The 10 Dumbest Places In Connecticut For 2024


The dumbest places in Connecticut are Hartford and Waterbury for 2024 based on Saturday Night Science.

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Constitution State have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.

While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.

We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in Connecticut have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.

A recent study we published found that Connecticut is the 11th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 101.

But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Connecticut are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


Dumbest Cities In Connecticut Map

Don’t freak out.

Some places are just smarter than others, but that says nothing about the character of the people living there. It’s another data point a real estate agent would never tell you.

For this ranking, we only looked at cities with populations greater than 9,000, leaving us 21 cities in Connecticut to rank. You can take a look at the data below.

For more Connecticut reading, check out:

The 10 Dumbest Places In Connecticut For 2024

Hartford, CT

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10
Population: 121,057
% Adult High School Dropout: 25.0%
% Highly Educated: 17.0%
More on Hartford: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Waterbury, CT

Source: Wikipedia User Daniel Case, Grossus | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 114,480
% Adult High School Dropout: 19.0%
% Highly Educated: 16.0%
More on Waterbury: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

New Britain, CT

Source: Wikipedia User Bmr1987 | CC BY 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 74,212
% Adult High School Dropout: 19.0%
% Highly Educated: 20.0%
More on New Britain: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Meriden, CT

Source: Wikipedia User John Phelan | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 60,556
% Adult High School Dropout: 15.0%
% Highly Educated: 20.0%
More on Meriden: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Bridgeport, CT

Source: Wikipedia User Magicpiano | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10
Population: 148,470
% Adult High School Dropout: 19.0%
% Highly Educated: 25.0%
More on Bridgeport: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Ansonia, CT

Source: Wikipedia User Milfordwoman | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10
Population: 18,954
% Adult High School Dropout: 12.0%
% Highly Educated: 21.0%
More on Ansonia: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

New London, CT

Source: Wikipedia User | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10
Population: 27,596
% Adult High School Dropout: 13.0%
% Highly Educated: 26.0%
More on New London: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Norwich, CT

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10
Population: 40,054
% Adult High School Dropout: 11.0%
% Highly Educated: 24.0%
More on Norwich: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

West Haven, CT

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10
Population: 55,336
% Adult High School Dropout: 13.0%
% Highly Educated: 27.0%
More on West Haven: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Danbury, CT

Source: Wikipedia User Dj1998d | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10
Population: 86,456
% Adult High School Dropout: 16.0%
% Highly Educated: 35.0%
More on Danbury: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Real Estate

Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Constitution State

We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.

So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.

In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in Connecticut:

  • % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
  • % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)

We got the data from the U.S. Census 2018-2022 American Community Survey.

Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in Connecticut from dumbest to brightest.

For this ranking, we used every Connecticut city with at least 9,000 residents. We updated this article for 2024, and it’s our tenth time ranking the dumbest cities in Connecticut.

There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep

If you’re measuring the locations in Connecticut where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.

The dumbest cities in Connecticut are Hartford, Waterbury, New Britain, Meriden, Bridgeport, Ansonia, New London, Norwich, West Haven, and Danbury.

If you’re also curious enough, here are the smartest places in Connecticut, according to science:

  1. Milford
  2. Shelton
  3. Stamford

For more Connecticut reading, check out:

Dumbest Cities In Connecticut For 2024

Rank City Population % Adult High School Dropout % Highly Educated
1 Hartford, CT 121,057 25.0% 17.0%
2 Waterbury, CT 114,480 19.0% 16.0%
3 New Britain, CT 74,212 19.0% 20.0%
4 Meriden, CT 60,556 15.0% 20.0%
5 Bridgeport, CT 148,470 19.0% 25.0%
6 Ansonia, CT 18,954 12.0% 21.0%
7 New London, CT 27,596 13.0% 26.0%
8 Norwich, CT 40,054 11.0% 24.0%
9 West Haven, CT 55,336 13.0% 27.0%
10 Danbury, CT 86,456 16.0% 35.0%
11 Torrington, CT 35,510 11.0% 25.0%
12 New Haven, CT 135,736 14.0% 39.0%
13 Norwalk, CT 91,050 13.0% 42.0%
14 Groton, CT 9,364 11.0% 30.0%
15 Naugatuck, CT 31,653 11.0% 32.0%
16 Derby, CT 12,373 9.0% 30.0%
17 Bristol, CT 61,052 6.0% 31.0%
18 Middletown, CT 48,152 7.0% 39.0%
19 Stamford, CT 135,413 11.0% 51.0%
20 Shelton, CT 41,206 7.0% 43.0%
21 Milford, CT 50,664 5.0% 47.0%
About Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson earned his masters in Business Administration from the Drucker School At Claremont Graduate University. He has written for 39 publications across the country and ran the media relations department at Movoto, a real estate portal based in San Francisco. He has been featured in over 500 publications as an expert in real estate and as an authority on real estate trends.

Nick's the creator of the HomeSnacks YouTube channel that now has over 260,000 subscribers and is an excellent source to learn about different parts of the country.

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