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Place dossier plate
SheetCT-COLCHESTER-CT · Colchester, CT 4,624 pop · income 61st pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Colchester
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Colchester on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Buhl · lowest
46,217
Buhl · lowest
46,217 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #1
Narragansett… · near
79,683
Narragansett… · near
79,683 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #2
Colchester · this city
79,685
Colchester · this city
79,685 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #3
Flint Hill · near
79,688
Flint Hill · near
79,688 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #4
Bloomville · near
79,688
Bloomville · near
79,688 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #5
Markleysburg · near
79,688
Markleysburg · near
79,688 median HH income
53.6% of the leader · rank #6
Blue Point · highest
148,684
Blue Point · highest
148,684 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Colchester on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 4,624.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Colchester places in the 61st percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
61st
percentile, household income
62nd
percentile, home value
86th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Colchester, CT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 4,624 residents in Colchester, a small town within Connecticut. Households in Colchester report a median income of $79,685 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 2.7%. Home values in Colchester run a median of $280,500, and the median resident age is 52.0 years. About 34.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 54.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 4 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Connecticut carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Connecticut at 103.6 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,955 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $345 across Connecticut, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 87.6 out of 100 (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Colchester's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Colchester, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Colchester?
Within Connecticut, the closest population matches are Lake Pocotopaug (4,715 residents, $108,430 income); Heritage (4,517 residents, $53,266 income); Stafford Springs (4,801 residents, $70,967 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Buhl, ID (4,624 residents); Michigan Center, MI (4,623 residents); Boiling Springs, NC (4,625 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
How far does income reach against housing in Colchester?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
What does the education layer cover for Colchester?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 34.4% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
What does the journey to work look like in Colchester?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 70.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Poverty rate A-
2.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B-
34.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C
$79,685
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living F
103.6 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Colchester profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 81/100 (A-) · 2.7%
Bachelor's+ share: 66/100 (B-) · 34.4%
Household income: 59/100 (C) · $79,685
Cost of living: 24/100 (F) · 103.6 index
How does Colchester compare to other US cities?
Where Colchester sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income61% higher than other cities
Home value62% pricier than other cities
Median rent86% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Colchester against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Connecticut only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Connecticut-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Colchester near the bottom of Connecticut's cities
Among the 207 Connecticut cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Colchester ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Colchester only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#144 of 198
27th percentile in Connecticut
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 207
0th percentile in Connecticut
Median Home Value
#136 of 201
32nd percentile in Connecticut
Poverty Rate
#106 of 204
47th percentile in Connecticut
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#150 of 207
28th percentile in Connecticut
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Connecticut only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
61st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Colchester's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$280,50038th percentilemore affordable than 38% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Colchester's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,045 of 15,516
More affordable than 42% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,288 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Colchester sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,045 of 15,516 and #7,288 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$79,685Colchester, CT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Colchester, CT median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Colchester, CT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)34.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,624
Median Income
$79,685
Median Home Value
$280,500
Median Age
52.0
Poverty Rate
2.7%
Labor force participation
54.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
34.4%
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
70.6%
Carpool
6.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
15.7%
Other
4.6%
Based on 2,187 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Connecticut statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $345
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Connecticut at $345 (electricity about $175 , water and sewer about $60 ).
These are Connecticut statewide averages, not a meter reading for Colchester. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Connecticut's BEA cost-of-living index is 103.6 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Colchester is $1,955/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Connecticut statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 87.6 / 100 (Very High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Connecticut statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Colchester sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Colchester compares to similar-size Connecticut cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.