Photo: Mansfield Historical Society · CC BY 2.557% of Mansfield’s residents are college students
Mansfield grades A− for jobs and income and A for walkability. Family incomes here are higher than in 82% of U.S. towns. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 3.4 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 31.8 in Stamford.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Mansfield in brief
Mansfield is where the jobs are
Mansfield has 10,878 jobs, 1.7 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
A lot of Mansfield works from home
28% of Mansfield workers work from home, against 16% across Connecticut. Time on the road ↓
Nearly all the work in Mansfield is services
92% of the jobs based here are in services, such as health care, schools and offices. Only 2% are in factories, building or farms. The jobs ↓
No single place dominates Mansfield’s commute
The biggest draw, Windham, gets only 8% of working residents, and 52% work outside the top ten towns entirely. Mansfield residents fan out across the region. The commute map ↓
Commutes from Mansfield are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 27 across Connecticut. That’s about 46 hours a year less on the road than the typical Connecticut worker. 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.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Mansfield
On family income, poverty and job access, Mansfield is better than 80% of U.S. towns, #81 of 155 in Connecticut. Family income is its strongest input ($127,468, U.S. $99,999); the poverty rate ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (8.6%, U.S. 11.9%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
Where students are 15% or more of the people the Census checks for poverty (25% here), the grade uses the rate without them: 8.6%, against 21.6% for all residents. Unemployment (11.2%) is left out here: students looking for part-time work count as unemployed. Income is ranked as median family income ($127,468), since student households pull the household median down ($72,393).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for family income and poverty, Mansfield could be anywhere from B to A+.
Mansfield on a workday afternoon
On a workday 4,780 residents head out to work, 1,528 work right here, and 9,350 people come in from elsewhere.
About 34,000 people are in Mansfield on a workday afternoon, 16% more than live here.
1.7 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
The daily trip from Mansfield: about 21 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Mansfield workers work from home, vs 16% across Connecticut. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 7,687 commuters (the 28% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Mansfield
10,878 jobs are based in Mansfield.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Mansfield, 2013 → 2023: 10,370 → 10,878. 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 Mansfield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Mansfield’s workforce comes from
Where Mansfield clocks in
8% of workers
5% of workers
2% 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.
Mansfield’s commute, mile by mile
About 15% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
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.
Mansfield is easy on foot, hard by bus
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Mansfield is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns, #16 of 155 in Connecticut. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 22.3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across Connecticut, on an EPA index of 8.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 10,725 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 37% 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 3.4 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 78% 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). 10.3% of Mansfield households have no vehicle (Connecticut 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 5% of Mansfield’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 1,467 U.S. towns of 20,000 to 39,000, Mansfield comes 506th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | West Springfield VA | 22,532 | $163K | 1.9% | 1.7% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | Mountain Brook AL | 21,661 | $201K | 3.2% | 1.2% | 8% | A+ |
| 3 | Upper Dublin Township PA | 27,258 | $168K | 3.2% | 1.9% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | North Haven CT | 24,799 | $133K | 4.1% | 2.0% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 33 | Berlin CT | 20,698 | $114K | 3.4% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 60 | Glastonbury CT | 35,503 | $157K | 3.8% | 2.9% | 15% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 504 | Benbrook TX | 24,279 | $86K | 5.9% | 4.3% | 4% | A− |
| 505 | Nocatee FL | 27,442 | $142K | 6.2% | 4.7% | 7% | A− |
| 506 | Mansfield CT | 29,062 | $72K | 21.6% | 11.2% | 24% | A− |
| 507 | Susquehanna Township PA | 28,434 | $85K | 9.3% | 2.3% | 10% | A− |
| 508 | Grayslake IL | 21,140 | $114K | 6.3% | 5.4% | 8% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,467 | Barstow CA | 24,804 | $53K | 23.1% | 11.9% | 17% | 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 Mansfield, the top three, the last and three more from Connecticut.
How Mansfield compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Windham (8%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Mansfield workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mansfield | – | A− | A | 21 min | $72,393 |
| Coventry | under 2% | A | C− | 27 min | $108,213 |
| Windham | 8% | C− | A | 24 min | $55,736 |
| Willimantic | under 2% | — | — | 23 min | — |
| Willington | under 2% | A− | D | 26 min | $91,114 |
| Chaplin | under 2% | A− | C− | 32 min | $97,846 |
Same-state neighbors only. Willimantic: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Mansfield’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.
- Students. 57% of residents are college students; the poverty input leaves off-campus students out (above).
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Mansfield: questions
What is the median household income in Mansfield?
$72,393 (±$12,203) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,781 across Connecticut and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Mansfield?
21.6% of residents live below the poverty line; leaving out college students, 8.6%. Connecticut: 10.0%.
How long is the commute from Mansfield?
21 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Connecticut and 26 nationally. 28% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Mansfield work?
24% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Windham (8%, 6 mi), Hartford (5%, 23 mi), Manchester (2%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Mansfield walkable?
Mansfield is more walkable than 93% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.9 out of 20, and 22% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Mansfield without a car?
5% of commuters take transit and 10% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Mansfield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Mansfield
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.