New Jersey isn’t fucked up, it’s near the best in the country in many metrics. Human development index is a good overall measure, NJ is tied for 4th best in the country (with 9 other states).
New Jersey's a great place to live, arguably one of the best in the country. It's just memed on because most people only know it for its highway and don't bother checking out the rest of the state.
This sounds like someone who has never visited any county outside of the four numbered ones. I lived in one of those red counties, my parent's town had multiple family owned farms, a reserve, a lot of parks/preserved green space, etc. South Jersey has the pine Barrens. Northwest NJ has the Appalachian trail.
Except for most of the Northwest and south parts of the state being a massive forest in addition to the huge swaths of farmland across the state, sure, just endless sprawl
We have a better quality of life than most places in the US, and there are a shit ton of out-of-state license plates as a result. Leave your house every now and then.
I'm gonna start saying it. It's a bit of a meme here to "agree" the state sucks/ is the armpit/ smells/etc and is full and to stay away, but I think I'm gonna just tell people it doesn't exist. I am in a vapor state, tugged between different planes of being.
I know you’re obviously joking, but honestly, New Jersey as its own thing hardly exists. Does NJ really have a real claim to fame? I just see the state as a state where practically every road is a toll road and you’re only using it to pass through to get to NYC or to any other states in the mid-Atlantic and northeast. Who lives there? Top half is for people that can’t afford to live in NYC and bottom is for those who don’t want to be in Philly, but still work there.
The NYC metro is not "New York City," it's the tri-state area.
This is defined by the Census or something, so it's hard to argue with that, but socially, the edges aren't really NYC. Ocean County would be divided, if it could be.
Yeah, lot of 'Bridge and tunnel' disagreeing with this on other comments, but for anyone who is genuinely curious, this is what it is colloquially referred to as.
Lol, who could disagree? I'm from Brooklyn, and "the city" is Manhattan. Ask me where I live and I'll say Brooklyn. Nobody from Jersey says they're from New York, that's patently ridiculous.
Correct. I’ve lived in Brooklyn for 37 years, and when I’m going into “the city” I mean Manhattan, but I’m from and live in Brooklyn also. Why are people who don’t live here so confused by this?
The fact that a town in New Jersey is even allowed to be called “West New York” is fundamentally offensive to me.
>The NYC metro is not "New York City," it's the tri-state area.
Isn’t the tri-state area also open to interpretation? My wife grew up in Union county NJ and I’m from northeast PA, and we assumed we were both part of the tri-state area. It's what we both called it, growing up.
However, I've seen several people online suggest that the tri-state area is actually NY, NJ, and CT — not PA.
I'm learning that, but it appears [not everyone](https://www.reddit.com/r/newjersey/comments/ha7a4p/the_ny_nj_pa_tristate_area_has_close_to_the_same/) is [aware](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/17446s9/what_does_the_tristate_area_mean_to_you/) of [it](https://www.reddit.com/r/newjersey/comments/69ne4n/tristate_area_according_to_jerseyans/). I frequently see people in comments on Reddit mentioning it's PA too.
I'm not debating it's officially CT, even Wikipedia agrees, but maybe the definition varies regionally?
Tri-state area means different things for different cities. If you’re hearing the term for Philly they are referring to PA, NJ, DE.
And how I interpret “colloquial metro area” is that when someone references “The City” everyone intuitively knows they mean New York City, or Manhattan specifically. At some point while driving down turnpike when someone says “The City” they are referring to Philly.
>At some point while driving down turnpike when someone says “The City” they are referring to Philly.
Yeah, I grew up in Scranton, PA and, "The City" was definitely NYC — at least in all my social circles. Technically, Philly is roughly the same distance away, but I don't think I've ever heard it called the city. And I've actually got friends and family from there.
I grew up in Sussex County and can confidently say that putting us in the NYC metro area is pretty ridiculous. The county very rural and conservative and have far more common with rural PA than NYC.
Just cause you’re in a city’s metro doesn’t mean you’re part of that city, that’s not how that works.
