What is Waterbury-Shelton's Life Score?

Waterbury-Shelton scores 43.0/100 (grade C), rank #304 of 387. Signature wages at the 82nd percentile; stamps LOWER · SAFE-LED · cost DEAR · wages HIGH.

What pulls Waterbury-Shelton up or down?

Strongest: safety (98/100). Weakest: schools (9/100). Profile mark SAFE-LED; dimension gap 89.

How current is this data?

Federal releases current as of August 2026 (BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA). Cadence varies by series; see methodology.

Metro Life Score

Waterbury-Shelton, CT

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C, 21st percentile of the national corpus.

Compiled by PlainCompare

43.0
Life Score / 100: C
Grade (curved): #304
of 387 metros: 21%
composite percentile

View your shortlist

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Waterbury-Shelton is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #304 of 387 (43.0/100, grade C, 21st percentile). Carried by safety at 98/100; held back most by schools at 9/100.

21st
composite percentile: #304
of 387 peers: 24th
cost dimension percentile: 82nd
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · LOWER · SAFE-LED · signature wages

Waterbury-Shelton: pay power is the signature

Waterbury-Shelton stamps LOWER · SAFE-LED with wages at the 82nd percentile of the metro corpus (HIGH) — ahead of its cost mark (DEAR, 24th) and composite #304. Safety (98/100) amplifies the lead; Schools (9/100) is the residual gap. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Waterbury-Shelton, CT ranks #304 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #295 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

BEA RPP 99.8 (rent-RPP 89.1). BLS median salary $72,471, 153,560 jobs (Home Health and Personal Care Aides, Fast Food and Counter Workers, Cashiers). HUD 2BR FMR $1,788/mo (studio $1,246).

FBI UCR (CT): 139 violent, 1397 property/100K. NCES: 12.2:1 ratio, 2.1% charter. DOL infant childcare $17,127/yr. EPA: 17 Superfund sites (CT).

Where Waterbury-Shelton sits among all US metros

Composite Life Score vs the national field

43 21st percentile higher than 21% of 387 US metros

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026

How the 43.0 is built

Waterbury-Shelton's Life Score, decomposed

Cost of Living 4.8 (11%) Wages 16.5 (38%) Rent 2.3 (5%) Safety 14.7 (34%) Schools 0.9 (2%) Childcare 0.9 (2%) Environment 2.9 (7%)

Dimension detail

How Waterbury-Shelton scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 24/100 (20%) Below average

Wages 82/100 (20%) Above average

Rent 15/100 (15%) Below average

Safety 98/100 (15%) Top 10%

Schools 9/100 (10%) Bottom 10%

Childcare 9/100 (10%) Bottom 10%

Environment 29/100 (10%) Average

Key Data Points

99.8

Cost Index (RPP)

$72,471

Avg Median Salary

$1,788

2BR Fair Market Rent

139

Violent Crime/100K (CT)

12.2:1

Student-Teacher Ratio

$17,127

Infant Childcare/yr (CT)

Superfund Sites (CT)

153,560

Total Employment

Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are CT state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.

Compare Waterbury-Shelton With...

Waterbury-Shelton vs Norwich Compare → Waterbury-Shelton vs Hartford Compare → Waterbury-Shelton vs New Haven Compare → Waterbury-Shelton vs Paducah Compare → Waterbury-Shelton vs Pocatello Compare → Waterbury-Shelton vs Wildwood Compare →

Ranking Context

Waterbury-Shelton outranks 21% of U.S. metros.

Rank	Metro	Score	Grade
#301	Visalia, CA	43.2	C
#302	Fresno, CA	43.2	C
#303	Albuquerque, NM	43.2	C
#304	Waterbury-Shelton, CT	43.0	C
#305	Billings, MT	42.7	C
#306	Glens Falls, NY	42.6	C
#307	Colorado Springs, CO	42.5	C

Quality vs. Affordability

Waterbury-Shelton, CT's quality rank (bottom 22% lowest-quality) and affordability rank (bottom 24% least affordable) sit close together -- an unusually proportionate metro where overall quality and cost-of-living move together.

Waterbury-Shelton, CT (highlighted) among its 12 nearest composite-Life-Score peers, out of 387 tracked metros nationally. Crosshairs mark this peer neighborhood's own median composite score and cost-of-living score. Cost-of-living score is already inverted so higher = more affordable.

CT Metro Scores

Norwich-New London-Willimantic, CT C 43.8 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT C 42.5 New Haven, CT C- 41.2 Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area C- 40.7

Read with Waterbury-Shelton

Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Waterbury-Shelton (LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/HIGH), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.

Albuquerque, NM

ABS(composite) peer at 43.2 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.

Fresno, CA

ABS(composite) peer at 43.2 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.

Visalia, CA

ABS(composite) peer at 43.2 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.

Billings, MT

ABS(composite) peer at 42.7 (Δ 0.3 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade C vs this page's LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/HIGH.

Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 24/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.

Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 23/100 (Δ 1); cost stamp DEAR vs this metro's DEAR.

Waterbury-Shelton, CT relocation guide

Stamp-branched guide for LOWER · SAFE-LED · DEAR/HIGH - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.

Using Waterbury-Shelton's bottom-third Life Score

Waterbury-Shelton scores 43.0/100 overall, but Safety (97.9) and Schools (9.3) sit 88.6 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.

Safety is the strongest of Waterbury-Shelton's seven dimensions (weighted 15% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
Schools is the weakest (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
Norwich is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Norwich

A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.

Data from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OES, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Not affiliated with the U.S. Government.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Waterbury-Shelton Life Score 43.0/100 · signature wages · retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

All federal data sources used on this page

U.S. Census Bureau ACS - multi-dimension demographic + housing + income aggregates for cross-area comparison. census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
BEA Regional Economic Accounts - GDP, personal income, employment by state and metro. bea.gov/data/regional
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) - wage estimates for comparable-area indexing. bls.gov/oes
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) - crime statistics for safety-score component. fbi.gov/ucr
NCES Common Core of Data - public-school quality indicators by area. nces.ed.gov/ccd
EPA AirNow + Air Quality System (AQS) - air-quality measurements by area. epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data
HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) - county and metro housing-cost indicators. huduser.gov/datasets/fmr