You’ll be shocked to know where New Jersey ranks in terms of culture among the 50 states

A report just came out that for someone like me who was born and raised in New Jersey, this was kind of a drop-the-mic moment.

We are constantly criticized by the rest of the country. We have been called “the armpit of the United States.”

I remember when I was a teenager, I was waiting outside Madison Square Garden for a concert and I was talking to a guy who was from Brooklyn. When I told him I was from New Jersey, he had no idea where that was. I still remember his exact words. “Isn’t that in western Pennsylvania or something?”

Yeah, man, we definitely had better schools than you too.

So when you’ve grown up as a kid and endured as an adult the constant nonsense about how terrible life must be in New Jersey, with its landfills and smokestacks and so on, a report that just came out about our cultural ranking in America was really nice to see.

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A data analysis by Rustic Pathways, a student travel site, ranked all 50 states in terms of culture. They took into account things like museums, historic landmarks, performance venues, etc. and their number per population and per square mile.

Well, you wouldn’t know that New Jersey is the sixth most cultured state in the country. Not bad when the rest of the country seems to think we’re all pollution and bowling alleys.

We are distinguished by our 58 national historic monuments and our more than 600 galleries and museums.

Yes, because we are geographically small and wedged between the two major cities of New York and Philadelphia, we tend to get overlooked. But we have a fascinating history and clearly more culture than almost anywhere else. Who beats us? First through fifth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, and New York. The least cultural state is Nevada.

In fact, the only downside to living in New Jersey is that politicians have made it too expensive to live here. If we can fix that, maybe the jokes will stop.

The opinions expressed in the above post are solely those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski.

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