Photo: AirportExpert · CC BY-SA 4.0Bridgewater’s household incomes are higher than in 96% of U.S. towns
3.0% of residents live below the poverty line, next to 10.0% for Connecticut as a whole. Jobs and income earn Bridgewater A+; getting around on foot earns it B. 25% of workers have no commute at all, against 16% across Connecticut.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Bridgewater apart on work
A lot of Bridgewater works one town over
27% of working residents work in a town that borders Bridgewater: New Milford (8%), Brookfield (8%) and Newtown (5%). Next door ↓
Bridgewater’s workforce skews older
41% of Bridgewater’s working residents are 55 or older. That’s about two in five. The jobs ↓
Home offices are common in Bridgewater
25% of Bridgewater workers work from home, against 16% across Connecticut. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 694 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Bridgewater’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Bridgewater is better than 95% of U.S. towns. Household income is its strongest input ($159,365, U.S. $80,734); job access by car ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Unemployment (3.6%) is left out: Bridgewater’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Bridgewater could be anywhere from A to A+.
32% of the jobs in Bridgewater make or build things
316 jobs are based in Bridgewater.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bridgewater, 2013 → 2023: 240 → 316. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bridgewater’s own residents hold wherever they work.
From Bridgewater, about 29 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bridgewater workers work from home, vs 16% across Connecticut. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 622 commuters (the 25% who work from home are left out). Across Connecticut: 82% drive alone, 4% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The daily commute in and out of Bridgewater
On a workday 634 residents head out to work, 60 work right here, and 256 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,300 people are in Bridgewater on a workday afternoon, 23% fewer than live here.
0.46 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Danbury
Where Bridgewater clocks in
12% of workers
8% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
How far Bridgewater goes to work
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
For most of Bridgewater, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bridgewater is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.9% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across Connecticut, on an EPA index of 5.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 831 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 2.1% of Bridgewater households have no vehicle (Connecticut 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 3% of Bridgewater’s commuters take a bus or train.
Bridgewater places 173rd of 5,760 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 1,200 to 2,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Hewlett Harbor NY | 1,332 | $250K | 1.9% | 7.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 153 | Newtown CT | 1,980 | $165K | 2.0% | 3.3% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 171 | Spencer Township OH | 1,873 | $105K | 1.5% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| 172 | Boston Township OH | 1,396 | $92K | 2.7% | 9.0% | 3% | A+ |
| 173 | Bridgewater CT | 1,677 | $159K | 3.0% | 3.6% | 9% | A+ |
| 174 | Goose Lake Township IL | 1,784 | $117K | 0.0% | 10.5% | 3% | A+ |
| 175 | New Baltimore OH | 1,585 | $159K | 5.7% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 378 | Hartland CT | 1,928 | $113K | 4.7% | 2.4% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 486 | Chaplin CT | 2,187 | $98K | 5.4% | 1.4% | 6% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,760 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Bridgewater, the top three, the last and three more from Connecticut.
Work next door: 27% of Bridgewater’s workers
The biggest share goes to New Milford (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Bridgewater workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridgewater | – | A+ | B | 29 min | $159,365 |
| New Milford | 8% | B | B− | 30 min | $106,411 |
| Southbury | 2% | A | C | 30 min | $112,887 |
| Brookfield | 8% | A | C | 28 min | $148,360 |
| Roxbury | 4% | A− | B+ | 37 min | $123,864 |
| Newtown | 5% | A | C | 34 min | $155,110 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Bridgewater’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Bridgewater: questions
What is the median household income in Bridgewater?
$159,365 (±$5,366) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,781 across Connecticut and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bridgewater?
3.0%, against 10.0% across Connecticut and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bridgewater?
29 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Connecticut and 26 nationally. 25% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bridgewater work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Danbury (12%, 10 mi), New Milford (8%, 6 mi), Brookfield (8%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Bridgewater walkable?
Bridgewater is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 5.9 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bridgewater without a car?
3% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bridgewater, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bridgewater
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.