Southwest Connecticut

Data Story

This story will walk you through who lives here, who works here, about some of their educational experiences, and health outcomes. We also highlight why these data are important and how you can use them.

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Southwest region of Connecticut consists of 14 towns.

Who Lives Here?

With 702,000 people, the region comprises almost 20% of total state population.

Population by Age

Population data help us understand the ages and stages of Connecticut residents. When we understand who we are, we can guide and direct services and supports based on need. In Southwest region, nearly 1 in 4 residents are under the age of 20.

  • 170,556 of the region's population, or about 26%, are youth under the age of 20.
  • 39%, or 262,596 residents, are considered "prime working age", that is, adults between 25 and 54 years old.

Population by Race/Ethnicity

  • We combined people of all races who self-identified their Hispanic ethnicity under Hispanic or Latino group, and subtracted the respective counts from all races. This way, we did not double count, and all 6 groups in the chart above sum up to the total regional population.
  • Similarly, none of the races overlap with Two or More Races group.
  • 56% of people living in Southwest region are self-identified as White Alone, which is below the state value of 65%.

Share of Young People by Race/Ethnicity

The share of young people (under the age of 20) for each ethnicity varies.

  • 20% of White population, 29% of Black population, 30% of Asian, and 35% of Hispanic population are young people.
  • 43% of residents who belong to two or more races are under the age of 20.

Children in Poverty

We present only the Connecticut data, because margins of errors for some smaller towns are high. Data is from 2016 - 2020 ACS.

In Connecticut,
  • About 27% of Hispanic children;
  • About 23% of Black children;
  • About 14% of children of two or more races;
  • About 9% of Asian children, and
  • About 6% of White non-Hispanic children live at or below poverty line.

Explore poverty data by town at data.ctdata.org.

27%

of Hispanic children in Connecticut live
at or below poverty line, compared to 6% of white non-Hispanic children

Households

Median Income

When all the household earnings are lined up from lowest to highest, the median represents the income of the middle household. This graph shows the range of income disparities that exists by town in the region.

In Southwest region, median income ranges greatly by town, from about $50,597 in Bridgeport up to $250,001 in Darien. All but 4 towns (Bridgeport, Stratford, Norwalk, and Stamford) in the region have median household income higher than that of the state (about $83,572 Median household income in 2021 dollars, 2017-2021), and in all but 4 towns it exceeds $100,000.

Cost-burdened Households

Percent of Households in Each Town
When members of a household spend the lion's share of their paychecks on housing costs such as rent, they come up short for other bills that cover basic needs.
Households are considered cost-burdened if they spend over 30% of their income on housing costs.

Unemployment

Unemployment rates provide some idea of whether people are actively working. In the Southwest region, the unemployment rate is slightly below the state average. This means the share of people working or looking for work is holding steady compared with all of Connecticut. The unemployment rate for the region masks some inequality across towns.

There are 356,729 people that are considered in the labor force. Of those, 341,499 are employed, and 15,230 (≈ 4%) are unemployed.

Single-Parent Families

Households with one parent are at a disadvantage in a few ways when compared with two-parent households. There are fewer earners which means less income to spend on basic needs. There is a greater need for childcare to make sure adults can work and childcare comes at a great cost. ACS 2017 - 2021 data below.

20%

of families in Southwest region are single-parent

With 44,627 single-parent families, Southwest region's

rate of single-parent households is 7% below state average of 27%.

Easton and Westport have single-parent family rates not exceeding 10%.

Bridgeport (≈48%), Norwalk(≈24%), and Stamford(≈26%) are among the towns with the highest rates of single-parent families.

48%

of families in Bridgeport are single-parent

Housing

Federally Subsidized Housing in Connecticut

Health-Related Indicators

Teen Birth Rate

  • In Southwest region, Bridgeport has the highest teen birth rate. At 21 births per 1,000 people, it is much higher than that of the state (8.9 per 1,000 people).
*as of 9/22/23 new data not available by DPH

Teen Birth Rate vs Median Household Income

In general, towns with higher median household income tend to have lower teen birth rates, and vice versa. Only two towns—Norwalk and and Scotland—have higher teen birth rates than the state, while also having median household income above that of Connecticut.

Infant Mortality

Infant mortality rates vary significantly by race. In the Southwest region, they are 8.5 deaths per 1,000 births for 2021. That is higher than the state average of 4.7 deaths per 1,000 births. With 4.3 deaths per 1,000 births, the rate is highest for Hispanic and Latino residents. For Black, the rate is 3.9, for White — 3.

Infants in the Southwest Region are 2 times as likely to die compared to the State.

Disparate outcomes by race signal institutional biases. This indicator identifies that a different service model may be required to impact the disparities.

Download CT Department of Public Health's 2015 Annual Registration Reports (the most current publicly available data). For more information on fetal mortality — see Tables 5 & 6 — and for infant mortality see Tables 7 & 8.



Suicide

2015-2019 Suicides in Connecticut by Race/Ethnicity and Gender

Race/Ethnicity Female Male Total Rate
(Total, per 100,000 people)
  • White Non-Hispanic people are more likely to commit suicide than Black or Hispanic people.
  • In general, males are nearly 3 times more likely to die of suicide than females.

Substance Use

In 2021, there were
590
drug-related deaths in Central region. Of these,
3
happened to those under 21.

Treatment Admissions for Mental Health and Substance Use

The data below are from the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and include admissions to both public and private programs.

In the Southwest region, there were 5,309 mental health admissions and 5,306 substance use admissions.



Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)

Child abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the key federal legislation that guides child protective services programming nationwide. The most recent reauthorization of CAPTA requires hospitals to notify state child welfare agencies when an infant is born prenatally exposed to substances. Family Care Plans are then developed to support access to a broad range of social, medical, developmental and behavioral health services and supports for these vulnerable infants and their families.

For more information, visit: https://portal.ct.gov/DCF/CAPTA/HOME

Child Protection Service Report After CAPTA NOTIFICATION

Child Protection Service Report After CAPTA NOTIFICATION

These data indicate whether a referral was made to Child Protective Services.

Family Care Plans

Family Care Plans

These data show how many families received a Family Care Plan for babies born exposed to substances before birth.

Statewide Map of Resources

Connecticut Department of Children and Families offices and facilities, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) authorized retailers, substance use care facilities, and WIC authorized food stores and pharmacies.

About


Family Illustration This data story was developed with support from the CONNECTing Children and Families to Care, a statewide initiative to create a partnership between families, state agencies, and service providers at the local, regional, and state levels. To learn more about this project, watch a short video in English (or in Spanish).

More Data!

Throughout the story, you can use links under visualizations to view relevant datasets. Alternatively, you can visit data.ctdata.org and search for datasets with town-level data.

Further Reading and Materials

Community Resources

  • WrapCT.org developed out of a decade of System of Care improvements, including ongoing training and coaching through Care Coordination and the Child and Family Team Wraparound process. The primary goal of this Learning Collaborative to transform and energize the local Community Collaboratives/ Systems of Care to support workforce development in the Wraparound process and to improve the support and care that youth and families receive.
  • HealthyLivesCT.org provides information and tools for maintaining or regaining wellness in the areas of emotional wellness, physical wellness, holistic wellness, financial wellness, and recovery from addiction issues.
  • 211ct.org is a one-stop connection to the local services you need, from utility assistance, food, housing, child care, after school programs, elder care, crisis intervention and much more.