Best PlacesCapitol Planning Region, CT Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Capitol Planning Region, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Capitol Planning Region ranks 146th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $107,018, everyday costs sit below the national average, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are property taxes, childcare costs, and state finances.

#146
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Capitol Planning Region

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Capitol Planning Region area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

Capitol Planning Region's strengths and weaknesses

#146Best US county overall
Top 1%Civic engagement
Top 3%What local pay buys
Top 5%Fast internet

Capitol Planning Region ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Civic engagement is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. What local pay buys and fast internet follow.

The one real hole is property taxes, near the bottom of the country. Childcare costs and state finances also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Capitol Planning Region with other counties.

Where Capitol Planning Region ranks high

  • Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of counties
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of counties
  • Internet speedBetter than 97% of counties
  • Big-city accessBetter than 96% of counties
  • TransitBetter than 96% of counties

Where Capitol Planning Region ranks low

  • Low property taxBetter than only 2% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$1,439 a month, better than only 3% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of counties
  • Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 6% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 12% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Capitol Planning Region

A household needs to earn about $99,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Capitol Planning Region home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $107,018, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$99,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,315
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $329,043 home
Median rent
$1,536
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,678
Property tax$528
Homeowners insurance$110

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Capitol Planning Region's effective rate of 1.92%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Capitol Planning Region

Capitol Planning Region's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
42
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
18%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3423%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older18%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Capitol Planning Region.


Who works in Capitol Planning Region, and how

Work in Capitol Planning Region centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
17%
about the national average
Unemployment
5.4%
above the national average
Job growth
+1.5%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Retail trade11%
Education11%
Manufacturing10%
Finance & insurance9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 76%
  • Work from home 17%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 8%

Life in Capitol Planning Region

The coast is about 43 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Capitol Planning Region, which the map shows.

To the coast
43 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

Is Capitol Planning Region growing, and who is moving in?

Capitol Planning Region has grown about 3% over the last decade.

Population growth
+3%
over the decade, vs about 3% nationally
Population
991,508
up from 964,088
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Where people leaving Capitol Planning Region go

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Capitol Planning Region, month by month

Capitol Planning Region sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January42°32°23°
April63°51°39°
July88°77°66°
October69°56°45°

Flying in and out of Capitol Planning Region

Bradley International sits about 11 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
BDL
Bradley International, about 11 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
55th-busiest in the US, 92 nonstop destinations
Average drive
16 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Capitol Planning Region

Schools across Capitol Planning Region average a B, better than 76% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Capitol Planning Region school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Capitol Planning Region measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Capitol Planning Region against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Capitol Planning Region suits

Families

Schools beat 76% of counties and crime safety beats 64%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 17% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 76%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Capitol Planning Region

Is Capitol Planning Region a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Capitol Planning Region ranks 146th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on civic engagement, what local pay buys, and fast internet, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Capitol Planning Region expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $329,043. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $107,018 median income, cost of living beats 97% of counties.

Is Capitol Planning Region safe?

Yes, Capitol Planning Region is safer than 64% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $248 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Capitol Planning Region?

July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 23. That works out to about 60 pleasant days a year, more than 6% of counties.

Is Capitol Planning Region good for families?

Schools beat 76% of counties, crime safety beats 64%, and childcare runs $1,439 a month.

Is Capitol Planning Region good for remote workers?

Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 97% of counties. About 17% of workers already work from home.


Compare Capitol Planning Region with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Capitol Planning Region. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Capitol Planning Region represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

Capitol Planning Region detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Capitol Planning Region: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Capitol Planning Region: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Capitol Planning Region: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Capitol Planning Region: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Capitol Planning Region detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.