August 23, 2015
Outsiders associate New Jersey with bad reality TV shows, suburban sprawl and mob violence. But folks living in New Jersey focus on the good things, like the beach, the location and the quality of life. A new poll from Rutgers University has found that 82 percent of New Jersey residents say that, despite the state's negative image nationwide, they are proud to be from Jersey.
56 percent of poll respondents said they have "a lot" of pride in being a resident of NJ and 26 percent have "some" pride.
When asked what their favorite part of living in New Jersey was, the top answers were the convenient location, the beach and the overall quality of life. One percent of respondents even said that their favorite thing about New Jersey is that they don't have to pump their own gas.
"If you're an outsider, you would be surprised that so many people who live in the state are proud of the state, but I think there's good reason for it and I think the people gave us those good reasons," said Poll Director David Redlawsk.
New Jersey pride persists despite all the flack the state gets from the rest of the country. 57 percent of respondents said that New Jersey has a negative image to outsiders.
Confirming that, a recent YouGov survey on attitudes towards all 50 states found that New Jersey is by far least-liked state in the nation. In fact, it was the only state out of all 50 to receive a favorability rating of less than zero.
“It's just kind of a long-standing thing in American history that New Jersey has been the butt of jokes," said Redlawsk.
One issue may be that outsiders base their views on New Jersey only on what they see from the Turnpike.
“People's image of it is really things like the Turnpike or factories, the really highly populated corridor of the state,” said Redlawsk. “And I think a lot of people in the rest of the country have absolutely no idea of the rest of the state – the Pinelands, the hills in the northwest, the beaches.”
But really, who cares what other states think of Jersey? A third of respondents said that it doesn't matter "at all,” although 26 percent said it matters "a lot."
The majority of respondents, 61 percent, agreed that New Jersey is a good place to live. In contrast, a poll that came out only a month earlier from Monmouth University found that just 55 percent of residents agree with that statement.
Related story: Poll: New Jerseyans' approval of their own state at record low
"That actually isn't a very big difference when taking into account margins of error from both polls," noted Redlawsk.
The margin of error for the Rutgers poll is +/- 3.9 percent and the Monmouth poll had a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percent.
