Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Stafford works elsewhere
2,936 jobs are based in Stafford for 5,394 working residents. The two grades for Stafford are B for jobs and income and D for walkability. About one in seven work in Stafford itself; outside it, Hartford draws the most (7%, 24 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Stafford in brief
Stafford’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Stafford is better than 62% of U.S. towns, #118 of 155 in Connecticut. Household income holds Stafford’s grade up ($93,235, U.S. $80,734); unemployment pulls it down (5.8%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on the poverty rate and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Stafford could be anywhere from C+ to A.
Goods jobs make up 41% of work in Stafford
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Stafford, 2013 → 2023: 3,555 → 2,936. 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 Stafford’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Stafford for work, and who comes in
On a workday 4,532 residents head out to work, 862 work right here, and 2,074 people come in from elsewhere.
About 9,300 people are in Stafford on a workday afternoon, 21% 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.
The places Stafford commutes to
Where Stafford clocks in
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.
Getting to work from Stafford takes about 26 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Stafford workers work from home, vs 16% across Connecticut. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,015 commuters (the 11% 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.
How far Stafford 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.
Stafford is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Stafford is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns, #153 of 155 in Connecticut. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 7.1% across Connecticut.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 5,634 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). 4.3% of Stafford households have no vehicle (Connecticut 8.8%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Stafford’s commuters take a bus or train.
Stafford places 1,341st of 2,695 on jobs and income among U.S. towns of 8,000 to 16,000
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 159 | Tolland CT | 14,752 | $133K | 5.3% | 1.2% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 173 | Colchester CT | 15,825 | $122K | 3.9% | 1.7% | 16% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 183 | Oxford CT | 13,311 | $129K | 4.0% | 2.3% | 9% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,339 | Diamondhead MS | 9,441 | $87K | 7.0% | 4.2% | 8% | B |
| 1,340 | Miramar Beach FL | 8,902 | $103K | 4.5% | 5.7% | 30% | B |
| 1,341 | Stafford CT | 11,721 | $93K | 7.4% | 5.8% | 16% | B |
| 1,342 | Jersey Township IL | 10,005 | $74K | 11.1% | 1.2% | 26% | B |
| 1,343 | Williamstown MA | 9,186 | $107K | 11.2% | 2.1% | 40% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 2,695 | Roma TX | 11,543 | $25K | 37.1% | 12.4% | 22% | 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 Stafford, the top three, the last and three more from Connecticut.
Stafford and the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Ellington (3%).
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Stafford workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stafford | – | B | D | 26 min | $93,235 |
| Willington | under 3% | A− | D | 26 min | $91,114 |
| Crystal Lake | under 3% | — | — | 39 min | — |
| Ellington | 3% | A+ | C+ | 31 min | $129,913 |
| Somers | under 3% | A | C | 28 min | $124,705 |
| Union | under 3% | — | — | 32 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Crystal Lake: a Census-designated place inside a larger town, graded as part of it. Union: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Stafford’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 Stafford: questions
What is the median household income in Stafford?
$93,235 (±$15,529) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,781 across Connecticut and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Stafford?
7.4%, against 10.0% across Connecticut and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Stafford?
26 minutes each way on average, against 27 across Connecticut and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Stafford work?
16% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Hartford (7%, 24 mi), Manchester (5%, 18 mi), Enfield (5%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Stafford walkable?
Stafford is more walkable than 11% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.6 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Stafford without a car?
0% 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 Stafford, from the people who make the trip.
More of Stafford
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.