Shelton vs Waterbury

A side-by-side comparison of Shelton and Waterbury: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Waterbury has the higher population (114,356 vs 41,402 in Shelton). Shelton has the higher median household income ($114,739 vs $51,642 in Waterbury). Shelton has the higher median home value ($435,700 vs $185,400 in Waterbury).

Population, income & housing

	Shelton	Waterbury
Population	41,402	114,356
Median age	43.9 yrs	37.8 yrs
Median household income	$114,739	$51,642
Median home value	$435,700	$185,400
Median gross rent	$1,661	$1,180
Housing units	16,578	50,577
Homeownership rate	75.9%	45.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.5%	17.0%
Unemployment rate	5.2%	9.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Shelton	Waterbury
Population	41,141 → 41,402 (+0.6%)	108,276 → 114,356 (+5.6%)
Median household income	$97,131 → $114,739 (+18.1%)	$42,401 → $51,642 (+21.8%)
Median home value	$349,300 → $435,700 (+24.7%)	$130,700 → $185,400 (+41.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,466 → $1,661 (+13.3%)	$969 → $1,180 (+21.8%)

Shelton

Population

41,14141,402

Median household income

$97,131$114,739

Median home value

$349,300$435,700

Median gross rent

$1,466$1,661

Waterbury

Population

108,276114,356

Median household income

$42,401$51,642

Median home value

$130,700$185,400

Median gross rent

$969$1,180

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Shelton	Waterbury
Under 5	6.0%	6.2%
5 to 17	12.9%	16.3%
18 to 24	6.5%	10.2%
25 to 34	12.8%	14.0%
35 to 44	13.1%	11.6%
45 to 54	12.5%	12.9%
55 to 64	16.1%	13.2%
65 to 74	9.6%	9.2%
75 and over	10.5%	6.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Shelton	Waterbury
White (non-Hispanic)	69.4%	30.5%
Black or African American	5.8%	23.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	8.6%	2.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.4%	1.2%
Two or more races	2.8%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	11.9%	37.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Shelton	Waterbury
No high school diploma	6.0%	19.6%
High school graduate	24.9%	36.9%
Some college or associate's	25.6%	26.5%
Bachelor's degree	24.7%	9.8%
Graduate or professional degree	18.9%	7.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Shelton	Waterbury
Drove alone	76.2%	72.1%
Carpooled	7.7%	12.4%
Public transit	1.3%	3.8%
Walked	0.5%	2.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	13.8%	6.7%
Other means	0.5%	2.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Shelton	Waterbury
1-unit, detached	64.4%	40.4%
1-unit, attached	12.4%	4.4%
2 to 4 units	8.6%	31.6%
5 to 19 units	4.4%	14.0%
20 or more units	8.8%	9.5%
Mobile home & other	1.5%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Shelton	Waterbury
Poverty rate	5.6%	23.9%
Average household size	2.60	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	29	28
Median year structure built	1977	1959