New Haven, Connecticut
Area Profile
134,349 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for New Haven, in South Central Connecticut Planning Region.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 13 sourcesEmployment conditions sit below most comparable cities measured: unemployment is 7.0% and the Opportunity signal places New Haven in the bottom 2%.
In the public schools here, 22% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.0 students for every teacher.
Residential permitting has slowed: 274 units authorized over the past twelve months, 22% below the prior year.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 7.0% — higher than in all but 4% of the 4,226 measured US cities.
Employment fell 4.0% over the past year, to 64,416 employed residents.
39% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 80% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsSouth Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $74,908 | 54th percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftSouth Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $83,737 | 69th percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$4,2542024 ACS 5-Year | $56,851 | Bottom 34%of 29,223 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,3422024 ACS 5-Year | $36,242 | Top 42%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 22.7% | Bottom 18%of 31,773 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±0.8 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 23.6 min | Top 33%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 38.9% | Top 20%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 55.8% | 9th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentJuly 2026 | 64,416 | Top 49%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)July 2026 | −4.1% | Bottom 7%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)July 2026 | −4.0% | Bottom 3%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceJuly 2026 | 69,283 | 52nd percentileof 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 77.0% | Bottom 46%of 31,513 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Mean annual wageNew Haven, CT Metro Area’s figure2025 OEWS | $75,620 | Top 27%of 3,729 | 2025 OEWS |
| Median annual wageNew Haven, CT Metro Area’s figure2025 OEWS | $60,060 | Top 20%of 3,729 | 2025 OEWS |
| Public transit to work ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 6.7% | 97th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)July 2026 | +1.5% | Bottom 1%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateJuly 2026 | 7.0% | Bottom 4%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 13.9% | 73rd percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Unemployment rate
Median household income, successive ACS releases
Largest occupations — New Haven, CT
| Occupation | People employed | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Registered Nurses | 10,050 | $104,490 |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 9,430 | $43,840 |
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 7,370 | $39,720 |
| Retail Salespersons | 6,810 | $35,950 |
| Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners | 6,210 | $37,890 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 5,900 | $35,290 |
Searches the 40 largest occupations here that have a published wage.
Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
22% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 38% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 13.0 students for every full-time teacher across 49 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wilbur Cross High School | New Haven School District | 1,742 | 13.7 | 9% | 30% |
| Hamden High School | Hamden School District | 1,609 | 13.5 | 33% | 55% |
| James Hillhouse High School | New Haven School District | 1,124 | 13.4 | 3% | 17% |
| Amistad Academy · charter | Amistad Academy District | 1,105 | 10.8 | 47% | 55% |
| East Haven High School | East Haven School District | 879 | 12.0 | 13% | 43% |
| Elm City College Preparatory School · charter | Elm City College Preparatory School District | 760 | 19.5 | 52% | 58% |
| Fair Haven School | New Haven School District | 734 | 13.8 | 8% | 20% |
| Hill Regional Career High School | New Haven School District | 625 | 11.4 | 12% | 37% |
| Eli Whitney Technical High School | Connecticut Technical Education and Career System | 586 | 10.5 | 3% | 17% |
| Ross/Woodward School | New Haven School District | 562 | 14.1 | 14% | 33% |
| Cooperative High School - Inter-District Magnet | New Haven School District | 560 | 11.7 | 12% | 37% |
| John C. Daniels | New Haven School District | 522 | 13.7 | 19% | 40% |
71.5% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against Connecticut’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →Prices for everything a household buys run about 5% above the national average — the Bureau of Economic Analysis index reads 105.4, against 100 for the nation. Nationally, housing drives most of the spread between places in this index; other goods vary far less.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the New Haven, CT Metro Area is up 55% over five years, and up 6.0% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $6,430 a year in real estate taxes, about 2.24% of the median home value.
The typical renter household here spends 34% of its income on rent, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $1,488 a month.
A median home at $287,100 costs 2.6 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $109,078, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
Prices here run about 5% above the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.
Published for the New Haven, CT Metro Area as a whole. Prices are regional — people shop, commute and rent across a metropolitan area rather than within a city boundary — so this describes the cost of living around this place better than a figure drawn to its own limits would.
