20 CT Communities Among Top 50 Percent of Best Small Cities in U.S., Analysis Finds

Twenty Connecticut communities are among the top 50 percent in a ranking of the Best Small Cities in America, according to a new analysis. The Connecticut municipalities were led by Westport, Wethersfield, Shelton, and West Hartford.

In the analysis, which included more 1,200 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 across 43 key indicators of livability,  Westport ranked in the 97th percentile, Wethersfield in the 92nd percentile, Shelton in the 91st percentile, and West Hartford in the 89th percentile.  The analysis was done by the financial services website WalletHub.

The other Connecticut communities at the 50th percentile or above include Newington, Stratford, Milford, Trumbull, Torrington, Manchester, Bristol, Middletown, Naugatuck, Norwalk, Danbury, East Hartford, Meriden, Norwich, East Haven, New London.

The website notes that “city growth is slowing down while suburbanization is rising, and movement out of cities is spurred by fear of COVID-19 this year.”   The analysts add that “in addition to providing a greater degree of social isolation during the pandemic, small-city life can be best for those who appreciate more wiggle room, fewer degrees of separation and shorter commutes, to name just a few of its advantages.”

The nearly four dozen categories of data included in the analysis range from housing costs and school-system quality to restaurants per capita and COVID-19 cases in the last seven days per 100,000 residents.  The categories were divided into four sub-groups:  affordability, economic health, education & health, and quality of life.  Rankings were developed for each of the sub-groups and were also included on the WalletHub website. 

In Economic Health, which included nine categories, three Connecticut communities were ranked in the top 100:  the highest ranked was Westport at number 21, followed by Milford at number 83 and West Hartford at number 92. 

In Education & Health, Middletown was ranked sixth among the nation’s 1,200+ small cities, Torrington was number 50, Westport was number 70, Trumbull was ranked at 83 and Norwich at 90.

In affordability, the highest ranked Connecticut community was Trumbull, at number 243.  In Quality of Life, Manchester ranked highest among Connecticut municipalities to make the list, at number 152.  And in the Safety rankings, Westport was number 39 nationally, joined by Shelton at number 58 in the top 100. 

Among the 43 categories, Trumbull was the ranked at number 2, tied with two other communities with the lowest percentage of population in poverty, according to WalletHub. 

Data used to create the ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Areavibes, TransUnion, TripAdvisor, RealtyTrac, County Health Rankings, Yelp, The New York Times and WalletHub research.