Community Corner
Best and Worst Small Cities in Connecticut: Report
WalletHub has ranked 1,268 small cities in the United States: Many Connecticut communities are included.
WalletHub is back with one of its most popular annual rankings — the Best and Worst Small Cities in America.
WalletHub, a personal finance website, studied 1,268 small cities in the United States with a population between 25,000 to 100,000 in its 2015 rankings.
It examined 22 different metrics, which are divided up into four categories including: affordability, economic health, education and health, and quality of life.
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Affordability includes: housing costs, cost of living and home ownership rate.
Economic health includes: unemployment rate, median household income, population and income growth.
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Education and health includes: quality schools, percentage of residents with bachelor’s degree, percentage of population with health insurance coverage, and the number of pediatricians.
Quality of life includes: commute time, hours worked in a week, number of restaurants, bars, museums, restaurants, coffee shops, fitness centers, and a community’s crime rate.
The best small city in the United States, according to WalletHub, is located in Princeton, N.J., followed by Littleton, Colorado; Dublin, Ohio; Brookfield, Wisconsin; and Leafwood, Kansas.
The worst 10 small cities in America are all located in California, according to WalletHub.
How did Connecticut fare?
Connecticut entered the list with Wethersfield placing 123rd out of 1,268 small cities across the United State. Wethersfield was ranked 40th best in the nation in the category of education and health. (For definitions of the categories see above.)
Here are the rest of Connecticut’s small city rankings:
No. 144, Westport, which ranked 53rd best nationally for its economic health
No. 163, Manchester, which ranked 48th best nationally for its economic health
No. 258, Newington
No. 330, Shelton, which ranked 300th nationally for its economic health
No. 342, West Hartford, which ranked 246th best in education and health
No. 347, Milford, which ranked 240th best in education and health
No. 446, Middletown, which ranked 86th best in education and health
No. 528, Trumbull, which ranked 261st best in its economic health and 283rd best in education and health
No. 539, East Haven, which ranked 155th best in education and health
No. 560, Danbury, which ranked 354th best in education and health
No. 566, Torrington
No. 637, Stratford, which ranked 482nd best in education and health
No. 652, Norwalk, which ranked 364th best in education and health
No. 652, Naugatuck which ranked 135th best in education and health
No. 695, Meriden, which ranked 166th best in education and health
No. 702, East Hartford
No. 731, Bristol
No. 919, Norwich
No. 958, West Haven
No. 1,038, New Britain
Other notable national stats from the report:
- The homeownership rate in Granger, Ind., is 5 times higher than in Union City, NJ.
- The percentage of residents below poverty level in Statesboro, Ga., is 25 times higher than in Trumbull, CT.
Photo credit: Mr. KLF via flickr creative commons.
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