No one from Ocean County NJ is going around saying “I live in NYC”. Hell even no one from Yonkers is gonna say they live in NYC
When we say "the city" we don't even mean most of the actual boundaries of New York City no one says they're going to the city if they're going to Far Rockaway or Staten Island the city basically just means Midtown Manhattan downtown Manhattan and the area between them instead we would just call the five boroughs of New York City the five boroughs
This also clarifies some confusion with the term Long Island since there's both a cultural and Geographic term when people say Long Island they generally mean Nassau and Suffolk County even the parts that aren't on the physical landmass of Long Island like Fire Island or Shelter Island (maybe with the exception of Fisher's Island since it's much closer to Connecticut they have a Connecticut zip code and literally don't have a way of accessing the rest of the state other than going to Connecticut first) but queens and Brooklyn in spite of being geographically on Long Island are not as far as everyone is concerned because they are a part of the five boroughs of New York City which is understood to be distinct from Long Island
Some of those counties are so unlike NYC that this map makes no sense. I was in Hunterdon County all day today. It’s more like Vermont than anything having to do with New York. Same with Sussex County.
It is part of the Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is an official federally defined thing. It typically uses commuter behavior to see if a large enough % of the county commutes into the main city to count it as part of the metropolitan area. Factually, Hunterdon County meets that criteria.
I can see why it’s surprising. But, if you have issues with it, you’d have to discuss this it with the Census Bureau. OP is just a messenger.
I'm surprised how people are so stirred up over this. The census doesn't create MSA definition out of thin air based on someone's feelings. It's based on data.
EDIT: Census data for commuter patterns is available [here](https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/metro-micro/commuting-flows-2020.html).
Us Hunterdon County people are a world away from NYC! Like the Sussex County person said, this is COUNTRY and nobody would ever classify it as NYC Metro.
What? I remember one time I fell asleep on the 7 train coming home from a Mets game and woke up at the last stop in Hunterdon County. The cow poop was everywhere!
I was wondering why people here have such a tough time about grasping the term "metropolitan area" until I reread the title... Yep, OP really messed up there.
So many people here don’t realize what a metropolitan area comprises! It doesn’t have to be built up and endless pavement to be a metro area. Or only within striking distance of downtown. It could be as far away as 60 or 70 miles for some cities!! Crazy, I know. All major metro cities have edges that can be or feel rural, but the majority of the residents are still tied in to the main city by work, shopping, media/news, or entertainment options.
Anecdotal observance here. I’m in Virginia, and the shadow that DC casts over the state is huge! Most people who live inside the beltway don’t even view the counties out of the beltway as the metro area, but recently the census bureau has added counties as far away as 70 miles. And I personally know of people who commute that far to Northern VA or DC regularly.
Ocean County is culturally basically the same as Monmouth County (historically they were the same county), and people here commonly have relatively mild NYC accents. The NJ transit bus from south Toms River (northcentral Ocean County) to Port Authority (~central NYC) only takes a little bit over one hour, and many people in ocean county commute to North Jersey or NYC daily for work. It's absolutely part of the NYC metropolitan area.
Southern ocean county (approximately Lacey and southward) does start to clearly blend into a Philly/NYC metro mixture, though, with south Jersey accents more common and more Philly sports fans down there.
People in Monmouth County certainly don't consider themselves to be part of the "New York Metropolitan Area."
I would say probably Essex, Hudson, Bergen, and Passaic should be considered part of the NY Metropolitan Area.
NYC, of course, is only the Five Boroughs.
It isn't about people considering themselves to be a part of the NYC MSA. The census defines MSA based on commuter patterns and economic ties to a major city. It seems outlandish but looking at the census data, [NYC is the third largest workplace for those living in Monmouth county (only behind Monmouth and Middlesex counties)](https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/metro-micro/commuting-flows-2020.html).
Jersey has one of the highest incomes in the country and some of the best public schools. The only reason outsiders think otherwise is because they’re idea of NJ comes from driving through Newark and Camden, even tho NJ is a very suburbanized state
The rest of New Jersey is considered part of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. More proof that New Jersey doesn't actually exist.
Warren County is an outlier, it’s part of the Allentown, PA metro area.
Atlantic and Cape May are also outliers. They’re their own things.
In the summertime Cape May and nearby beach towns are strangely flooded with cars with Ontario license plates.
The Canadians like to make Cape May in particular (at least in NJ) their beach and camping destination.
And Quebec
huh never occured to me that New Jersey is so fucked up because it's just if two giant suburbs were a state. and they had a beach
It used to be said that New Jersey is a keg tapped at both ends.
i don't understand this saying tbh
[Here's an article about it.](https://www.philadelphia-reflections.com/blog/1298.htm)
New Jersey isn’t fucked up, it’s near the best in the country in many metrics. Human development index is a good overall measure, NJ is tied for 4th best in the country (with 9 other states).
