Photo: Elisa.rolle · CC BY-SA 4.0Norfolk has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.3 for each
There are 188 jobs in Norfolk; 644 of its residents have a job. Norfolk grades B− for jobs and income and B for walkability. About one in ten work in Norfolk itself; outside it, North Canaan draws the most (9%, 7 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Norfolk
On income, poverty and job access, Norfolk is better than 53% of U.S. towns. Household income holds Norfolk’s grade up ($91,548, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns). It also does well on the poverty rate.
Unemployment (1.7%) is left out: Norfolk’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, Norfolk could be anywhere from C+ to B+.
How many people are in Norfolk by day
On a workday 582 residents head out to work, 62 work right here, and 126 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Norfolk on a workday afternoon, 28% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where people from Norfolk work
Where Norfolk clocks in
9% of workers
6% of workers
5% 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.
What Norfolk’s employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Norfolk, 2013 → 2023: 284 → 188. 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 Norfolk’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 27 minutes from Norfolk
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Norfolk workers work from home, vs 16% across Connecticut. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 665 commuters (the 23% 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.
Miles to work from Norfolk
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.
Getting around Norfolk: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Norfolk is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across Connecticut, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 867 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). 2.9% of Norfolk households have no vehicle (Connecticut 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 4% of Norfolk’s commuters take a bus or train.
Norfolk next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200: 2,066th of 6,161 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 160 | Newtown CT | 1,980 | $165K | 2.0% | 3.3% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 182 | Bridgewater CT | 1,677 | $159K | 3.0% | 3.6% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 390 | Hartland CT | 1,928 | $113K | 4.7% | 2.4% | 6% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,064 | Lewis NY | 1,239 | $82K | 3.2% | 2.1% | 4% | B− |
| 2,065 | Oolitic IN | 1,142 | $59K | 3.1% | 4.0% | 1% | B− |
| 2,066 | Norfolk CT | 1,605 | $92K | 7.5% | 1.7% | 10% | B− |
| 2,067 | Covington NY | 1,231 | $68K | 4.8% | 2.8% | 8% | B− |
| 2,068 | Harristown Township IL | 1,684 | $77K | 9.7% | 4.4% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Norfolk, the top three, the last and three more from Connecticut.
Around Norfolk: the bordering towns
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Norfolk workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norfolk | – | B− | B | 27 min | $91,548 |
| Canaan | under 3% | C | A− | 17 min | $89,632 |
| Goshen | under 3% | B+ | B | 42 min | $152,093 |
| Colebrook | under 3% | B | C+ | 34 min | $111,250 |
| North Canaan | 9% | C− | A− | 22 min | $71,976 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to North Canaan. Darker towns draw more of Norfolk’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 Norfolk: questions
What is the median household income in Norfolk?
$91,548 (±$16,182) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,781 across Connecticut and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Norfolk?
7.5%, against 10.0% across Connecticut and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Norfolk?
27 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Connecticut and 26 nationally. 23% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Norfolk work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are North Canaan (9%, 7 mi), Torrington (6%, 10 mi), Winchester (5%, 5 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Norfolk walkable?
Norfolk is more walkable than 60% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Norfolk without a car?
4% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Norfolk, from the people who make the trip.
More of Norfolk
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.