Bergen County scores high on quality-of-life pollMonday, August 1, 2011
BY MELISSA HAYES
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Bergen County residents are happy with their hometowns and less likely to leave the state than residents of other New Jersey counties, according to a poll released Monday by Monmouth University.
RECORD FILE PHOTO
Walkers stroll through Overpeck Park. Sixty-three percent of those polled gave Bergen County's environmental quality a positive rating.
Bergen County scored a +34 on the Garden State Quality of Life Index, coming in third overall behind Morris County at +42 and Hunterdon County at +37, on a scale of -100 to +100.
In contrast, Passaic County was among the lowest scoring counties in the state, tying with Essex County for second to last at +12. Cumberland County ranked last with an index of +5. The statewide average was +21.
“New Jersey has always been a tale of two, or three, states,” Monmouth University Polling Institute Director Patrick Murray said in a statement. “The index shows that how you feel about the state’s quality of life depends on where you live.”
Monmouth University surveyed a random sampling of 2,864 adults across the state from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15. At least 100 residents in each of the state’s 21 counties participated.
The county breakdown is the fourth installment of the university’s Garden State Quality of Life Index. The Monmouth University Polling Institute released the overall state findings in April, followed in June by an analysis that broke down the data by race and ethnicity, and, in July, an examination of how views of quality of life vary by income.
The latest analysis found a wide gap in how residents from different parts of the state view quality of life.
In Bergen County, 75 percent of residents gave the state a positive quality of life rating, while 85 percent rated their hometown positively, according to the poll.
Only 42 percent of those polled said they wanted to move out of the state someday, making them among the least likely to leave.
The results showed that crime and safety are not a concern, with 83 percent rating the county a safe place to live. Seventy-one percent of participants were also positive toward the local schools, and 74 percent gave both race relations and cultural activities positive ratings. Public transportation fared well, with a 69 percent positive rating, followed by environmental quality with 63 percent.
Traffic and affordable housing were major concerns, with only 23 percent and 25 percent of participants giving those areas positive marks, respectively. Of those polled, 47 percent said they get stuck in traffic jams at least once a week.
“It’s interesting to note that residents of counties where the local quality of life is particularly high also tend to view the entire state as a good place to live,” Murray said. “In most cases, though, residents make a distinction between their own back yards and the state as a whole.”
Passaic County residents, like those in Hudson and Essex counties, rated New Jersey higher than their hometowns, with 64 percent giving the state a positive rating, but only 57 percent giving the same rating to the towns where they live, according to the poll.
Passaic County residents had a lower view of their quality of life compared to their neighbors in Bergen County, with 56 percent giving the schools a positive rating. County residents also gave positive ratings of 54 percent, 53 percent and 52 percent, respectively, to the environment, crime and safety, and race relations, according to the poll.
As in Bergen County, only 25 percent of those surveyed in Passaic County gave a positive rating for affordable housing.
In addition, only 52 percent of residents said Passaic County is a good place to raise a family, and only 31 percent expressed confidence in how the schools are run, according to the results.
The poll found that the lowest scoring counties were either in South Jersey or urban areas, like Passaic, Essex and Hudson counties.
The sampling error on the data from Bergen County is plus or minus 6 percent, while the sampling error for Passaic County is plus or minus 8 percent.
The poll was funded by Plangere Foundation, New Jersey Resources, First Energy Corporation and Sanofi-Aventis.
E-mail: hayes@northjersey.com
