with $104,294 for all New Jersey households^1,2. The population grew about 17% between 2019 and 2024, our calculation from ACS 1-year estimates (384,988 to 448,588)^1,7.

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that New Jersey is home to about 10% of all Indian immigrants in the US, based on pooled 2020-24 Census data⁶. For how New Jersey compares nationally, see our ranking of states with the largest and wealthiest Indian American populations.

What HeyAlbert data shows

Middlesex County: the center of gravity

Middlesex County, in central New Jersey, had 150,831 Asian Indian residents in 2024, the third-largest county population in the country after Santa Clara and Alameda counties in California³. At 16.9% of the county, it is the highest share among the counties the Census Bureau publishes³. MPI lists Middlesex with Santa Clara, Alameda and King County, Washington, as the four top counties for Indian immigrants; together they hold about 15% of all Indian immigrants in the US⁶.

• Median household income: $189,764 for Asian Indian households, against $115,040 for all county households³
• Bachelor's degree or higher: 82.7% of Asian Indian adults 25 and older; 43.5% hold a graduate or professional degree³
• Homeownership: 67.7%, with a median home value of $679,000³

The county's Asian Indian population grew from 130,295 in 2019 to 150,831 in 2024, about 16%^3,10.

These figures describe a broadly affluent, highly educated community rather than a small group of very wealthy households. The county's Asian Indian per capita income was $65,291 in 2024, below the national Asian Indian figure of $76,212, in part because households are larger: an average of 3.23 people per Asian Indian household in Middlesex, against 2.85 nationally^3,9. We look at that household structure in multigenerational living in Indian American households.

The towns: Edison, Plainsboro and South Brunswick

Within Middlesex, the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 five-year estimates show several municipalities where Asian Indians are more than a third of residents⁴:

Municipality	Asian Indian residents	Share of population
Edison township	42,521	39.3%
South Brunswick township	17,797	37.8%
Woodbridge township (includes Iselin)	16,352	15.7%
Piscataway township	11,636	19.0%
Monroe township	11,240	22.9%
Plainsboro township	9,886	40.9%

ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, Asian Indian alone; shares are our calculation against total population⁴. Five-year figures carry margins of error of several hundred to about 2,000 people for these towns.

How it started: Oak Tree Road

The roots are in the 1970s. According to a PBS documentary from New York's WNET, immigrants from India began settling along Oak Tree Road in Iselin and Edison in that decade, and the community grew rapidly through the 1980s and 1990s⁵. The area had already been suburbanizing: the Garden State Parkway opened in 1957 and the Metropark train station, on the Northeast Corridor line to New York, opened in 1971⁵.

Over time the corridor became one of the country's best-known South Asian commercial districts, with restaurants, jewelers and clothing stores, which in turn made the area attractive to new arrivals. Many of these were family businesses, many of them serving family celebrations such as weddings (see Indian American wedding spending), a pattern we explore in the role of family-owned businesses in Indian American wealth.

Why it kept growing: jobs within commuting distance

Central New Jersey sits within commuting distance of New York City's finance and professional-services jobs and of the state's large pharmaceutical, healthcare and technology employers. Census data on the wider New York metro area show what that means for Asian Indian workers: 16.2% work in finance, insurance and real estate, and 23.9% in education and health care, both above the national shares for all workers of 6.5% and 23.8%^8,9.

Many also came through IT consulting and staffing firms headquartered or active in the region, a sector we cover in Indian American-owned IT services firms. Healthcare is another pillar; see Indian American doctors and physicians.

New Jersey within the New York metro

Middlesex County is part of the New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area, which had 709,466 Asian Indian residents in 2024, the largest of any US metro⁸. The metro's Asian Indian median household income was $164,130, lower than New Jersey's statewide figure, partly because it includes Queens, where the long-established community has lower median incomes ($94,440) than in suburban New Jersey^3,8. We break that down in our profile of the New York metro area, and compare metros in the most affluent Indian American metro areas.