Meriden Moves Up in Connecticut Magazine's Town Rankings

Citing improvements in education, crime and "library expenditures per capita," Connecticut Magazine has raised Meriden in its ranking of similarly sized towns – from dead last in 2009 to nearly the middle of the group in 2011.

Meriden came in 12th out of 19 towns in the magazine's category for towns with populations over 50,000. The Silver City is just ahead of New Haven (13), Waterbury (14), Hartford (15), Bridgeport (16) and came in right behind Bristol (11), Stratford (10), Manchester (9), and Hamden (8). Greenwich netted the top spot.

The magazine compiled its rating based on five separate criteria – Education, Crime, Economy, Cost and Leisure – which it said most people rank as the main indicators of quality of life in a community.

On that model, Meriden ranked 13th in Education, 12th in Crime, 13th in Economy, 5th in Cost, and 15th in Leisure. In 2009, the last time the magazine released its full rankings of all communities in the state, Meriden ranked 16th on the list of towns over 50,000, tying with Bridgeport. The 2009 list can be viewed here.