Photo: ajay_suresh · CC BY 2.0Households in Ridgefield earn more than those in 98% of U.S. towns
30% of workers work from home (Connecticut 16%). 3.5% of residents are in poverty, next to 10.0% for Connecticut as a whole. For jobs and income Ridgefield is better than 92% of U.S. towns (A); for walkability it is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (B+).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Ridgefield and work: the main findings
Ridgefield trades workers with the towns around it
Ridgefield has about as many jobs (10,118) as working residents (9,247), but they are mostly different people: 7,403 residents leave for work each day while 8,274 people come in. Only 18% of the jobs in Ridgefield are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Home offices are common in Ridgefield
30% of Ridgefield workers work from home, against 16% across Connecticut. Time on the road ↓
Ridgefield workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 33 minutes each way, against 27 across Connecticut. Over a year that’s about 253 hours of commuting, 46 more than the state’s typical 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.
Jobs & income in Ridgefield: the grade in detail
Household income is its strongest input ($179,219, U.S. $80,734); unemployment ranks lowest, though still above most U.S. towns (3.9%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and unemployment and job access by car.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ridgefield could be anywhere from A− to A+.
Who leaves, who stays, who comes in
On a workday 7,403 residents head out to work, 1,844 work right here, and 8,274 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.09 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
About 33 minutes each way for Ridgefield’s commuters
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ridgefield workers work from home, vs 16% across Connecticut. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 8,369 commuters (the 30% 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.
11% of working residents work in Stamford
Where Ridgefield clocks in
11% of workers
7% 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.
Mostly services: health care, schools and offices
10,118 jobs are based in Ridgefield.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ridgefield, 2013 → 2023: 10,381 → 10,118. 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 Ridgefield’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Ridgefield 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 Ridgefield gets around
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 6.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 7.1% across Connecticut, on an EPA index of 6.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 11,899 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 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 42% 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). 4.3% of Ridgefield households have no vehicle (Connecticut 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 5% of Ridgefield’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ridgefield is 195th of 1,516 U.S. towns of 18,000 to 34,000 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 | Lake Forest IL | 19,731 | $235K | 3.5% | 1.8% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 30 | North Haven CT | 24,799 | $133K | 4.1% | 2.0% | 13% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 36 | Berlin CT | 20,698 | $114K | 3.4% | 2.0% | 11% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 69 | South Windsor CT | 27,036 | $145K | 4.9% | 2.4% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 193 | Upper Macungie Township PA | 29,600 | $121K | 3.2% | 3.7% | 16% | A |
| 194 | Rutherford NJ | 19,132 | $143K | 5.5% | 4.2% | 6% | A |
| 195 | Ridgefield CT | 25,373 | $179K | 3.5% | 3.9% | 20% | A |
| 196 | Southbury CT | 20,468 | $113K | 3.4% | 3.0% | 12% | A |
| 197 | Wilmington MA | 23,629 | $168K | 3.8% | 4.8% | 11% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 1,516 | Nogales AZ | 19,495 | $43K | 28.0% | 15.7% | 37% | 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 Ridgefield, the top three, the last and three more from Connecticut.
The towns next door employ 10% of Ridgefield
The biggest share goes to Danbury (7%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Ridgefield workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ridgefield | – | A | B+ | 33 min | $179,219 |
| Wilton | 3% | A | A− | 36 min | $242,199 |
| Redding | under 2% | A− | B | 36 min | $186,060 |
| Danbury | 7% | B− | A− | 30 min | $83,393 |
| Georgetown | under 2% | — | — | 33 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Georgetown: 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 Ridgefield’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 Ridgefield: questions
What is the median household income in Ridgefield?
$179,219 (±$12,450) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,781 across Connecticut and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ridgefield?
3.5%, against 10.0% across Connecticut and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ridgefield?
33 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Connecticut and 26 nationally. 30% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ridgefield work?
20% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Stamford (11%, 17 mi), Danbury (7%, 6 mi), Norwalk (5%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ridgefield walkable?
Ridgefield is more walkable than 67% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ridgefield without a car?
5% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ridgefield, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ridgefield
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.