A variety of recent studies have claimed that New Jersey residents are fleeing in droves and another new analysis concludes that those who have stayed are at least thinking about leaving.
MoveBuddha, a Georgia-based moving company, released a study detailing what they call outbound interest. The company collected data from January 1 through May 4 of this year capturing searches by individuals who were either planning to move themselves or hire a moving company in the subsequent year.
While it is unclear how many of those searches translated into people actually moving, MoveBuddha’s 2022 data for state-to-state moves shows that for every 34 folks interested in moving into New Jersey, there are 100 that are considering getting out, representing the highest outbound interest of any state.
In terms of where New Jersey residents are considering a move, the Sunshine State reigns supreme. The data concluded that one out of every four searches for outbound N.J. moves were for Florida cities, as 24.63% of potential movers are thinking of heading down south.
Other top destinations being sought by New Jerseyites are cities in California and Texas. Trenton was the N.J. city that residents are considering leaving the most, with the capital city sporting a 45 to 100 inbound to outbound interest ratio.
Other cities that ranked highest for outbound interest include second place Princeton, which was followed by Cherry Hill, Jamesburg, Toms River, New Brunswick, Hoboken and Jersey City.
The study, which analyzed more than 240,000 search queries for interstate moves, painted a dire picture for New Jersey. MoveBuddha determined that the Garden State saw the country’s 5th largest loss in wealth in 2020, with $2.3 billion in income leaving New Jersey amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even Hudson Country wasn’t immune to the population shift, according to the study. The county supposedly shed 3.1% of its population from 2020 to 2021, although MoveBuddha’s analysis did acknowledge that both Jersey City and Elizabeth grew significantly from 2010 to 2020.
Despite the apparent exodus, the population of New Jersey did increase by about 5.7% from the 2010 to 2020 census. The state has been steadily gaining an international population, with almost 25% of its population being foreign-born.
