Hartford vs Manchester

A side-by-side comparison of Hartford and Manchester: population, income, housing, and more.

Hartford and Manchester are places in Connecticut. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Hartford has the higher population (119,970 vs 36,561 in Manchester). Manchester has the higher median household income ($76,780 vs $45,300 in Hartford). Hartford has the higher median home value ($217,200 vs $205,800 in Manchester).

Population, income & housing

	Hartford	Manchester
Population	119,970	36,561
Median age	33.4 yrs	37.0 yrs
Median household income	$45,300	$76,780
Median home value	$217,200	$205,800
Median gross rent	$1,221	$1,357
Housing units	56,626	16,461
Homeownership rate	25.7%	55.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	18.3%	31.8%
Unemployment rate	10.6%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Hartford	Manchester
Population	123,088 → 119,970 (-2.5%)	29,972 → 36,561 (+22.0%)
Median household income	$36,278 → $45,300 (+24.9%)	$62,622 → $76,780 (+22.6%)
Median home value	$165,300 → $217,200 (+31.4%)	$165,900 → $205,800 (+24.1%)
Median gross rent	$985 → $1,221 (+24.0%)	$1,148 → $1,357 (+18.2%)

Hartford

Population

123,088119,970

Median household income

$36,278$45,300

Median home value

$165,300$217,200

Median gross rent

$985$1,221

Manchester

Population

29,97236,561

Median household income

$62,622$76,780

Median home value

$165,900$205,800

Median gross rent

$1,148$1,357

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Hartford	Manchester
Under 5	5.1%	5.4%
5 to 17	18.2%	14.4%
18 to 24	13.5%	9.0%
25 to 34	15.6%	18.6%
35 to 44	13.7%	12.9%
45 to 54	12.0%	11.9%
55 to 64	10.4%	13.4%
65 to 74	7.1%	8.7%
75 and over	4.3%	5.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Hartford	Manchester
White (non-Hispanic)	15.9%	54.5%
Black or African American	33.8%	16.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	2.2%	4.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.7%	0.5%
Two or more races	2.4%	3.9%
Hispanic or Latino	44.8%	20.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Hartford	Manchester
No high school diploma	25.7%	7.5%
High school graduate	31.9%	32.3%
Some college or associate's	24.1%	28.4%
Bachelor's degree	10.3%	18.5%
Graduate or professional degree	7.9%	13.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Hartford	Manchester
Drove alone	61.0%	76.9%
Carpooled	11.4%	8.6%
Public transit	11.8%	2.5%
Walked	4.8%	2.0%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.4%
Worked from home	8.1%	9.3%
Other means	2.3%	0.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Hartford	Manchester
1-unit, detached	15.3%	46.2%
1-unit, attached	4.5%	6.7%
2 to 4 units	36.3%	22.7%
5 to 19 units	19.5%	11.6%
20 or more units	24.2%	12.6%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Hartford	Manchester
Poverty rate	25.5%	14.8%
Average household size	2.31	2.32
Mean commute (minutes)	23	22
Median year structure built	1953	1952