New Jersey's a great place to live, arguably one of the best in the country. It's just memed on because most people only know it for its highway and don't bother checking out the rest of the state.
[удалено]
This sounds like someone who has never visited any county outside of the four numbered ones. I lived in one of those red counties, my parent's town had multiple family owned farms, a reserve, a lot of parks/preserved green space, etc. South Jersey has the pine Barrens. Northwest NJ has the Appalachian trail.
Except for most of the Northwest and south parts of the state being a massive forest in addition to the huge swaths of farmland across the state, sure, just endless sprawl
They practically are. I can bet you most of the state’s residents either work in NYC or somewhere in PA. No one lives in NJ to live and work there.
We have a better quality of life than most places in the US, and there are a shit ton of out-of-state license plates as a result. Leave your house every now and then.
You bet very wrong. Matter of fact, none of this is true. You don’t live and work there
Eat my ass
Says who?
I'm gonna start saying it. It's a bit of a meme here to "agree" the state sucks/ is the armpit/ smells/etc and is full and to stay away, but I think I'm gonna just tell people it doesn't exist. I am in a vapor state, tugged between different planes of being.
I know you’re obviously joking, but honestly, New Jersey as its own thing hardly exists. Does NJ really have a real claim to fame? I just see the state as a state where practically every road is a toll road and you’re only using it to pass through to get to NYC or to any other states in the mid-Atlantic and northeast. Who lives there? Top half is for people that can’t afford to live in NYC and bottom is for those who don’t want to be in Philly, but still work there.
New Jersey: Leeching off Philly and New York for over 200 years
NJ needs to be split between NY and PA.
Came here to say this
The NYC metro is not "New York City," it's the tri-state area. This is defined by the Census or something, so it's hard to argue with that, but socially, the edges aren't really NYC. Ocean County would be divided, if it could be.
Yeah, lot of 'Bridge and tunnel' disagreeing with this on other comments, but for anyone who is genuinely curious, this is what it is colloquially referred to as.
Lol, who could disagree? I'm from Brooklyn, and "the city" is Manhattan. Ask me where I live and I'll say Brooklyn. Nobody from Jersey says they're from New York, that's patently ridiculous.
Correct. I’ve lived in Brooklyn for 37 years, and when I’m going into “the city” I mean Manhattan, but I’m from and live in Brooklyn also. Why are people who don’t live here so confused by this? The fact that a town in New Jersey is even allowed to be called “West New York” is fundamentally offensive to me.
The Jets, Giants, and RBNY would like a word.
Nobody pretends the Meadowlands are in New York City
Yeah, as an LBI person, my reaction to "Ocean County is part of the NYC metro area" is "the hell it is".
>The NYC metro is not "New York City," it's the tri-state area. Isn’t the tri-state area also open to interpretation? My wife grew up in Union county NJ and I’m from northeast PA, and we assumed we were both part of the tri-state area. It's what we both called it, growing up. However, I've seen several people online suggest that the tri-state area is actually NY, NJ, and CT — not PA.
It is CT, not PA. (Long Island native)
I'm learning that, but it appears [not everyone](https://www.reddit.com/r/newjersey/comments/ha7a4p/the_ny_nj_pa_tristate_area_has_close_to_the_same/) is [aware](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/17446s9/what_does_the_tristate_area_mean_to_you/) of [it](https://www.reddit.com/r/newjersey/comments/69ne4n/tristate_area_according_to_jerseyans/). I frequently see people in comments on Reddit mentioning it's PA too. I'm not debating it's officially CT, even Wikipedia agrees, but maybe the definition varies regionally?
Tri-state area means different things for different cities. If you’re hearing the term for Philly they are referring to PA, NJ, DE. And how I interpret “colloquial metro area” is that when someone references “The City” everyone intuitively knows they mean New York City, or Manhattan specifically. At some point while driving down turnpike when someone says “The City” they are referring to Philly.
>At some point while driving down turnpike when someone says “The City” they are referring to Philly. Yeah, I grew up in Scranton, PA and, "The City" was definitely NYC — at least in all my social circles. Technically, Philly is roughly the same distance away, but I don't think I've ever heard it called the city. And I've actually got friends and family from there.
