Dentist salary in New Jersey: $171,330 median.
Pay for dentists across New Jersey at every point of the range, against the U.S., the states it borders and the state's metro areas.
Dentists in New Jersey earned a median annual wage of $171,330 in May 2025, compared with $170,950 nationally, according to the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey (SOC 29-1021). That is about the same as the U.S. median; the middle half of New Jersey workers in this occupation earned between $132,710 and $260,000.
- New Jersey median
- $171,330
- $82.37 an hour
- U.S. median
- $170,950
- about the same in New Jersey
- Rank among states
- 21 of 47
- states with a published median
- Employed in New Jersey
- 2,980
- location quotient 0.87
Advice For a pay conversation in New Jersey, the state median ($171,330) is the sourced middle of the market; the 25th–75th percentile band ($132,710–$260,000) is where half of the state's workers in this occupation fall. Experience, employer, metro and specialty move individual offers within and beyond that band.
New Jersey vs the U.S. at every point of the range
Data Annual wages at five points of the pay distribution, SOC 29-1021, BLS May 2025.
| Point in the pay range | New Jersey | United States | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $77,920 | $86,250 | -10% |
| 25th percentile | $132,710 | $125,710 | +6% |
| Median | $171,330 | $170,950 | about the same |
| 75th percentile | $260,000 | $224,040 | +16% |
| 90th percentile | $349,780 | $319,630 | +9% |
Data The local range is shifted unevenly: the bottom and top move in opposite directions from the national range (-10% at the 10th percentile, +9% at the 90th). Locally, the 90th-percentile wage is 4.49 times the 10th-percentile wage, versus 3.71 times nationally, so pay is more spread out than it is nationally.
How common the job is in New Jersey
Data BLS location quotient: the occupation's share of state employment divided by its share of U.S. employment.
Data The BLS location quotient for this occupation in New Jersey is 0.87, so it is close to the national concentration (1.00 = the same share as nationally). That is about 0.7 jobs per 1,000 jobs in the state.
New Jersey vs the states it borders
Data Same occupation, same BLS release. A higher median elsewhere is not a job offer; cost of living differs.
| State | Median annual wage | vs New Jersey | Employment |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $183,060 | +7% | 7,340 |
| New Jersey | $171,330 | 2,980 | |
| Pennsylvania | $163,390 | -5% | 4,460 |
Where dentists earn the highest medians
Data Highest state medians among the 47 of the 50 states and DC with a published median, BLS May 2025. New Jersey ranks 21.
See every state on the national Dentist salary page.
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How this page is built
BLS OEWS May 2025 state estimates for New Jersey and national estimates for SOC 29-1021 (Dentists, General). The pay ladder compares the same five published percentiles; the difference column is the local value minus the U.S. value, divided by the U.S. value. Ranks compare published state medians across the 50 states and DC. Employment counts people working in the occupation (excluding the self-employed), not job openings. BLS publishes sampling error for these estimates: the employment estimate has a relative standard error of 20.0%. Lower is more precise; BLS does not publish a standard error for the median itself. Searches this page answers include “dentist salary nj”, “dentist salary new jersey”, “how much does a dentist make in nj” (Ahrefs, U.S.).
- Cost of living: wages are not adjusted for local prices.
- Pay at a specific employer, in one city, or for self-employed workers.
- Local outlook: BLS projections are national.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 state and national estimates (2018 SOC), public domain.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
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