The figures above are measured against New Haven’s median household income of $56,851, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of living indexthe New Haven, CT Metro Area’s figure2023 | 105.4 | Bottom 33%of 3,700 | 2023 |
| Home price change (1 year)the New Haven, CT Metro Area’s figure2026 Q2 | +6.0% | 87th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the New Haven, CT Metro Area’s figure2026 Q2 | +54.9% | 89th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the New Haven, CT Metro Area’s figure2026 Q2 | +91.2% | 48th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.22024 ACS 5-Year | 2.6 | Bottom 45%of 26,815 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 28.4% | 2nd percentileof 31,717 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±1,1422024 ACS 5-Year | 60,333 | 99th percentileof 32,177 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$332024 ACS 5-Year | $1,488 | Bottom 20%of 23,120 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$15,9062024 ACS 5-Year | $287,100 | 70th percentileof 29,111 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$1962024 ACS 5-Year | $6,430 | 95th percentileof 26,440 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$5,2572024 ACS 5-Year | $109,078 | Top 21%of 27,548 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.14%2024 ACS 5-Year | 2.24% | 95th percentileof 20,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 33.5% | Bottom 25%of 22,950 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±1552024 ACS 5-Year | 365 | 96th percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.6% | 58th percentileof 31,895 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 8.6% | 58th percentileof 31,769 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±5822024 ACS 5-Year | 5,560 | 99th percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures and the cost-of-living index.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.
Population has grown 6% since 2020, reaching 137,562 in 2024.
Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before: 517 units authorized in 2025, 10% below the prior year.
Population is still rising but the pace is easing: 137,562 residents in 2024, up 1.0% over the year, a smaller gain than the year before.
81% of the 274 units permitted over the past twelve months are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.
Federal tax returns show South Central Connecticut Planning Region, which contains New Haven, lost about 0.4% of its residents through moves within the US in the most recent year, counting those who arrived against those who left. Households that moved in reported an average income of $74,908, below the $83,737 of households that moved out.
At 2.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- Naugatuck Valley Planning Region, CT 2,326 people · 12% of arrivals
- Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, CT 2,248 people · 11% of arrivals
- Capitol Planning Region, CT 1,719 people · 8.6% of arrivals
- Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, CT 1,100 people · 5.5% of arrivals
- Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT 1,072 people · 5.4% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Naugatuck Valley Planning Region, CT 2,715 people · 13% of departures
- Capitol Planning Region, CT 2,229 people · 10% of departures
- Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, CT 1,574 people · 7.3% of departures
- Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, CT 1,273 people · 5.9% of departures
- Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT 720 people · 3.3% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. This is the figure for South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
Housing units permitted per year
Weather & climate
5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 82°F and January a low of 23°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 41.8 inches.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 41.8" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 23°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 82°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 43°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hurricane and coastal flooding, with inland flooding alone responsible for 62% of it.
Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, strong wind, tornado, cold wave, wildfire, hail, drought, volcanic activity, tsunami, avalanche.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.
New Haven's police department reported 399 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 3,116.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Offenses are reported to the FBI by New Haven’s own police department and shown only where it reported every month of the year; a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime is what police recorded, which is not the same as what happened. Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe the county around New Haven (South Central Connecticut Planning Region) rather than New Haven itself. Neither is part of the Area Score. How to read crime rates and death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Death-certificate rates
- The CDC publishes these rates by county, and no county figure could be attached to this page.
- Air quality
- The EPA publishes an air-quality index only where a monitor sits. There is none in this county, and a modeled value would be a different kind of number from the measured ones everywhere else on this page.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. The cost-of-living index above is a price level for all consumption, not a household budget, and it excludes taxes. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Bradley Intl at 45 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 89.7% | Top 50%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 45 mi | Bottom 15%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 7 | Top 13%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±1%2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.4% | Top 50%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bradley Intl | BDL | 45 mi | 9,510 ft |
| Westfield-Barnes Rgnl | BAF | 60 mi | 9,000 ft |
| New York Stewart Intl | SWF | 63 mi | 11,817 ft |
Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.
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Other cities in New Haven, CT
Same metropolitan area, measured the same way| City | County | Population | Area Score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meriden | South Central Connecticut Planning Region | 60,545 | 47 | Meriden vs New Haven |
| West Haven | South Central Connecticut Planning Region | 55,351 | 47 | West Haven vs New Haven |
| Milford | South Central Connecticut Planning Region | 51,023 | 54 | Milford vs New Haven |
| East Haven | South Central Connecticut Planning Region | 27,806 | 48 | |
| North Haven | South Central Connecticut Planning Region | 24,336 | 55 | |
| Wallingford Center | South Central Connecticut Planning Region | 18,208 | 53 | |
| Orange | South Central Connecticut Planning Region | 14,315 | 55 |
Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.
Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put New Haven side by side with a similar place.
Moving to New Haven from somewhere else?
You get the difference in prices, rent and weather, and the income that would keep pace.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Safety | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency | 2025 calendar year |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Housing | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | 2025 OEWS |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology, or every source with how often each updates.
ZIP codes in New Haven
6 ZIP areasEvery ZIP area in New Haven with census figures of its own, largest first. The ones linked below diverge enough from the city as a whole to carry a full profile; the rest track New Haven closely, so their figures are here rather than on a page that would repeat this one. An Area Score is calculated for published profiles only, which is why it is blank on those rows.