Happy Birthday Connecticut

On January 9, 2020, Connecticut will celebrate 232 years as the 3rd state admitted to the union. To celebrate, we used Data-Z (formerly State Data Lab) to find fun facts about Connecticut and to learn more about the Constitution State.

Connecticut is ranked 48th in our 2019 Financial State of the States report. The state needs $67.8 billion to pay its bills. The state was also the lowest-scoring state on our Financial Transparency Report, scoring only 50 out of 100 available points.

Connecticut’s taxpayer burden is $51,800. This is the amount of money the state needs to cover its bills divided by the number of taxpayers.

Connecticut has an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, which is 8 percent higher than the 50 state average.

In 2017, the Constitution State spent $57 million on parks and recreation. This is divided between the 160 state parks.

The state also spent $1.69 billion on its 440 miles of highways that same year.

In Connecticut, the median value for a home is $273,000, this is $50,000 higher than the 50 state average.

Connecticut spent $250 million on police protection expenditures. The state has 92 municipal police departments.

The poverty rate in CT is 10 percent, which is lower than the 50 state average 12.1 of percent. However, the child poverty rate is higher than average at 17.8 percent.

In Hartford, it is illegal for a man to kiss his wife on Sunday. This is bad news for the 47 percent of the population who are married.

Thirty-nine percent of Connecticut’s 25 and older population have a bachelor's degree and 17 percent have an advanced degree. There are 44 colleges and universities in Connecticut enrolling 129,609 full-time students.

You can learn more about Connecticut and make your own charts using Data-Z. And we at Truth in Accounting wish Connecticut a very happy 232nd birthday!

Kate Brennan is a marketing and social media intern at Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago that researches government financial data.