Long Beach Township is a municipality in Ocean County, New Jersey, occupying the northern and central portion of Long Beach Island, a barrier island along the Jersey Shore. The island lies one to two miles off the mainland, with the Atlantic Ocean on its eastern shore and Barnegat Bay on its western side. The township is the largest of the island's six municipalities and is governed under the Walsh Act commission form of government. The township's economy has long been built on tourism, fishing, and real estate. The island's year-round population is roughly ten thousand people, and Long Beach Township accounts for about three thousand of those residents, but the summer season transforms the area as vacationers and seasonal homeowners arrive in large numbers. That seasonal rhythm defines local life, with beaches, marinas, and restaurants at the center of the summer economy. The island is reached by a single causeway, Route 72, which ties it to the mainland at Manahawkin and to the Garden State Parkway. This limited access preserves the island's distinctive, self-contained character. Long Beach Island marks the southernmost point of the New York metropolitan area, giving the township a coastal setting within reach of both the Philadelphia and New York regions. The township spans a string of oceanfront and bayside neighborhoods, many of which developed as summer colonies in the early twentieth century. Today these areas mix vacation cottages with larger year-round homes, and the township's beaches and bayfront remain the center of community life. Public services are oriented toward a seasonal population, and the community's identity is inseparable from the barrier-island environment it occupies.