Which are the leading “small cities” in Connecticut, and how do they rank among similar communities across the country? A new analysis, released this week, reflects that Connecticut holds its own among similarly-sized communities nationwide.The Top 10 here are Shelton, Wethersfield, Manchester, Norwalk, West Hartford, Middletown, Milford, Newington, Naugatuck, and Danbury. Joining them as Connecticut communities that rank in the top 50% nationwide are New London, Torrington, and Norwich.WalletHub compared more than ...
Which are the leading “small cities” in Connecticut, and how do they rank among similar communities across the country? A new analysis, released this week, reflects that Connecticut holds its own among similarly-sized communities nationwide.
The Top 10 here are Shelton, Wethersfield, Manchester, Norwalk, West Hartford, Middletown, Milford, Newington, Naugatuck, and Danbury. Joining them as Connecticut communities that rank in the top 50% nationwide are New London, Torrington, and Norwich.
WalletHub compared more than 1,300 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 based on 45 key indicators of livability. They range from housing costs to school-system quality to restaurants per capita; job growth to average commute time to property-crime rate.
The key indicators were grouped into five categories: Affordability Rank, Economic Health Rank, Education & Health Rank, Quality of Life Rank and Safety Rank. Taken together, they determined the overall rank – what percentage of small cities were above, and below, each of them.
Among Connecticut’s top-ranked small cities, in Affordability, Wethersfield led the way, ranking 51st in the U.S. In Economic Health, Manchester led the way, ranking 61st in the nationwide rankings. The Education & Health category saw Shelton at 41st nationally and highest ranked in Connecticut, in Quality of Life Manchester again led the way, at #185 in the U.S., and in the Safety category, Shelton, at #131 nationally, was best in Connecticut.
Given the very large sample of communities ranked in the study, WalletHub grouped them by percentile. The 99th percentile represents the top 1 percent of small cities in America. The 50th percentile represents the top 50 percent of small cities.
Shelton was ranked at the 91st percentile, Wethersfield 89th, Manchester 87th, Norwalk 85th, West Hartford 80th, Middletown and Milford 72nd , Newington 69th, Naugatuck 67th, Danbury and New London 63rd percentile. Torrington was 60th percentile, Norwich 51st.
“Moving from a bustling metropolis to a small city could drastically cut down your cost of living. On top of that, the best small cities offer strong job markets, high-quality education, good health care, safe living conditions and plenty of local flair to help you achieve a high quality of life,” explained Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst. “While small cities may lack some advantages of big cities, like robust public transportation systems, they make up for these shortcomings in other areas.”
Among the subcategories, Wethersfield had among the lowest housing costs among the nation’s leading small cities,
Data used to create the ranking were collected as of September 2, 2025 from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Areavibes, TransUnion, TripAdvisor, County Health Rankings, Yelp, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to WalletHub.