Metro Life Score
Vineland, NJ
Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C-, 15th percentile of the national corpus.
- 41.0
- Life Score / 100
- C-
- Grade (curved)
- #328
- of 387 metros
- 15%
- composite percentile
Data updated August 2026
Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog
The verdict
Vineland is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #328 of 387 (41.0/100, grade C-, 15th percentile). Carried by safety at 90/100; held back most by schools at 8/100.
- 15th
- composite percentile
- #328
- of 387 peers
- 37th
- cost dimension percentile
- 56th
- wages dimension percentile
Life Score shape · LOWER · SAFE-LED · signature composite
Vineland: bottom-third composite — where the drag concentrates
Vineland sits in the bottom third of the metro corpus on composite (#328 of 387, 41.0/100, 15th percentile). Stamps LOWER · SAFE-LED; Schools at 8/100 is the main drag; Safety (90/100) keeps the floor. Cost/wage marks DEAR/MID. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Vineland, NJ ranks #328 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #242 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.
BEA RPP 96.0 (rent-RPP 83.9). BLS median salary $65,161, 55,390 jobs (Packers and Packagers, Hand, Home Health and Personal Care Aides, Fast Food and Counter Workers). HUD 2BR FMR $1,673/mo (studio $1,280).
FBI UCR (NJ): 216 violent, 1396 property/100K. NCES: 11.5:1 ratio, 3.3% charter. DOL infant childcare $15,732/yr. EPA: 153 Superfund sites (NJ).
Where Vineland sits among all US metros
Composite Life Score vs the national field
41 15th percentile higher than 15% 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 41.0 is built
Vineland's Life Score, decomposed
Dimension detail
How Vineland scores, dimension by dimension
Score Breakdown
Dimension Scores
Key Data Points
Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are NJ state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.
Compare Vineland With...
Ranking Context
Vineland outranks 15% of U.S. metros.
| Rank | Metro | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| #325 | Chico, CA | 41.1 | C- |
| #326 | Boulder, CO | 41.1 | C- |
| #327 | New Haven, CT | 41.2 | C- |
| #328 | Vineland, NJ | 41.0 | C- |
| #329 | Chattanooga, TN-GA | 40.8 | C- |
| #330 | Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL | 40.8 | C- |
| #331 | Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ | 40.8 | C- |
Quality vs. Affordability
Vineland, NJ is bottom 16% lowest-quality nationally and also bottom 38% least affordable -- a rarer combination among its composite-quality peers, where overall rank and affordability rank usually diverge more than this.
NJ Metro Scores
Read with Vineland
Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Vineland (LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/MID), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.
Boulder, CO
ABS(composite) peer at 41.1 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/MID.
Chico, CA
ABS(composite) peer at 41.1 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/MID.
Chattanooga, TN-GA
ABS(composite) peer at 40.8 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/MID.
Columbia, SC
ABS(composite) peer at 41.2 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/MID.
Racine-Mount Pleasant, WI (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 38/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.
York-Hanover, PA (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 37/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.
Vineland, NJ relocation guide
Stamp-branched guide for LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/MID - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.
Using Vineland's bottom-third Life Score
Vineland scores 41.0/100 overall, but Safety (89.9) and Schools (7.5) sit 82.4 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.
- Safety is the strongest of Vineland's seven dimensions (weighted 15% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
- Schools is the weakest (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
- Atlantic City is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Atlantic City
A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.