Sad reality: Why retirees are fleeing New Jersey in droves

This is like a study just to confirm that the sky is blue or that it gets colder in winter. Such an obvious thing that everyone already knows to say New Jersey is not a good place to retire.

Research done by Deskup focused on key categories, including Cost of Living and Housing, Healthcare and Safety, Community and Recreation, and Environment and Climate, to help retirees find their ideal place to call home. Within those four categories were 14 factors, each assigned a score of 0 to 100. Ultimately, each state was assigned an average score to compare states where retirees would be best off.

For example, the No. 1 best state for retirees came in as Nebraska with a final overall score of 70.64.

New Jersey’s abysmal score was 40.78, putting us at No. 47 in the rankings. Meaning there are only three states even worse.

New Jersey is no place to retire. Yeah, we already knew this. It’s expensive as hell. The taxes are unfair. The weather isn’t great as you get older. A long list of reasons. But to see it in such harsh terms with those in-your-face rankings is a brutal reminder of why so many people are moving away.

In 2024, for the seventh year in a row, more residents moved out of New Jersey than any other state, reporting an outbound migration of 67%. Even more telling is the fact that 40% of those who moved out were 65 years and older. When asked about the top motivation, the number one answer was to retire, at 22%.

So sad.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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