Direct allocation
The source names the government receiving an award or certified funding allocation.
Used for State Aid and NJDOT Local Aid.Data methodology
How to read the county data.
The county assigned to a figure depends on what the source measures. It may identify the government receiving aid, the municipality issuing permits, or where residents live. Each measure explains how its figures are assigned to counties.
County assignment
How figures are assigned to counties
Municipal aggregation
Municipal figures are added to county totals. Census identifiers link each municipality to its county.
Used for housing permits.Recipient residence
The figure describes people in the county where they live.
Used for county unemployment.Regional or unresolved
The source names a region or multiple jurisdictions. These amounts are kept separately and excluded from county comparisons.
Used when checking Local Aid totals.Totals and population
Totals and rates answer different questions.
Totals show the number of homes authorized or the amount of aid. Values per resident or per 1,000 residents help compare counties of different sizes.
Population-based values use Census estimates from the reporting year when available. State Aid uses the preceding year's estimate. If the needed estimate is unavailable, the site uses the most recent earlier estimate and shows its year. It leaves the value unavailable when no earlier estimate exists.
Unemployment is already a rate. Its annual change is shown in percentage points. Annual changes in dollar amounts and counts are shown as percentages.
What we do not calculate
- We do not combine the measures into an overall county score or ranking.
- We do not assign aid to counties based on vendor, employee, or mailing addresses.
- We do not estimate values that a source reports as missing or suppressed.
- Dollar amounts are not adjusted for inflation.
Quality and status
Data checks and missing values
Before publication, we check reporting coverage, geographic identifiers, duplicate records, and agreement with source totals where available. The site keeps each source's data status, including final, revised, preliminary, missing, and suppressed. Missing values are shown as unavailable, not zero.
New Jersey comparisons for Local Aid include only awards assigned to a county. Awards for regions or multiple jurisdictions are recorded separately and excluded from these comparisons.
Each measure and display mode uses the same map color range across all years. Changing the year does not change what a color means. Annual change maps use separate colors for increases and decreases, with zero at the center of the scale.
Accessibility
- Every map has a table with the same values.
- You can select a county from a dropdown.
- You can use the keyboard to focus counties on the map and read their values.
- Labels, values, and data status explain the map alongside its colors.