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State Life Score

New Jersey

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade D, 10th percentile of the national corpus.

38.6
Life Score / 100
D
Grade (curved)
#46
of 51 states
10%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

New Jersey is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #46 of 51 (38.6/100, grade D, 10th percentile). Carried by wages at 90/100; held back most by rent at 6/100.

10th
composite percentile
#46
of 51 peers
6th
cost dimension percentile
88th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · BOTTOM · WAGE-LED

New Jersey at a glance

New Jersey is a BOTTOM-band WAGE-LED state: wages leads at 90/100 while rent drags at 6/100 (CEILING cost · PEAK wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, New Jersey ranks #46 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #48 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where New Jersey sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

39 10th percentile higher than 10% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). This entry sits in this band. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). Above this entry. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Above this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Above this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). Above this entry. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. 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

Dimension detail

How New Jersey scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 6/100 (20%)
Wages 90/100 (20%)
Rent 6/100 (15%)
Safety 86/100 (15%)
Schools 8/100 (10%)
Childcare 14/100 (10%)
Environment 34/100 (10%)

Read with New Jersey

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (BOTTOM · CEILING/PEAK).

Montana

ABS(composite) peer at 38.7 (Δ 0.1 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · CEILING/PEAK.

New York

ABS(composite) peer at 38.2 (Δ 0.4 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · CEILING/PEAK.

Maryland

ABS(composite) peer at 37.3 (Δ 1.3 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · CEILING/PEAK.

Delaware

ABS(composite) peer at 40.0 (Δ 1.4 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's BOTTOM · WAGE-LED · CEILING/PEAK.

District of Columbia (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 4/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp CEILING vs this state's CEILING.

Hawaii (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 2/100 (Δ 4); cost stamp CEILING vs this state's CEILING.
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Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare