Nearly two of every three families making an interstate move involving New Jersey last year were leaving the Garden State, the highest rate in the country. New Jersey had the greatest percentage of outbound moves of any state nationally last year with almost 65 percent departing, according to a company which bills itself as the largest transporter of household goods in the country.
The Garden State has led the nation in outward migration for the fourth time in five years.
What a surprise! Despite The Sopranos and The Jersey Shore, who would live in Jersey who didn’t have to? The weather is terrible, the scenery is non-existent (New Jersey is the land God Forgot), and the whole place stinks to high heaven. In the old days, people lived in New Jersey because they couldn’t afford to live in New York City, or because they had talked themselves into the proposition that there are nice places in New Jersey, by which they mean the pine barrens.
More stats:
Forty-one percent attributed their move to retirement. More than half (56 percent) of people leaving New Jersey were over the age of 55, with 22 percent older than 65.
Among the other states where more people moved out than in, New York’s rate was second at 64 percent with Illinois third (63 percent). Two other northeast states also ranked in the top 10 — Pennsylvania was ninth and Connecticut 10th. United Van Lines has been tracking moves for 38 years, it said.
While residents are fleeing New Jersey in far greater numbers than people are arriving, that’s not the case in many states. In Oregon, nearly two-thirds (66) percent of the moves are inbound; In South Carolina and North Carolina, about 61 percent of the moves were inbound.
Blue state, red state… how about that?
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