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Place dossier plate
SheetCT-NEW-HAVEN-CT · New Haven, CT 132,893 pop · income 25th pct · 136 tracts
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 New Haven
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Haven on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hartford · lowest
45,300
Hartford · lowest
45,300 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #1
Scranton · near
53,767
Scranton · near
53,767 median HH income
50.0% of the leader · rank #2
New Haven · this city
53,771
New Haven · this city
53,771 median HH income
50.0% of the leader · rank #3
Southern View · near
53,774
Southern View · near
53,774 median HH income
50.0% of the leader · rank #4
Thibodaux · near
53,775
Thibodaux · near
53,775 median HH income
50.0% of the leader · rank #5
Strabane · near
53,775
Strabane · near
53,775 median HH income
50.0% of the leader · rank #6
Stamford · highest
107,474
Stamford · highest
107,474 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for New Haven on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 132,893.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
New Haven - the verdict
Nationally, New Haven sits in the 25th percentile for household income and the 7th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
25th
percentile, household income
56th
percentile, home value
86th
percentile, median rent
7th
percentile, safety
📝 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: New Haven, CT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 132,893 residents in New Haven, a mid-sized U.S. city within Connecticut. The typical household in New Haven brings in $53,771 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 18.3%. Typical homes in New Haven are valued around $249,000, and the median resident age is 31.9 years. About 37.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 521 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 25% from five years earlier. New Haven's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 4121.9 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Connecticut carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 103.6 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,955 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Connecticut run around $345, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 18.4 minutes, with 58.1% driving alone and 12.2% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 87.6 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of New Haven'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 population change to reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For New Haven, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is New Haven growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +9,455 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +7.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 521 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
What can the FBI record say about safety in New Haven?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4121.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 81% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Which cities make useful reference points for New Haven?
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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Connecticut, the closest population matches are Stamford (135,806 residents, $107,474 income); Hartford (119,970 residents, $45,300 income); Bridgeport (148,012 residents, $56,584 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Carrollton, TX (132,741 residents); Sterling Heights, MI (133,473 residents); Coral Springs, FL (133,962 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.
What can 136 Census tracts reveal inside New Haven?
PlainCities matches 136 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in New Haven?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 58.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 18.4 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
58.1%
Work from home
12.2%
Public transit
6.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 62,282 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for New Haven?
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.
The NCES join finds 42 public schools within the city match. 37.7% 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.
Poverty estimate
18.3%
Bachelor's degree+
37.7%
Matched public schools
42
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in New Haven?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 18.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
4.6×
Home value
$249,000
Household income
$53,771
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 18.3% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.6 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Connecticut average
F
City profile score · New Haven, CT
28/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
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.
Bachelor's+ share B
37.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$53,771
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.
Poverty rate F
18.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
535 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
New Haven profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 71/100 (B) · 37.7%
Household income: 25/100 (F) · $53,771
Cost of living: 24/100 (F) · 103.6 index
Poverty rate: 16/100 (F) · 18.3%
Violent crime: 14/100 (F) · 535 /100k
Where New Haven sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
New Haven's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - New Haven highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
New Haven, CT (this city): home $249,000, crime 4,122/100k
Carrollton, TX : home $353,600, crime 1,453/100k
Sterling Heights, MI : home $260,700, crime 1,272/100k
Coral Springs, FL : home $502,700, crime 1,230/100k
Midland, TX : home $298,600, crime 1,977/100k
Kent, WA : home $537,500, crime 4,261/100k
Elizabeth, NJ : home $393,500, crime 3,066/100k
Stamford, CT : home $614,300, crime 1,383/100k
Hartford, CT : home $217,200, crime 3,361/100k
Bridgeport, CT : home $252,400, crime 1,862/100k
Waterbury, CT : home $185,400, crime 3,241/100k
Norwalk, CT : home $535,000, crime 1,590/100k
Danbury, CT : home $381,600, crime 1,519/100k
How does New Haven compare to other US cities?
New Haven measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income25% higher than other cities
Home value56% pricier than other cities
Median rent86% pricier than other cities
Safety7% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Connecticut and the picture shifts: New Haven ranks #47 of 47 Connecticut cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares New Haven 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 New Haven near the bottom of Connecticut's cities
Among the 207 Connecticut cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Haven ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Haven only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#187 of 198
6th percentile in Connecticut
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 207
0th percentile in Connecticut
Median Home Value
#156 of 201
22nd percentile in Connecticut
Poverty Rate
#13 of 204
93rd percentile in Connecticut
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#137 of 207
34th 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
25th percentile nationally for median household income · 7th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
New Haven's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
New Haven's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How New Haven's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$249,00044th percentilemore affordable than 44% 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
New Haven's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,244 of 15,516
More affordable than 21% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#406 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.6×, New Haven sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,244 of 15,516 and #406 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$53,771New Haven, CT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Haven, 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 New Haven, CT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)18.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
132,893
Median Income
$53,771
Median Home Value
$249,000
Median Age
31.9
Poverty Rate
18.3%
Labor force participation
59.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4121.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
534.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3587.1
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
42
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
New Haven's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
129,319 residents
2021
134,118 residents
2022
134,622 residents
2023
135,993 residents
2024
137,888 residents
2025
138,774 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
521
housing units authorized
Single-Family
10
detached homes
Multifamily
511
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
699
4
695
$79.9M
2020
738
16
722
$38.1M
2021
299
13
286
$26.1M
2022
501
10
491
$96.9M
2023
561
8
553
$62.3M
2024
521
10
511
$58.0M
Permit volume decreased 25% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
18.4 minutes
Drive Alone
58.1%
Carpool
7.5%
Public Transit
6.9%
Walk
12.0%
Work from Home
12.2%
Other
3.3%
Based on 62,282 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 New Haven. 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 New Haven 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 New Haven sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Haven 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, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, 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.