True Poverty 2021

The TPL Study (referred to as Real Cost of Living in previous publications) is based on the nationally established Self-Sufficiency Standard methodology pioneered by Dr. Diana Pearce. LSNJ produced the first cost-of-living report for New Jersey in 1999. This report is the sixth in the series and updates the data for 2019. In this study, PRI is advancing a new, more inclusive measure that reveals nearly three million New Jerseyans, including 800,000 children, — almost a third of the state's population —were living in deprivation or "True Poverty" even before the pandemic. The report finds that, on average, majority of New Jerseyans need at least 300% of the federal poverty level to meet basic needs to avoid falling into True Poverty or deprivation.