A new study from WalletHub named New Jersey the second-best state to live in. The results of 2022’s Best States to Live In were announced earlier this week and WalletHub compared all 50 states across 52 key indicators of livability. They looked at factors including housing costs and income growth to education rate and quality of hospitals.
Here are the top 20 states to live in, according to the study:
- Massachusetts
- New Jersey
- New York
- Idaho
- Virginia
- New Hampshire
- Florida
- Wyoming
- Minnesota
- Wisconsin
- Maine
- Vermont
- Utah
- Pennsylvania
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Maryland
- North Dakota
- Montana
- Colorado
Click here for the full list.
With our great schools, beautiful landscape and amazing restaurants (not to mention the fantastic people) it’s not surprise that New Jersey grabbed a spot at the very top of the list. We may biased, but there’s so much to love about the Garden State, including access to healthcare and education, culture and the great outdoors.
The Garden State ranked number 3 for states with the lowest crime rates, confirming what we already knew, that NJ is a safe place to live and raise a family.
Other top states on the list were Montana, which took top honors for the percent of people with a high school diploma or higher education, Iowa, which had the lowest overall housing costs and Massachusetts, which got high marks for having the highest percent of its population insured.
When it came to the state with the most restaurants per capita, California, New York, Florida and Texas got into a four-way tie for the top spot (we’d still take a Jersey diner over a meal in any of those states anyway!).
Deciding where to put down roots takes a lot of research and soul-searching, but this study confirms that if you’re already living in the Garden State, you’ve made a great choice.
Need more reasons to love where you live? Check out the results of our Garden State’s Best for 2022.