The people of New Jersey have spoken — not only is Central Jersey a place, but it's more than 3 million residents and 170 towns strong.

Last week, we asked you to help us define the oft-debated boundaries of North, Central and South Jersey. We received more than 91,000 responses and used them to map out the state's unofficial kingdoms.

It didn't come without some heated debate, but the results were fairly clear.

For one, NJ.com readers overwhelmingly agreed that Central Jersey does, in fact, exist. More than 50,000 of the votes received went toward categorizing Central Jersey towns, far outweighing those received for North and South Jersey.

In most towns, the vote was clear cut and the section in which they resided was decided easily.

But there were a few dozen towns that remained disputed right up until the very end, receiving less than a 60 percent majority for one section or the other. Mainly these towns set up along two corridors — Interstate 78 and Interstate 195 — not coincidentally one of the most popular dividing lines for North-Central and Central-South Jersey.

Overall, however, each of the border towns were well-debated and some distinct boundaries were set.

View interactive map of final results below

Based on the responses, North Jersey reaches as far south as northern Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, cutting eastward across most of Essex County through Hudson.

Central Jersey crept as far north as Millburn and includes most of Union County. The notable exceptions there were Elizabeth, Berkeley Heights and New Providence, which remained North Jersey until the very end.

The southern border of Central Jersey extends well below Interstate 195. Towns like Jackson, Toms River and Berkeley in Ocean County each remained Central Jersey throughout the vote and Florence, Bordentown and Plumsted ended up there after a lot of back-and-forth.

Everything south of those points was nearly undisputedly considered South Jersey.

So now that these sections of New Jersey have been defined, what can we say about them?

North Jersey has the highest population at 3.86 million residents, followed by Central Jersey with 3.04 million and South Jersey at 1.92 million, according to U.S. Census data.

At 3,300 square miles, South Jersey covers more than 42 percent of the Garden State's total area, which Central and North Jersey splitting the remainder almost evenly.

Central Jersey boasts the highest average property taxes though North Jersey has a higher average property value.. It was also the biggest stronghold for Gov. Chris Christie during the last election.



But all of that is ultimately secondary. We asked, you voted in overwhelming numbers. Here are the final results of the North vs. Central vs. South Jersey border battle:

Click on towns for voting details.

Stephen Stirling may be reached at sstirling@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @sstirling. Find him on Facebook.