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Place dossier plate
SheetCT-WATERTOWN-CT · Watertown, CT 4,215 pop · income 77th 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 Watertown
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Watertown on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mount Pleasant · lowest
48,963
Mount Pleasant · lowest
48,963 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #1
Fenton · near
97,991
Fenton · near
97,991 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #2
Palermo · near
98,000
Palermo · near
98,000 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #3
McConnellstown · near
98,000
McConnellstown · near
98,000 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #4
Watertown · this city
98,003
Watertown · this city
98,003 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #5
Saginaw · near
98,003
Saginaw · near
98,003 median HH income
67.1% of the leader · rank #6
Mystic · highest
146,042
Mystic · highest
146,042 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 Watertown 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: 4,215.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Watertown - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Watertown lands in the 77th percentile for household income and the 57th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
77th
percentile, household income
61st
percentile, home value
86th
percentile, median rent
57th
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: Watertown, CT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 4,215 residents in Watertown, a small town within Connecticut. Households in Watertown report a median income of $98,003 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.5%. Typical homes in Watertown are valued around $278,500, and the median resident age is 42.5 years. 40.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 67.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Watertown reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1164.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Connecticut's average monthly utility costs around $345 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 87.6 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Watertown'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 work and mobility to housing and income to schools and households to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Watertown, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Watertown?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Watertown?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the education layer cover for Watertown?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 40.4% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Watertown?
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 Danielson (4,185 residents, $71,672 income); Long Hill CDP (Southeastern Connecticut County) (4,292 residents, $84,338 income); Collinsville (4,001 residents, $104,808 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Broken Bow, OK (4,215 residents); Mount Pleasant, PA (4,215 residents); Bay Hill, FL (4,214 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Watertown?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1164.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 49% lower 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.
Total reported rate
1164.0
Violent rate
13.4
Property rate
1150.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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.
Violent crime A+
13 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income B+
$98,003
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Watertown profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 94/100 (A+) · 13 /100k
Household income: 76/100 (B+) · $98,003
Bachelor's+ share: 75/100 (B+) · 40.4%
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.5%
Cost of living: 24/100 (F) · 103.6 index
Where Watertown sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Watertown'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 - Watertown highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Watertown, CT (this city): home $278,500, crime 1,164/100k
Broken Bow, OK : home $159,000, crime 4,924/100k
Mount Pleasant, PA : home $131,700, crime 24/100k
Cannon Falls, MN : home $262,100, crime 1,192/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Watertown compare to other US cities?
Where Watertown sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income77% higher than other cities
Home value61% pricier than other cities
Median rent86% pricier than other cities
Safety57% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Connecticut alone, Watertown ranks #21 of 47 Connecticut cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Watertown 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 Watertown near the bottom of Connecticut's cities
Among the 207 Connecticut cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Watertown ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Watertown only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#106 of 198
46th percentile in Connecticut
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 207
0th percentile in Connecticut
Median Home Value
#140 of 201
30th percentile in Connecticut
Poverty Rate
#22 of 204
89th percentile in Connecticut
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#126 of 207
38th 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
77th percentile nationally for median household income · 57th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Watertown's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Watertown'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 Watertown's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$278,50039th percentilemore affordable than 39% 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
Watertown's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,818 of 15,516
More affordable than 63% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,027 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Watertown sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,818 of 15,516 and #5,027 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$98,003Watertown, CT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Watertown, 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 Watertown, CT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,215
Median Income
$98,003
Median Home Value
$278,500
Median Age
42.5
Poverty Rate
14.5%
Labor force participation
67.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1164.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
13.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1150.6
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
2
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.8%
Carpool
10.5%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
5.3%
Work from Home
9.9%
Other
0.7%
Based on 2,236 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 Watertown. 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 Watertown 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 Watertown sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Watertown 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.