The Monmouth University Polling Institute is out with its latest Garden State Quality of Life Index, which shows a mixed bag of results about how the public views life here in New Jersey.
First, the good news. The Garden State Quality of Life Index score now stands at +27, which is up from last year’s +25 rating. In fact, the current reading is toward the higher end of index scores – it generally ranges between +18 and +31 – since Monmouth first started tracking Quality of Life back in 2010.
Now, the bad news. The number of people who want to leave New Jersey is at a high point. Not surprisingly, property tax burden remains the top reason why.
Overall, though, the Quality of Life score increased in most areas of the state over the past year.
“It’s worth noting that the areas with the least positive views of New Jersey’s quality of life are the heavily Democratic urban areas and the heavily Republican rural counties,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.
Moving out
Just under 2 in 3 New Jerseyans say the state is either an excellent (19%) or good (45%) place to live, while 22% say it is only fair, and 13% rate the state as poor. That current positive rating of 64% sits between last year’s 59% and 68% in 2020.
However, a larger number than ever of New Jerseyans (59%) say they would like to move out of the state at some point, with those figures representing a marked partisan gap of more Republicans wanting to leave.
Murray
“It’s a bit of a head-scratcher. Positive ratings of New Jersey as a place to live have ticked up a bit. But so has the sense that people want to get out of here someday. One possible explanation is that residents appreciate the benefits that New Jersey has to offer, but the cost of living does not make it sustainable in the long run,” said Murray.
On that theme, 36% of residents say it is likely they will move out of the state at some point. Six in 10 of those New Jerseyans cite financial concerns. Along with Republicans (69%), independents (64%) were more likely than Democrats (47%) to express a desire to leave the state. Demographically, there has been a bigger jump in this sentiment among residents under age 35 (42%).
The Garden State Quality of Life Index was created by the Monmouth University Polling Institute in 2010. The index is based on five separate poll questions: overall opinion of the state as a place to live – which contributes half the index score, rating of one’s hometown, the performance of local schools, the quality of the local environment, and feelings of safety in one’s own neighborhood, with scores ranging from -100 to +100.
“Politics may also be playing a subtle role in wanting to get out of the state. We are already aware of the self-sorting that has gone on for the past generation where people gravitate to communities and counties within their states where the neighbors are more like them ideologically. Who knows? As individual states become redder or bluer, maybe we are starting to see the same thing happened across state lines,” said Murray.
