Poll: 62% of New Jerseyans give high marks to quality of life, but Democrats and Republicans view the state differently

Democrats seem to like living in New Jersey more than Republicans do, a new Monmouth University Polling Institute’s Garden State Quality of Life Index shows.

The index shows that 62% of state residents say New Jersey is an excellent or good place to live, but that number spikes to 87% among Democrats and craters to 41% among Republicans; 56% of independents like Jersey, but 43% view the state as only a fair or good place to live.

“As with everything in society today, how people view what’s going on in their own backyards seems to be filtered through a partisan lens,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

The increasing partisanship of New Jersey comes less than eight weeks before a mid-term legislative election in a cycle with traditionally low – sometimes pathetically so – voter turnout.

But people seem to like their hometown.

The poll shows that 70% of New Jersey residents rate the municipality where they live at 70% excellent or good, and 29% only fair or poor.  It’s 79%-21% among Democrats, 70%-30% among Republicans, and 65%-34% with independents.

Still, 56% of New Jerseyans rate the performance of their local public schools as excellent or good and 48% say they are only fair or poor.

That number is divided based on partisanship: Democrats are at 71%-23%, but Republicans are at 47%-44%.  Independents are at 51%-43%.

Nearly all residents of the state (94%) say they feel safe in their hometown.

The Garden State Quality of Life Index score now stands at +23, down just one point from January 2023 and down four points from April 2022.  Since 2010, the top score was +37 in April 2020, and the low point was +13 in February 2019.

Women and white people like New Jersey more than men and people of color: the score is +28 for women and +17 for men; +30 for white residents and +11 for Black and Hispanic New Jerseyans.

The score jumps to +38 in Hunterdon, Morris, and Somerset, but plummets to just +2 in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Salem , Sussex and Warren.  It’s at +23 in Monmouth and Ocean, and +29 in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester.

New Jerseyans give high marks (75%) to the quality of the environment in the area of the state they reside.

The Monmouth poll was conducted between August 10-14 with a sample size of 814 adults and a margin of error of +/- 5.4%