Study shows you don’t want to be caught living in 3 worst counties of NJ

A few days back, I wrote an article about niche.com’s ranking of the best New Jersey counties in which to live. Somerset was number one, followed by Bergen and Middlesex.

They based their rankings on a number of factors like job opportunities, cost of living, quality of schools, safety, etc.. Categories were graded elementary school style with a letter grading system like A’s, B’s, C’s and so on. The problem when you list all 21 counties to see who’s best? Someone’s gotta be dead last.

The unfortunate bottom three counties to live according to the study, were…

19 — Passaic County

While nightlife and diversity drew A’s, jobs was a C-, and housing a D-. Passaic’s overall score was only a C+ and their public school grade was a C+ landing it at 19th place out of 21 counties.

20 — Salem County

Yes, home of the nuclear plant, but it wasn’t the three-eyed "Simpsons" fish jokes that dragged them down. While most categories received B’s, their job grade was a C-, and housing a D+. An overall grade of C+ and a public school grade of B-, and they were placed 20th of 21 counties. Receiving not a single A had to hurt them.

21 — Cumberland

Then there’s the single worst county to live in the state of New Jersey. Why so bad? While they were graded an A+ for diversity and an A- for nightlife, their jobs scored a C- and housing was a D-. Overall grade was a C and public schools came in at a C-. That sealed it. According to this study Cumberland is 21st out of 21 counties, meaning you should want to live anywhere else. Sorry Cumberland.

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

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