Shelton, Connecticut
Area Profile
41,889 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Shelton.
Missing required signal: resilience. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.
Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.9% and the Opportunity signal places Shelton in the bottom 16%.
145 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 13% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.
Rent takes 19% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.2 times that income.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 4.9% is lower than 28% of the 3,904 measured US cities.
Employment fell 5.3% over the past year, to 20,935 employed residents.
42% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 83% of measured US cities.
Household income is higher than at least 85% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$10,854 | $108,185 | Top 15%of 29,573 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$2,776 | $54,448 | Top 14%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 6.6% | Bottom 31%of 31,900 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 32.1 min | Top 25%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 41.7% | Top 17%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 20,935 | Bottom 26%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -5.2% | Bottom 2%of 3,903 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -5.3% | Bottom 2%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 22,010 | Bottom 26%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 65.3% | Top 33%of 31,933 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | 1.3% | Top 1%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 4.9% | Top 28%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
Schools
How it’s calculated →There are 13.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelton High School | Shelton School District | 1,308 | 14.4 | — | — |
| Intermediate School | Shelton School District | 714 | 12.8 | — | — |
| Perry Hill Elementary School | Shelton School District | 711 | 14.2 | — | — |
| Elizabeth Shelton School | Shelton School District | 405 | 13.5 | — | — |
| Mohegan School | Shelton School District | 325 | 14.1 | — | — |
| Long Hill School | Shelton School District | 307 | 10.6 | — | — |
| Booth Hill School | Shelton School District | 304 | 13.8 | — | — |
| Sunnyside School | Shelton School District | 229 | 16.4 | — | — |
36.6% 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 $1,741 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 4.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 4.18 | Top 24%of 28,473 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 76.5% | Top 49%of 31,843 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±558 | 16,927 | Top 3%of 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$216 | $1,741 | Top 14%of 23,432 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$12,639 | $452,600 | Top 14%of 29,342 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 19.3% | Top 45%of 23,201 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 4.9% | Bottom 28%of 32,001 | 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 →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 5% since 2020, reaching 42,805 in 2024.
Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.
79% 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 3.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.
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.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 44.1" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 33.6" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 24°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 83°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 6 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 44°F | 1991-2020 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
- Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
- Taxes and full cost of living
- No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.
Access
6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 50 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bradley Intl | BDL | 50 mi | 9,510 ft |
| New York Stewart Intl | SWF | 52 mi | 11,817 ft |
| John F Kennedy Intl | JFK | 57 mi | 14,511 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 for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2024-25 school year | Directory 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.
ZIP codes in Shelton
1 published ZIP profiles| ZIP | Population | Median household income | Area Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06484 | 41,889 | $108,185 | — |