The Best Places To Live In Connecticut: Latest Rankings

CONNECTICUT — Rankings website Niche.com has just published its 2023 ratings for Connecticut municipalities, and West Hartford is once again at the top of the list.

The Hartford suburb garnered an overall "A+" grade, and copped top marks for its public schools, family friendliness, and the health/fitness of its residents. It was also No. 1 on the list of the best suburbs in the state.

Making comparisons to the rest of the U.S., Niche ranked West Hartford No. 152 among the nation's suburbs, and No. 284 among American locations overall.

New in this year's Niche rankings is a breakdown into neighborhoods. This change in the guidelines elevated Stamford community Newfield over the village of Southport in Fairfield, last year's runner-up. Niche's reviewers were especially impressed by Newfield's nightlife.

For its scores, Niche drew upon data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniformed Crime Report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climatic Data Center, the US Department of Agriculture's Food Environment Atlas and other sources, as well as millions of resident reviews.

Here are the top 100 Best Places to Live in 2023 in Connecticut, according to Niche.com:

1. West Hartford (No. 1 in Best Suburbs to Live in Connecticut, Best Places to Live in Hartford County)
2. Newfield (No. 1 in Best Places to Live in Fairfield County)
3. Weatogue (No. 1 in Best Suburbs to Buy a House in Connecticut)
4. Riverside (No. 1 in Best Places to Raise a Family in Connecticut)
5. Noank (No. 1 in Best Places to Buy a House in Connecticut, Best Places To Live in New London County)
6. Old Greenwich
7. Southport
8. Glastonbury Center
9. Downtown New Haven (No. 1 in Best Places to Live in New Haven County)
10. Glenville
11. Mystic (No. 1 in Best Places to Retire in Connecticut)
12. Avon
13. Farmington
14. West Simsbury
15. Cos Cob
16. Orange
17. Collinsville
18. Mansfield Center (No. 1 Best Places to Live in Tolland County)
19. South End of Stamford
20. Belltown
21. Higganum (No. 1 Best Places to Live in Middlesex County)
22. Greenwich
23. Glastonbury
24. Westville
25. Fairfield
26. Simsbury
27. Westport (No. 1 Places, Suburbs, with the Best Public Schools in Connecticut)
28. Ridgefield
29. Cheshire
30. Wilton
31. Wethersfield
32. Long Hill
33. Milford City
34. Weston
35. Easton
36. Westover
37. North Stamford
38. Woodmont
39. Old Mystic
40. Madison
41. Redding
42. Woodbridge
43. Darien
44. Niantic
45. South Windsor
46. Shippan
47. East Granby
48. North Haven
49. Glenbrook
50. Byram
51. Prospect Hill
52. New Canaan
53. East Rock
54. Newington
55. Tariffville
56. Pemberwick
57. Middlebury
58. Downtown Hartford
59. Dwight
60. Granby
61. Washington (No. 1 Best Places to Live in Litchfield County)
62. South Coventry
63. Stamford
64. Turn of River
65. Springdale
66. Coventry Lake
67. Monroe
68. East Lyme
69. Essex
70. Rocky Hill
71. Old Lyme
72. Trumbull
73. Guilford
74. Georgetown
75. Saybrook Manor
76. Kensington
77. North Granby
78. Brookfield
79. Middletown
80. Cromwell
81. Shelton
82. Southbury
83. Canton
84. Newtown
85. Portland
86. Crystal Lake
87. Bolton
88. Wooster Square/Mill River
89. Salem
90. Groton
91. Ellington
92. Norwalk
93. Haddam
94. Tolland
95. Hebron
96. Burlington
97. Killingworth
98. Waterford
99. Milford
100. Mansfield

If the list is missing a neighborhood you believed should absolutely have made the cut, chances are it got beat up for its grade in the more heavily weighted categories. Cost of living, residents' overall higher education, property costs/taxes, public schools and diversity combined to make up 45 percent of a location's overall rating.

New Haven neighborhood Long Wharf occupied the ignominious bottom bullet point of Niche's list of best Connecticut places, scoring an overall grade of "C-." North Meadows, Sterling, Canaan, and Scotland round out the bottom five.

See the full list here.