The 5 most rural counties in New Jersey

Growing up in rural South Jersey I've come accustomed to thinking all of New Jersey is rural.

Basically the complete opposite of what everyone who flies in to Newark Airport for the first time might think. They see all of the industrial build-up around there and assume that's all that Jersey has to offer. Boy, are they wrong.

New Jersey has some of the most beautiful rural communities (I could never live in a city) so that's why when Stacker came up with a list of the most rural counties in NJ I was really intrigued.

According to the article on Stacker, here's how they measured the most rural counties.

"Stacker compiled a list of the most rural counties in New Jersey using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Counties are ranked by the percent of land area that is rural, as of the 2010 Census, with ties broken by residents per square mile, according to 2020 5-year population estimates."

So, which five counties were considered the most rural? Here's what they found.

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#5 Cumberland County

Cumberland had 86.1% of rural area in the county. No surprise, being that it's a South Jersey county and they're typically more rural. You'll see some more South Jersey counties on this list upcoming.

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#4 Hunterdon County

Hunterdon had 86.2% rural area. So just barely ahead of Cumberland County. This one came as a slight surprise to me. I wasn't aware of just how rural it was.

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#3 Sussex County

86.9% of this county has rural area. It's no surprise that it's also one of the most gorgeous counties in New Jersey.

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#2 Warren County

The forgotten NJ county. Warren has 90.2% rural area. This too is one of the most gorgeous spots in the state. If you've never made the trip up to Warren or Sussex County, I highly recommend that you do.

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#1 Salem County

We make the trip back to southern NJ for the top spot on this list. Salem County had a whopping 93.4% of rural area. It also had the lowest population density of any county in New Jersey.

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Everything is costing more these days — and housing is certainly no exception in New Jersey.

Data for 2022 from January through August, compiled by New Jersey Realtors, shows that South Jersey has been seeing homes hit the market and sell in less than a month, on average.

Median prices for single-family homes have reached $500,000 and above in nine counties in North and Central Jersey.

All but two counties have seen houses go for more than the list price, on average, this year.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5's Kyle Clark. Any opinions expressed are his own.

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