Meriden vs Wallingford Center

A side-by-side comparison of Meriden and Wallingford Center: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Meriden has the higher population (60,418 vs 18,107 in Wallingford Center). Wallingford Center has the higher median household income ($84,554 vs $68,617 in Meriden). Wallingford Center has the higher median home value ($292,100 vs $221,600 in Meriden).

Population, income & housing

	Meriden	Wallingford Center
Population	60,418	18,107
Median age	38.6 yrs	40.3 yrs
Median household income	$68,617	$84,554
Median home value	$221,600	$292,100
Median gross rent	$1,243	$1,243
Housing units	26,804	8,647
Homeownership rate	59.9%	57.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.2%	35.2%
Unemployment rate	8.2%	5.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Meriden	Wallingford Center
Population	59,676 → 60,418 (+1.2%)	18,360 → 18,107 (-1.4%)
Median household income	$58,843 → $68,617 (+16.6%)	$67,143 → $84,554 (+25.9%)
Median home value	$171,900 → $221,600 (+28.9%)	$238,200 → $292,100 (+22.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,027 → $1,243 (+21.0%)	$1,049 → $1,243 (+18.5%)

Meriden

Population

59,67660,418

Median household income

$58,843$68,617

Median home value

$171,900$221,600

Median gross rent

$1,027$1,243

Wallingford Center

Population

18,36018,107

Median household income

$67,143$84,554

Median home value

$238,200$292,100

Median gross rent

$1,049$1,243

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Meriden	Wallingford Center
Under 5	6.2%	4.2%
5 to 17	15.4%	12.8%
18 to 24	8.6%	8.1%
25 to 34	14.8%	18.5%
35 to 44	12.7%	11.7%
45 to 54	11.6%	11.9%
55 to 64	15.4%	11.1%
65 to 74	8.7%	12.2%
75 and over	6.6%	9.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Meriden	Wallingford Center
White (non-Hispanic)	49.2%	71.7%
Black or African American	7.4%	1.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	2.4%	3.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	1.3%
Two or more races	3.0%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	37.7%	19.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Meriden	Wallingford Center
No high school diploma	13.6%	9.7%
High school graduate	34.2%	29.5%
Some college or associate's	30.0%	25.5%
Bachelor's degree	13.6%	21.5%
Graduate or professional degree	8.6%	13.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Meriden	Wallingford Center
Drove alone	77.4%	77.8%
Carpooled	10.3%	8.0%
Public transit	1.6%	0.5%
Walked	1.9%	2.5%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.4%	10.6%
Other means	1.3%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Meriden	Wallingford Center
1-unit, detached	48.6%	45.3%
1-unit, attached	6.8%	7.0%
2 to 4 units	23.7%	28.1%
5 to 19 units	7.7%	5.9%
20 or more units	12.4%	12.3%
Mobile home & other	0.8%	1.3%

Poverty & households

	Meriden	Wallingford Center
Poverty rate	14.2%	9.0%
Average household size	2.41	2.14
Mean commute (minutes)	23	25
Median year structure built	1960	1959