Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on the Cape May peninsula, bound by the Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic coastline are five barrier islands that have been built up as seaside resorts. A consistently popular summer destination with of beaches, Cape May County attracts vacationers from New Jersey and surrounding states, with the summer population exceeding 750,000. Tourism generates annual revenues of about $6.6 billion as of 2018, making it the county's single largest industry. The associated leisure and hospitality industries are Cape May's largest employers. Its county seat is the Cape May Court House section of Middle Township.
As of the 2020 census, the county was the state's second-least populous county, with a population of 95,263, a decrease of 2,002 (−2.1%) from the 2010 census count of 97,265, which in turn reflected a decline of 5,061 (-4.9%) from the 102,326 counted in the 2000 census. The county is part of the Ocean City, NJ metropolitan statistical area and the Philadelphia-Reading-Camden, PA-NJ-DE-MD combined statistical area, also known as the Delaware Valley.
Before Cape May County was settled by Europeans, the Kechemeche tribe of the Lenape Native Americans inhabited South Jersey. Beginning in 1609, European explorers purchased land from, and contributed to the decline of, the indigenous people. The county was named for Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, a Dutch captain who explored and charted the area from 1620 to 1621, and established a claim for the province of New Netherland. In 1685, the court of Cape May County was split from neighboring Burlington County, although the boundaries were not set until seven years later. In 1690, Cape May (originally known as Cape Island) was founded, becoming America's oldest seaside resort.
The county was subdivided into three townships in 1798: Lower, Middle, and Upper. The other 16 municipalities in the county, including two no longer in existence, were established between 1827 and 1928. In 1863, the first railroad in the county opened, which carried crops from the dominant farming industry. Railroads later led to the popularity of the county's coastal resorts. The need for improved automotive access to the county led to the development of the Garden State Parkway, which opened in 1956.
The most populous place was Lower Township with 22,057 residents in the 2020 census, and its geographically largest municipality is Middle Township, which covers .
The county is part of the South Jersey region of the state.
History
Etymology
Before Cape May County was settled by Europeans, the indigenous Kechemeche tribe of the Lenape people inhabited South Jersey, and traveled to the barrier islands during the summer to hunt and fish.<ref name="Story">{ { cite book|author=John P. Snyder|url=http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf|title=The Story of New Jersey's Civil Boundaries: 1606-1968|publisher=Bureau of Geology and Topography|year=1969|location=Trenton, New Jersey|access-date=March 26, 2018|archive-date=June 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605161833/http://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/enviroed/oldpubs/bulletin67.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>A Brief History of Ocean City New Jersey , Ocean City, New Jersey. Accessed December 23, 2017. During the 17th century, the area that is now Cape May County was claimed as part of New Netherlands, New Sweden, the Province of New Jersey under the British crown, and later West Jersey. On August 28, 1609, English explorer Henry Hudson entered the Delaware Bay and stayed one day on land, north of what is now Cape May Point. As early as 1666, the southern tip of New Jersey was known as Cape Maey, named after Dutch explorer Cornelius Jacobsen May, who sailed the coastline of New Jersey from 1620 to 1621. In 1630, representatives of the Dutch West India Company purchased a tract of land along the Delaware from indigenous people, and bought additional land 11 years later. Due to the large number of whales in the region of Cape May, Dutch explorers founded Town Bank around 1640 along the Delaware Bay as a whaling village. It was the first European settlement in what is now Cape May County, and was populated by descendants of Plymouth County.