Best PlacesGreater Bridgeport Planning Region, CT Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Greater Bridgeport 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

Greater Bridgeport Planning Region ranks 580th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $113,410, wages outrun the cost of living, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are childcare costs, property taxes, and an overheated housing market.

#580
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 Greater Bridgeport Planning Region

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Greater Bridgeport 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.

Greater Bridgeport Planning Region's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Civic engagement
Top 1%Fast internet
Top 3%Big-city access

Greater Bridgeport 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. Fast internet and big-city access follow.

The one real hole is childcare costs, near the bottom of the country. Property taxes and an overheated housing market 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 Greater Bridgeport Planning Region with other counties.

Where Greater Bridgeport Planning Region ranks high

  • Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of counties
  • Internet speedBetter than 99% of counties
  • Big-city accessBetter than 99% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than 99% of counties
  • TransitBetter than 98% of counties

Where Greater Bridgeport Planning Region ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$1,858 a month, better than only 1% of counties
  • Low property taxBetter than only 3% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Greater Bridgeport Planning Region

A household needs to earn about $138,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Greater Bridgeport Planning Region home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $113,410, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$138,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,218
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $463,009 home
Median rent
$1,695
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,361
Property tax$703
Homeowners insurance$154

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 Greater Bridgeport Planning Region's effective rate of 1.82%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. 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 Greater Bridgeport Planning Region

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

Median age
41
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6420%
65 and older16%

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


Who works in Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, and how

Work in Greater Bridgeport Planning Region centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
16%
about the national average
Unemployment
7.2%
above the national average
Job growth
+4.4%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Retail trade11%
Education11%
Manufacturing9%
Professional & technical8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 74%
  • Work from home 16%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 11%

Life in Greater Bridgeport Planning Region

The coast is about 6 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, which the map shows.

To the coast
6 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

Is Greater Bridgeport Planning Region growing, and who is moving in?

Greater Bridgeport Planning Region has grown about 4% over the last decade.

Population growth
+4%
over the decade, vs about 3% nationally
Population
335,666
up from 324,397
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Where people leaving Greater Bridgeport 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 Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, month by month

Greater Bridgeport Planning Region sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 25. 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
January43°34°25°
April61°50°41°
July87°77°68°
October69°59°49°

Flying in and out of Greater Bridgeport Planning Region

The nearest airport, Tweed/New Haven, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Laguardia, about 46 miles away.

Nearest airport
HVN
Tweed/New Haven, about 17 miles
Airport size
Small hub
122nd-busiest in the US, 41 nonstop destinations
Average drive
24 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Greater Bridgeport Planning Region

Schools across Greater Bridgeport Planning Region average a C+, better than 50% 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 Greater Bridgeport Planning Region school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Greater Bridgeport 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 Greater Bridgeport Planning Region against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Greater Bridgeport Planning Region suits

Families

Schools land around the 50th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 16% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Greater Bridgeport Planning Region

Is Greater Bridgeport Planning Region a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Greater Bridgeport Planning Region ranks 580th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on civic engagement, fast internet, and big-city access, and lowest on childcare costs and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Greater Bridgeport Planning Region expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $463,009. The overall cost of living runs about 7% above the national average. Set against a $113,410 median income, cost of living beats 92% of counties.

Is Greater Bridgeport Planning Region safe?

Greater Bridgeport Planning Region is safer than 28% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $322 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Greater Bridgeport Planning Region?

July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 25. That works out to about 69 pleasant days a year, more than 18% of counties.

Is Greater Bridgeport Planning Region good for families?

Schools beat 50% of counties, crime safety beats 28%, and childcare runs $1,858 a month.

Is Greater Bridgeport Planning Region good for remote workers?

Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 99% of counties. About 16% of workers already work from home.


Compare Greater Bridgeport Planning Region with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Greater Bridgeport Planning Region. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Greater Bridgeport 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.

Greater Bridgeport Planning Region detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Greater Bridgeport 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.