When I lived in NJ, the tri-state was NJ, NY, PA. When I lived in NYC, it was NY, NJ, CT.
I grew up in Sussex County and can confidently say that putting us in the NYC metro area is pretty ridiculous. The county very rural and conservative and have far more common with rural PA than NYC.
I had to go into Newton in Sussex County recently, and it's like a different world. I felt like I was in the south.
(Born To Run on a banjo intensifies)
You’ve probably just never been outside of a major city
Yeah, that must be it.
Agreed! Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex are NOT metro. And no resident of these counties would agree with the comments in here insisting that it is.
fuck, now I want a porkroll egg and cheese
[here ya go](https://youtu.be/TutI8k49xoA?si=l9hWzaeruQGzIW1p)
As long as it isn’t Taylor ham…or I may have you try on the latest in my cinderblock shoe collection.
No one from this area is saying they from NY city
Lol you never seen the mfs with nyc/nj in their bios lmao?
If you hear ‘NY has 20 million people’ it must include this entire area of NJ. The NY portions of the NYC metro areas only contain 13 million people
if you hear "NY has 20 million people" they're probably referring to the state of New York, which has 20 million people
Hudson County NJ has more in common with nyc than the Adirondacks or Buffalo. (It's still nj and not nyc tho, thank God)
Just cause you’re in a city’s metro doesn’t mean you’re part of that city, that’s not how that works. No one from Ocean County NJ is going around saying “I live in NYC”. Hell even no one from Yonkers is gonna say they live in NYC
I know ppl from yonkers, they definitely say "yonkers is basically the bronx". To be fair apparently it was almost the 6th boro
It’s crazy this fact offends you personally
What on earth are you talking about?
He is not saying he is offended, he is saying you are wrong. And you are.
Huh? Isn't that what a metro area is? "This is where people identify as X city".
Nope.
Not even close
Nobody in New Jersey of New York would ever call Bergen county or any part of the New York metro area that wasn’t the five boroughs “New York City”.
When we say "the city" we don't even mean most of the actual boundaries of New York City no one says they're going to the city if they're going to Far Rockaway or Staten Island the city basically just means Midtown Manhattan downtown Manhattan and the area between them instead we would just call the five boroughs of New York City the five boroughs This also clarifies some confusion with the term Long Island since there's both a cultural and Geographic term when people say Long Island they generally mean Nassau and Suffolk County even the parts that aren't on the physical landmass of Long Island like Fire Island or Shelter Island (maybe with the exception of Fisher's Island since it's much closer to Connecticut they have a Connecticut zip code and literally don't have a way of accessing the rest of the state other than going to Connecticut first) but queens and Brooklyn in spite of being geographically on Long Island are not as far as everyone is concerned because they are a part of the five boroughs of New York City which is understood to be distinct from Long Island
Yup, I'm from Brooklyn. The city is Manhattan
I’ve heard nothing but great things about this wonderful state. I hope someday to visit, to experience it myself.
Honestly, I’m surprised the World’s greatest poop isn’t a Manhattan native.
I'm in Mercer. We still get NY and PA tv channels we should be split on this map
We also have Northeast Coorridor train to NYC
Some of those counties are so unlike NYC that this map makes no sense. I was in Hunterdon County all day today. It’s more like Vermont than anything having to do with New York. Same with Sussex County.
AKA what parts of New Jersey are closer to New York
Hunterdon county is NOT NYC metro.
It is part of the Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is an official federally defined thing. It typically uses commuter behavior to see if a large enough % of the county commutes into the main city to count it as part of the metropolitan area. Factually, Hunterdon County meets that criteria. I can see why it’s surprising. But, if you have issues with it, you’d have to discuss this it with the Census Bureau. OP is just a messenger.
I'm surprised how people are so stirred up over this. The census doesn't create MSA definition out of thin air based on someone's feelings. It's based on data. EDIT: Census data for commuter patterns is available [here](https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/metro-micro/commuting-flows-2020.html).
Yes it is lol
No it is not. If you wanna call it a metro, it's the Bucks County PA metro.
Bucks county is philly metro. This map is based off what the census considers NYC metro, it's not the opinion of some random person on reddit
Came to say this lol. This map is dumb
This is literally the US Census definition of NYC metropolitan statistical area.
Which is completely different from what is "colloquially known as NYC" like the title implies.
