According to a new Monmouth University poll released this morning, the number of New Jersey residents looking to leave the state has reached a new high, despite most poll respondents giving the state high marks when asked about the quality of life.

Asked if they would like to move out of the state at some point, a record 59% said they would, with the majority of those citing the state’s property tax burden for their intention to get out.

The quality of life index score, an index created by the Monmouth Poll, has increased in most areas of the state over the past year, including the Central Hills (up 9 points to +42), Northern Shore – which includes Ocean County –  (up 8 to +34), Delaware Valley (up 7 to +27), Garden Core (up 6 to +19), and Route 1 Corridor (up 5 to +28).  It has dropped slightly in the Northeast (down 3 points to +28) and by a larger number in the Urban Core counties (down 7 to +16).

“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,”  Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

Broken out by party, Republicans (69%) and independents (64%) are much more likely than Democrats (47%) to say they want to leave the state. In 2014, however, similar number of Republicans (48%) and Democrats (46%) said they wanted to leave the state. The partisan results were also similar in 2007 (49% Republicans and 44% Democrats). In both years, independents were actually a little more likely than either partisan group to say they wanted to move out of New Jersey (55% in 2014 and 54% in 2007).

“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 happening across state lines,” said Murray

A little 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. The current positive rating of 64% is between last year’s 59% result and 68% in 2020. The all-time high mark for the state rating was 84% positive in February 1987. The record low was 50% in February 2019, but it improved to 61% by September of that year.

Six in ten of those who say they are at least somewhat likely to leave New Jersey cite financial concerns, with property taxes (26%) leading the list. Another 7% cite other taxes, 7% point to high housing costs, and 19% refer to the high cost of living in general. These are the same reasons people gave for wanting to leave in 2014, but there are more of them now.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from March 31 to April 4, 2022 with 802 New Jersey adults.  The question results in this release have a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.