06851Norwalk, Connecticut

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 06851.

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Missing required signal: resilience. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3824th of 6,210 published ZIP areas49
GrowthTop 42% of 5,428 published ZIP areas55
Housing affordability4668th of 6,685 published ZIP areas66
Climate3450th of 6,789 published ZIP areas70
Access5329th of 6,791 published ZIP areas80
Economic stabilityTop 22% of 6,742 published ZIP areas74
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.2% and median household income $111,341, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

371 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 6% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

Rent takes 22% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 5.3 times that income.

At a glance

Population
27,865
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$111,341
Top 13% nationally
Density
3,625/sq mi
7.7 sq mi of land
Median age
43.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Norwalk
Connecticut
Metro area
Nearest major airport
JFK
40 mi · John F Kennedy Intl
Median home value
$587,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 60% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 4.7% over the past year, to 49,447 employed residents.

46% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 85% of measured US ZIP areas.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,736$111,341Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,709$64,597Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.1%Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.8 minTop 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher46.4%Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment49,447Bottom 47%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-5.2%Bottom 3%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-4.7%Bottom 3%June 2026
Labor force51,635Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force participation69.7%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.9%Top 7%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Bottom 40%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024111k97k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $111,341 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Norwalk, CT, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 12.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Norwalk High SchoolNorwalk School District1,49414.2
West Rocks Middle SchoolNorwalk School District65711.5
Nathan Hale Middle SchoolNorwalk School District49910.4
Tracey Magnet SchoolNorwalk School District43414.5
Cranbury Elementary SchoolNorwalk School District41013.2
P-TECH NorwalkNorwalk School District38810.5
Naramake Elementary SchoolNorwalk School District35812.8
Wolfpit Integrated Arts Elementary SchoolNorwalk School District34110.7
Norwalk Early Childhood CenterNorwalk School District18726.7

50.3% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Connecticut’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $2,071 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.3 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
22.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,071
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$587,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.28Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.6%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±56211,910Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$235$2,071Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,803$587,400Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.3%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.7%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
55/ 100
Top 42% of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

91% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 4.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
371
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.0
Top 38% nationally
Year over year
−6%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
90.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Norwalk, CT, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 83°F and January a low of 24°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 44.1 inches, including 33.6 inches of snow.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BRIDGEPORT SIKORSKY MEM AP, 14.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation44.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall33.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low24°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high83°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing44°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 40 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
John F Kennedy IntlJFK40 mi14,511 ft
New York Stewart IntlSWF44 mi11,817 ft
Newark Liberty IntlEWR51 mi9,999 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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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 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 browse every source.

06851 vs Norwalk

How this ZIP area compares with Norwalk as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

06851
Norwalk
Median household income
$111,341
vs
$107,616
Per capita income
$64,597
vs
$61,397
Population density
3,625/sq mi
vs
4,028/sq mi
Median home value
$587,400
vs
$558,000
Median gross rent
$2,071
vs
$2,073
Homeownership rate
61.6%
vs
55.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
46.4%
vs
44.8%
Poverty rate
8.1%
vs
9.1%
Median age
43.2
vs
40.6

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.