Happy Birthday New Jersey

On December 18, 2019, New Jersey will celebrate 232 years as the 3rd state admitted to the union. To celebrate, we used State Data Lab to find fun facts about New Jersey and to learn more about the Garden State.

New Jersey is ranked 50th in our 2019 Financial State of the States report. The state needs $208.8 billion to pay its bills, but the state earned 71/100 points on our Financial Transparency Report.

New Jersey has an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, which is higher than the 50 state average of 3.79

In 2017, the garden state spent $194 million on parks and recreation. This is divided between the 30 state parks.

The state also spent $3.3 billion on its 430 miles of highways that same year.

In New Jersey, the median value for a home is$317,000, which makes it the 4th most expensive state to buy a home in behind Hawaii, California, and Washington.

In New Jersey, it is illegal to frown at a police officer. While that law might not be enforced, the state did spend $715 million on police protection expenditures.

The poverty rate in NJ is 8.2 percent, which is lower than the national average of 11.3 percent.

In Haddon Township, NJ it is illegal to annoy someone of the opposite sex. This is good news for everyone, especially women since they make up 51 percent of the population.

Forty percent of New Jersey’s 25 and older population has a bachelor's degree and 16 percent have an advanced degree. New Jersey is home to the best-ranked college, Princeton University as well as 46 other colleges.

You can learn more about New Jersey and make your own charts using State Data Lab. And we at Truth in Accounting wish New Jersey a very happy 232nd birthday!

Kate Brennan is a marketing and social media intern at Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that researches government financial data.