Bethel vs Sandy Hook

A side-by-side comparison of Bethel and Sandy Hook: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Bethel has the higher population (11,606 vs 9,718 in Sandy Hook). Sandy Hook has the higher median household income ($144,335 vs $88,344 in Bethel). Sandy Hook has the higher median home value ($460,600 vs $377,500 in Bethel).

Population, income & housing

	Bethel	Sandy Hook
Population	11,606	9,718
Median age	40.9 yrs	44.6 yrs
Median household income	$88,344	$144,335
Median home value	$377,500	$460,600
Median gross rent	$1,471	$1,875
Housing units	4,972	3,778
Homeownership rate	69.2%	92.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	38.4%	56.9%
Unemployment rate	3.6%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bethel	Sandy Hook
Population	10,012 → 11,606 (+15.9%)	9,181 → 9,718 (+5.8%)
Median household income	$73,393 → $88,344 (+20.4%)	$121,089 → $144,335 (+19.2%)
Median home value	$295,600 → $377,500 (+27.7%)	$363,700 → $460,600 (+26.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,259 → $1,471 (+16.8%)	$1,820 → $1,875 (+3.0%)

Bethel

Population

10,01211,606

Median household income

$73,393$88,344

Median home value

$295,600$377,500

Median gross rent

$1,259$1,471

Sandy Hook

Population

9,1819,718

Median household income

$121,089$144,335

Median home value

$363,700$460,600

Median gross rent

$1,820$1,875

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bethel	Sandy Hook
Under 5	5.1%	2.6%
5 to 17	17.7%	19.1%
18 to 24	7.6%	8.4%
25 to 34	14.0%	10.1%
35 to 44	9.2%	10.6%
45 to 54	15.5%	15.7%
55 to 64	15.8%	17.1%
65 to 74	8.5%	11.1%
75 and over	6.6%	5.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bethel	Sandy Hook
White (non-Hispanic)	59.0%	81.8%
Black or African American	10.0%	2.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	4.9%	2.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	5.8%	0.0%
Two or more races	7.0%	5.7%
Hispanic or Latino	13.3%	6.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bethel	Sandy Hook
No high school diploma	11.0%	2.7%
High school graduate	26.3%	18.8%
Some college or associate's	24.3%	21.6%
Bachelor's degree	23.0%	31.4%
Graduate or professional degree	15.4%	25.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bethel	Sandy Hook
Drove alone	75.6%	73.7%
Carpooled	6.5%	5.0%
Public transit	1.8%	0.2%
Walked	0.5%	0.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	12.0%	18.9%
Other means	3.6%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bethel	Sandy Hook
1-unit, detached	48.8%	89.3%
1-unit, attached	14.4%	4.7%
2 to 4 units	22.8%	3.3%
5 to 19 units	10.5%	2.5%
20 or more units	3.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Bethel	Sandy Hook
Poverty rate	5.9%	6.1%
Average household size	2.45	2.76
Mean commute (minutes)	31	34
Median year structure built	1975	1977