$100k a Year Is Lower-Middle Class in New Jersey, Analysis Finds. Here's How Your County Compares

For a lot of families, $100,000 a year is the number that's supposed to mean you made it. In New Jersey, it lands you in the lower-middle class.

That's the finding of an April analysis by MoneyLion, which found 12 states where a six-figure household income still sits in the bottom third of the middle class. New Jersey ranks second, behind only Massachusetts. Maryland, Hawaii, California, New Hampshire, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Connecticut, Alaska and Virginia round out the list.

The math starts with the Pew Research Center's definition of the middle class: two-thirds to double a state's median household income. MoneyLion split that range into thirds. New Jersey's median household income is $104,294, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey. That puts the state's middle class between $69,529 and $208,588, and the lower-middle tier tops out at $115,882. JerseyTalks checked those figures against the Census data, and they match.

So why isn't New York on the list? Its statewide median household income is $85,820, which takes in Buffalo, Syracuse and the rest of upstate along with the five boroughs. Run the same formula and New York's lower-middle class stops at $95,356, so $100,000 there counts as solidly middle class. The line moves with each state's median, not with what a household feels it can afford.

The gap inside New Jersey is just as wide. JerseyTalks applied the same method to Census 2024 median household income for all 21 counties. In Morris County, the lower-middle class runs up to $152,914. Hunterdon ($152,112) and Somerset ($149,471) are close behind, followed by Bergen ($135,813) and Monmouth ($134,743). At the other end, the line stops at $75,630 in Cumberland County and $83,454 in Atlantic County. By these estimates, $100,000 falls in the lower-middle class in 16 of the 21 counties, but not in Passaic, Essex, Salem, Atlantic or Cumberland. County figures are survey estimates with margins of error, so counties near the line, such as Camden and Warren, could land on either side of it.

One caution: this yardstick compares a household with its neighbors' incomes. It doesn't measure rent, child care or taxes. MoneyLion also published separate cost-of-living estimates for each state. The Census Bureau's next one-year income figures will show whether the line keeps climbing.

Sources: MoneyLion; U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, median household income (table B19013).

Graphic: JerseyTalks, from U.S. Census Bureau cartographic boundary files.