Lakewood, New Jersey has the highest childbearing rate in the country, according to a new analysis of 2020-2024 Census data obtained by TLS, with the township ranking first among geographic areas studied nationwide.

The data, compiled from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year Public Use Microdata Sample and sorted by the People’s Policy Project, found that 155.6 women per 1,000 women ages 15-44 in Lakewood reported giving birth in the previous 12 months.

That figure places Lakewood well ahead of the second-ranked area, western Rockland County, New York, which recorded a rate of 134.4 births per 1,000 women in the same age group.

The analysis ranked the top 10 geographic areas by the number of women ages 15-44 who reported a birth in the preceding year, per 1,000 women in that age range.

Several of the highest-ranking areas are home to large Orthodox Jewish communities, including Lakewood, western Rockland County, Borough Park and Kensington in Brooklyn, and southeastern Orange County, New York.

Northwestern Ocean County, which includes areas surrounding Lakewood, such as Jackson and Manchester, ranked seventh nationally, with a rate of 112.6 births per 1,000 women ages 15-44.

Other areas in the top 10 included parts of Florida and North Carolina, western Utah County, parts of Indiana with large Amish communities, and central Nebraska.

The figures represent reported births among women ages 15-44, rather than a general fertility rate based on births per 1,000 women of all ages or a ranking of total births.

In 2024, Lakewood again had more births than any other municipality in New Jersey, with a total of 5,420 babies born that year, according to data compiled by TLS.

Statewide, there were 101,357 births across New Jersey in 2024. Ocean County, which includes Lakewood, accounted for 10,812 of those births—more than 10% of the state’s total. Lakewood alone represented just over half of all births in the county, and 5.3% of the statewide total.