Connecticut is home to many a wealthy city; indeed, some of the richest cities in the United States can be found in Connecticut. Western Connecticut, in particular, is a hub of wealthy cities, complete with high incomes and high home values. There is, not coincidentally, a close association with Western Connecticut towns and New York City.
Recently, we analyzed and identified the richest cities in New Hampshire. Now, it is the turn of Connecticut. This study analyzed 210 cities in Connecticut in terms of their median household income, mean (average) household income, median home value, and median property taxes paid per year, to come up with a list of the 50 richest cities in the state.
Read on to find out what the richest city in Connecticut is, plus the top 50 wealthiest cities in the state overall.
What Are the Richest Cities in Connecticut?
In order to compile this list of the richest cities in Connecticut, we sourced key financial data from the Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey. Armed with these datasets, we constructed a four-factor scoring system to help identify the wealthiest cities in Connecticut:
- Median household income
- Mean (average) household income
- Median home value
- Median property taxes paid
When it comes to Census data, there are a few quirks to bear in mind: For certain factors, the Census numbers have upper limits, so there’s no exact value for certain factors. For example, for median household income, the Census Bureau has an upper limit of “$250,000+”. For median home value, the upper limit is “$2,000,000+”. For median property taxes paid, the upper limit is “$10,000+”. For these reasons, the mean household income (which is the same as average household income) dataset is crucial because the Census Bureau has exact figures for it. All four of these metrics were scored, added up, and then ranked by the cities’ combined scores.
Another aspect of the Census to point out, and is particularly relevant to Connecticut, is the Census-designated place — CDP. The Census, more or less, treats CDPs as cities — their terminology is “place” — and so will this list of the richest cities in Connecticut. But if you see cities on this list that you see as, say, neighborhoods, you’re not wrong; they just happen to be treated as cities by the Census Bureau.
Below you’ll find a table detailing the top 50 richest cities in Connecticut and their respective dollar figures for each metric:
The No. 1 richest city in Connecticut in this ranking is Tokeneke, a CDP within the town of Darien. This is not a big place, though it’s larger than many other cities on our list, being home to 766 households. Here’s a place where the median household income is in excess of $250,000. Tokeneke also boasts the highest mean household income in Connecticut, at $588,687. The median home value in Tokeneke is greater than $2 million, as reported by the Census Bureau. Not surprisingly, the median property taxes paid per household is in excess of $10,000 a year.
Riverside is a CDP located in Greenwich, which lies in Fairfield County. This is the second richest city in Connecticut. In terms of employment, Management Occupations account for more than a quarter of the workforce (26.8%), followed Business & Financial Operations Occupations (16.8%). The top-employing industries are Finance & Insurance (24.2% workforce), Health Care & Social Assistance (13.7% workforce), and Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services (13.5% workforce), according to DataUSA. The median household income here also surpasses $250,000, while its average household income is $399,039. Homeowners shell out more than $10,000 in property taxes per year. According to Zillow, the median home value in Riverside is over $2.3 million.
The No. 3 richest city in Connecticut is Green Farms, another CDP, which is the oldest neighborhood in the town of Westport. Green Farms is a sizeable place by the standards of this list, being home to 1,032 households. Like the No. 1 and No. 2 richest cities, the median household income in Green Farms is in excess of $250,000. Its mean household income is quite high, at $450,775. According to Census data, the reported median home value is nearly $1.2 million, but is most likely even higher as of today (Zillow does not have current data on Green Farms). Not coincidentally, households pay more than $10,000 a year in property taxes.
The Bottom Line on the Richest Cities in Connecticut
Connecticut may be home to plenty of wealthy cities, but like any other state, it has its fair share of poorer areas. One of the largest cities in Connecticut, and its state capital — Hartford — has a median household income of only $41,841. The comparably sized city of Waterbury has a median household income of just $45,968.
Geographically, there is a distinct pattern of Western Connecticut cities being centers of wealth. What’s more, Connecticut has one of the highest proportions of cities in which the median property taxes paid per year is over $10,000 per household. Despite its decline in population and middle-class wealth, ever since the turn of the millennium, Connecticut has maintained an alarmingly high level of income inequality, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).