New Jersey
Life Satisfaction
Many of the measures in this report—economic output, employment, greenhouse gas emissions, and life expectancy—are not matters of opinion. They go up or down regardless of what we think about them. But how people view the world is also important. The nation's founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." So, it is worth asking: Are we actually happy or satisfied with our lives? The answers to this question are useful in part because of everything the other measures miss. We might have good jobs and incomes, but does that material prosperity actually make us feel better off? If we are not satisfied with our lives, then we might be passing on more discontent, or a reduced sense of hope, to our children.
Summary of Results.
New Jersey's progress in this area has been negative. Satisfaction with our current lives is worsening over time. Social isolation does not have enough data points to confidently determine a trend.
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Satisfaction with Current LifeSpecific Measure
Percentage of adults who report being very happy with their life
(Source: Authors' analysis of the General Social Survey (GSS) data and IPUMS-harmonized ACS/CPS microdata).State RankState vs. US trend42Why did we include this measure?
Perhaps more than any other measure, this one tells us how Americans feel about their own current state of affairs. This measure is about how we feel about our own lives. We report this in two ways. The "simple" method is a weighted average of the individual survey responses where the weights reflect the survey design. The "modeled" method also uses statistical patterns that arise across subgroups and states to adjust each state's estimate. This second method is motivated by small sample sizes on this measure in some states.
How does New Jersey compare to the rest of the country?
Although New Jersey's trend in satisfaction with our current lives has been worsening more than the US, it increased in state ranking by two or more places. Therefore, we categorize New Jersey's comparison to the US as neutral or stable. In the most recent year, New Jersey ranked 42 (out of 51). In the same year, South Dakota ranked first, and Arizona ranked last.
New Jersey State Trend Worsening
How to Read This Report:
We report each measure three different ways: State Rank, State Trend, State vs. US Trend. Each result is color coded as either red (negative/worsening), yellow (neutral/stable), or green (positive/improving), as indicated below. If the simple trends were erratic, had too few data points, or had no data points, we do not color code and label the trend as “mixed,” "unclear," or "NA," respectively.
State Rank
(Where are we now?)
State Trend
(Where are we going?)
State vs. US Trend
(How do we compare?)
Top third of states
(i.e., ranks 1-17)
Improving
Trendline is improving by >5% and most points are improving relative to the first data point.
Improving
Trendline is improving relative to the national trend and rank is improving by 2+ rank spots.
Middle third of states
(i.e., ranks 18-34)
Neutral/Stable
Doesn't fall into improving, worsening, mixed, unclear, or NA categories.
Neutral/Stable
Trendline is improving/worsening the same amount as the national trend or rank is changing by <2 spots.
Bottom third of states
(i.e., ranks 35-51)
Worsening
Trendline is worsening by >5% and most points are worsening relative to the first data point.
Worsening
Trendline is worsening relative to national trend and rank is declining by 2+ rank spots
Mixed
Large shares of points are improving and worsening by >5% in different parts of the trend.
Mixed
This label only applies when a measure has more than 1 trendline. One trendline is improving and another is worsening.
Unclear
Not enough data to determine a trend.
Unclear
Not enough data to determine a comparison.
Not Applicable
No data.
Not Applicable
No data.
Not Applicable
No data.
For more information on our definitions and methods, please see the Data Notes section.