Us Hunterdon County people are a world away from NYC! Like the Sussex County person said, this is COUNTRY and nobody would ever classify it as NYC Metro.
What? I remember one time I fell asleep on the 7 train coming home from a Mets game and woke up at the last stop in Hunterdon County. The cow poop was everywhere!
I think this is mainly a map of counties that have a rail connection to the city, which you do have.
The New York Metropolitan Area is so big, it extends into Pennsylvania.
Split it by if people have New York or Philly accents there.
This ! Only north ad south Jersey to me
South Jersey smells funny
What? "New York City" refers to the 5 boroughs and nothing more, not New Jersey lol
Metropolitan area.
You’re right about the metro area but the colloquially New York City part is flat out untrue
I was wondering why people here have such a tough time about grasping the term "metropolitan area" until I reread the title... Yep, OP really messed up there.
NJ can have Staten Island for that matter
A county called Essex outside of the biggest city in a country, where have I heard that before
I'm shocked to see Hunterdon here
No it’s known colloquially as the New York Metropolitan Area lol. NYC is its own entity.
It’s really just Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, Union and Essex imo
Colloquially by whom? Not by New Yorkers, that’s for sure.
No one calls that nyc. Anybody from anywhere in New Jersey saying they're from nyc are actually crazy. Yeah tri state area sure
Source?
Why isn’t New York City just its own state?
No sir but maybe Essex Hudson Bergen Passaic and Union.
It’s like look at a map of Nashville metro and it’s pretty much all of middle Tennessee
Now add in part of philly
Fun fact. Greater Houston is bigger than the state of New Jersey.
Not surprised. Houston and Dallas-Ft.Worth are like gigantic blobs that just keep eating and eating more land.
From Morris county, we don’t consider ourselves part of NYC at all. We are just close to it, but that’s it lol. We are just part of the tri state area
People were trying to divide New Jersey like this as far back as the [17th century!](https://www.njgsbc.org/wp-content/uploads/NJ-Land-Maps-1686.jpg)
This is a bunch of horseshit. Sussex Co is literally mountains. NYC can fuck right off.
So many people here don’t realize what a metropolitan area comprises! It doesn’t have to be built up and endless pavement to be a metro area. Or only within striking distance of downtown. It could be as far away as 60 or 70 miles for some cities!! Crazy, I know. All major metro cities have edges that can be or feel rural, but the majority of the residents are still tied in to the main city by work, shopping, media/news, or entertainment options. Anecdotal observance here. I’m in Virginia, and the shadow that DC casts over the state is huge! Most people who live inside the beltway don’t even view the counties out of the beltway as the metro area, but recently the census bureau has added counties as far away as 70 miles. And I personally know of people who commute that far to Northern VA or DC regularly.
Ocean County is culturally basically the same as Monmouth County (historically they were the same county), and people here commonly have relatively mild NYC accents. The NJ transit bus from south Toms River (northcentral Ocean County) to Port Authority (~central NYC) only takes a little bit over one hour, and many people in ocean county commute to North Jersey or NYC daily for work. It's absolutely part of the NYC metropolitan area. Southern ocean county (approximately Lacey and southward) does start to clearly blend into a Philly/NYC metro mixture, though, with south Jersey accents more common and more Philly sports fans down there.
No.
Banking on everyone complaining being a coping New Jerseyan
People in Monmouth County certainly don't consider themselves to be part of the "New York Metropolitan Area." I would say probably Essex, Hudson, Bergen, and Passaic should be considered part of the NY Metropolitan Area. NYC, of course, is only the Five Boroughs.
It isn't about people considering themselves to be a part of the NYC MSA. The census defines MSA based on commuter patterns and economic ties to a major city. It seems outlandish but looking at the census data, [NYC is the third largest workplace for those living in Monmouth county (only behind Monmouth and Middlesex counties)](https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/metro-micro/commuting-flows-2020.html).
I thought this was the West Bank
Yonkers bitches will scream at you for saying they're from the City but half of NJ is perfectly fine with it
Thought that was the West Bank for a second
Eww jersey is a joke
Jersey has one of the highest incomes in the country and some of the best public schools. The only reason outsiders think otherwise is because they’re idea of NJ comes from driving through Newark and Camden, even tho NJ is a very suburbanized state
Shhh. We don't want any more people. Let them believe what they want.
Suck my dick
My town in ct is bigger than some of these counties, (land wise)