New Jersey is home to the city with the most ethnic diversity in nation, says Wallethub

Show Caption Hide Caption Ridgewood Holi festival is fun for everyone "HAPPY HOLI!" was the greeting exchanged by hundreds at the Indian Holi in the Village festival, featuring vibrant colors, music, dancing, and food.

Walking down a street in one of New Jersey's many cities, it's not out of the ordinary to find a taqueria next to a Colombian bakery, no more than a stone's throw from a sushi bar or Indian restaurant. All of this food diversity flows from the diversity of its people.

New Jersey is home to the most diverse city in the country, according to a 2018 Wallethub study that looked at 10 small, medium and/or large cities in each state and examined its people's ethnic, linguistic and birthplace diversity.

Coming out on the top of the list was Jersey City, which ranked both No. 1 most diverse city in the nation and most diverse midsize city, as well as the top-ranked city for the number of languages spoken. With its population of 264,000 only exceeded in New Jersey by Newark, it might not be a surprise for the growing Hudson Country city to top the charts.

However, it wasn't the only city in the Garden State to catch notice for its diversity in national rankings.

Clifton ranked seventh most diverse for a small U.S. city, 25th most diverse overall and ranked third in its linguistic diversity. Sandwiched between Clifton and Jersey City is the large city of San Jose, California, which ranked second linguistically and eighth overall, proving New Jersey has what it takes to go toe-to-toe with big city diversity.

Toms River, on the other hand, ranked low in its city size classification (small city rank 203) as well as overall at 401 out of 501 cities.

New Jersey's diversity isn't a new phenomenon. The state has a pretty steady history of diversity, at least since 2009.

The story continues below the graphic.

The least diverse city in the country was found in Parkersburg, West Virginia, with a cultural diversity score of 9.6 out of 100. In West Virginia, nearly three quarters of residents were born in the state and less than 2 percent were born in another country. On the other hand, California had the highest percentage of foreign-born residents with 27 percent having been born outside the U.S.

So, where is the nation's melting pot, New York City, in all of this?

It's the No. 1 large city in terms of diversity, ranked sixth overall and fifth in linguistic and ethnoracial diversity. Of residents, 23 percent were born outside the country, the second-highest percentage after California and trailed by New Jersey.

New Jersey: Anti-Muslim bias cases are on the rise, except in NJ

Gambling: Without sports betting, just how addicted to gambling is NJ?

Governor: Has Phil Murphy smoked marijuana? The answer is hazy

U.S. Census: Data show growing diversity in North Jersey

To rank the 501 cities which comprised Wallethub's study, the financial company used the Herfindahl-Hirschman index to rank 10 cities in each state based on U.S. Census data.

Large cities were defined by Wallethub as those with a population exceeding 300,000 people, midsize cities with a population of 100,000 to 300,000 and small cities as though with fewer than 100,000 people.

Here's is a breakdown of all the rankings in New Jersey. Complete data from the study can be found on Wallethub's website.