For more than two weeks, a team of NJ Advance Media reporters and photographers spent time exploring the complex world of Lakewood, from the halls of Beth Medrash Govoha, now one of the biggest Yeshivas in the world with 6,500 students, to the Bethel Spanish Pentecostal Church, which holds two Sunday services each week for 700 people, the Laketon Inn,
NJ.com one of the only bars left in town. The most stark change in Lakewood is the age of its residents. More than 32 percent of the town's population is under 10 years old. The median age in Lakewood is now just 19 years old, less than half the median age of New Jersey as a whole. he age imbalance in Lakewood can be tied directly to the importance of children in the Orthodox Jewish faith. Lakewood's birth rate is more than four times higher than the rates in both New Jersey and the United States. In fact, the birth rate of 45 per 1,000 residents is only a few points lower than Niger in Africa, which has the highest birth rate in the world at 49 per 1,000. In Niger, the
astronomical birth rate has become a crisis, with the country's infrastructure unable to keep up with its burgeoning population. In Lakewood, the birth rate has already led to its share of growing pains. Read more here
NJ.com one of the only bars left in town. The most stark change in Lakewood is the age of its residents. More than 32 percent of the town's population is under 10 years old. The median age in Lakewood is now just 19 years old, less than half the median age of New Jersey as a whole. he age imbalance in Lakewood can be tied directly to the importance of children in the Orthodox Jewish faith. Lakewood's birth rate is more than four times higher than the rates in both New Jersey and the United States. In fact, the birth rate of 45 per 1,000 residents is only a few points lower than Niger in Africa, which has the highest birth rate in the world at 49 per 1,000. In Niger, the
astronomical birth rate has become a crisis, with the country's infrastructure unable to keep up with its burgeoning population. In Lakewood, the birth rate has already led to its share of growing pains. Read more here