Photo: John Phelan · CC BY-SA 4.0Prospect’s household incomes are higher than in 90% of U.S. towns
Jobs and income earn Prospect A; getting around on foot earns it C. Poverty touches 3.2% of residents; Connecticut has 10.0%. Only 7% stay in Prospect for work; outside it, Waterbury is the main destination (12%, 5 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Prospect: the figures worth knowing
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Prospect
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Prospect is better than 94% of U.S. towns, #17 of 155 in Connecticut. The poverty rate is its strongest input; unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.3%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Prospect could be anywhere from A− to A+.
How many people are in Prospect by day
On a workday 4,643 residents head out to work, 343 work right here, and 1,600 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,600 people are in Prospect on a workday afternoon, 32% fewer than live here.
0.39 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.
The places Prospect commutes to
Where Prospect clocks in
12% 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 Prospect’s employers do
1,943 jobs are based in Prospect.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prospect, 2013 → 2023: 1,681 → 1,943. 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 Prospect’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Getting to work from Prospect takes about 28 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prospect workers work from home, vs 16% across Connecticut. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,200 commuters (the 10% 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 distance from Prospect 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.
Driving is how Prospect gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Prospect is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns, #128 of 155 in Connecticut. Both inputs place Prospect near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,671 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 0.7 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 54% 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). 2.3% of Prospect households have no vehicle (Connecticut 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Prospect’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Prospect ranks: 241st of 2,816 U.S. towns of 6,700 to 13,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 217 | Granby CT | 11,963 | $120K | 3.2% | 2.3% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 239 | Shiloh Valley Township IL | 12,737 | $105K | 4.8% | 1.5% | 5% | A |
| 240 | Milliken CO | 9,183 | $108K | 2.4% | 0.5% | 2% | A |
| 241 | Prospect CT | 9,638 | $126K | 3.2% | 3.3% | 7% | A |
| 242 | Upper Providence Township PA | 10,861 | $151K | 1.8% | 4.5% | 4% | A |
| 243 | East Whittier CA | 9,990 | $114K | 3.9% | 3.6% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 304 | Durham CT | 7,209 | $159K | 3.4% | 3.6% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 320 | Portland CT | 9,449 | $119K | 3.9% | 3.3% | 9% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 2,816 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Prospect, the top three, the last and three more from Connecticut.
Work next door: 19% of Prospect’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Waterbury. Darker towns draw more of Prospect’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 Prospect: questions
What is the median household income in Prospect?
$126,394 (±$17,555) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,781 across Connecticut and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prospect?
3.2%, against 10.0% across Connecticut and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prospect?
28 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Connecticut and 26 nationally. 10% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prospect work?
7% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Waterbury (12%, 5 mi), New Haven (6%, 13 mi), Cheshire (5%, 4 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Prospect walkable?
Prospect is more walkable than 28% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.0 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prospect without a car?
1% 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 Prospect, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prospect
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.