Metro Life Score
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ
Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade F, 2nd percentile of the national corpus.
- 35.4
- Life Score / 100
- F
- Grade (curved)
- #378
- of 387 metros
- 2%
- composite percentile
Data updated August 2026
Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog
The verdict
New York-Newark-Jersey City is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #378 of 387 (35.4/100, grade F, 2nd percentile). Carried by wages at 99/100; held back most by cost of living at 1/100.
- 2nd
- composite percentile
- #378
- of 387 peers
- 1st
- cost dimension percentile
- 99th
- wages dimension percentile
Life Score shape · BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · signature cost
New York-Newark-Jersey City: cost pressure is the outlier
New York-Newark-Jersey City is a BOTTOM-band metro where cost sits only at the 1st percentile (CEILING) — the clearest outlier vs wages at the 99th and composite #378. Cost of Living (1/100) is the main drag; Wages (99/100) keeps the floor. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ ranks #378 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #384 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.
BEA RPP 112.6 (rent-RPP 148.6). BLS median salary $87,148, 9,414,820 jobs (Home Health and Personal Care Aides, Retail Salespersons, Registered Nurses). HUD 2BR FMR $2,324/mo (studio $1,778).
FBI UCR (NY): 380 violent, 1661 property/100K. NCES: 11.4:1 ratio, 7.1% charter. DOL infant childcare $13,869/yr. EPA: 122 Superfund sites (NY).
Where New York-Newark-Jersey City sits among all US metros
Composite Life Score vs the national field
35 2nd percentile higher than 2% of 387 US metros
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026
How the 35.4 is built
New York-Newark-Jersey City's Life Score, decomposed
Dimension detail
How New York-Newark-Jersey City scores, dimension by dimension
Score Breakdown
Dimension Scores
Key Data Points
Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are NY state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.
Compare New York-Newark-Jersey City With...
Ranking Context
New York-Newark-Jersey City outranks 2% of U.S. metros.
| Rank | Metro | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| #375 | Urban Honolulu, HI | 35.6 | F |
| #376 | Amherst Town-Northampton, MA | 35.9 | D |
| #377 | Barnstable Town, MA | 36.2 | D |
| #378 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 35.4 | F |
| #379 | Kahului-Wailuku, HI | 35.4 | F |
| #380 | Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD | 35.2 | F |
| #381 | Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY | 34.5 | F |
Quality vs. Affordability
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ's quality rank (bottom 3% lowest-quality) and affordability rank (bottom 1% least affordable) sit close together -- an unusually proportionate metro where overall quality and cost-of-living move together.
NY Metro Scores
Read with New York-Newark-Jersey City
Nearest composite peers and cost poles for New York-Newark-Jersey City (BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.
Kahului-Wailuku, HI
ABS(composite) peer at 35.4 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade F vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
ABS(composite) peer at 35.2 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade F vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.
Urban Honolulu, HI
ABS(composite) peer at 35.6 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade F vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.
Amherst Town-Northampton, MA
ABS(composite) peer at 35.9 (Δ 0.5 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.
Napa, CA (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 1/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp CEILING vs this metro's CEILING.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 1/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp CEILING vs this metro's CEILING.
New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ relocation guide
Stamp-branched guide for BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.
Using New York-Newark-Jersey City's bottom-third Life Score
New York-Newark-Jersey City scores 35.4/100 overall, but Wages (99.2) and Cost of Living (0.8) sit 98.4 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.
- Wages is the strongest of New York-Newark-Jersey City's seven dimensions (weighted 20% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
- Cost of Living is the weakest (weighted 20% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
- Binghamton is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Binghamton
A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.