It Costs This Much To Live In New Jersey, New Report Says

NEW JERSEY — Households in New Jersey make significantly more money than the United States average, but there's a catch: it also costs quite a bit more to live there.

The cost of living in New Jersey is high across the board, in nearly every city. For example, it costs 77 percent more to live in Hoboken and 19.1 percent more to live in Newark than what is average for the United States, and numbers are only increasing.

The median household income in New Jersey between 2018 and 2022 was $97,126 — more than $20,000 higher than the 2022 national average of $74,580, according to census data.

Meanwhile, the living wage in New Jersey is $84,278, while the national living wage is around $68,500 after taxes, according to MIT’s Living Wage data.

"At its simplest, a living wage is what one full-time worker must earn on an hourly basis to help cover the cost of their family's minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient," the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.

This can vary from city to city and state to state based on that locale's specific costs for food, childcare, health care, housing, transportation, clothing, personal care items, and broadband — and tax rates.

Curious as to which towns in New Jersey are the richest, and which are rapidly increasing in wealth? See our roundup of the 10 Garden State towns that have seen the biggest increase in wealth in recent years.