454,969 people live in Waterbury, CT, which places it 118th of the 387 metropolitan areas. People, homes, work, and the shape of the local business landscape, drawn from public data.
Its principal cities are Waterbury and Shelton.
Owner-occupied homes carry a median value of $317,700, 5 percent below the national figure; the national comparison point is $332,700. Income in Waterbury, CT: a median of $86,191 per household against $80,734 nationally, so 7 percent above the national figure.
Who lives here matters as much as how many. Homeownership stands at 68.6%, 3 points above the US share. The share of adults with a bachelor's or above is 33.8%, 2 points below the US share. Unemployment in the civilian labor force is 6%, about the same as the US share. Waterbury, CT has a median age of 41.8 (2.9 years above the national median).
One more comparison, this time with Connecticut: median income 10 percent lower than the Connecticut figure, median home value 13 percent lower than the Connecticut figure, business density 19 percent thinner than the Connecticut figure.
There are 9,114 employer businesses in Waterbury, CT. Set against the population that is 20 per 1,000 residents, 20 percent below the national figure, against 25 nationally. Contractors in the home-services trades total 665, or 7.3% of the base, 2 points above the US share.
| Trade (NAICS) | Count | Per 100,000 | Index vs US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 783 | 172.1 | 1.16× |
| Physicians' offices | 268 | 58.9 | 1.13× |
| Personal care services (all) | 237 | 52.1 | 1.35× |
| Landscaping services | 200 | 44 | 1.56× |
| Legal services | 195 | 42.9 | 0.99× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 180 | 39.6 | 1.48× |
| Electrical contractors | 178 | 39.1 | 1.96× |
| Dentists | 163 | 35.8 | 1.10× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 159 | 34.9 | 1.46× |
| Child day care services | 119 | 26.2 | 1.33× |
| General automotive repair | 117 | 25.7 | 1.26× |
| Beauty salons | 106 | 23.3 | 1.16× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 88 | 19.3 | 0.59× |
| Automobile dealers | 65 | 14.3 | 1.27× |
| General freight trucking | 63 | 13.8 | 0.49× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 53 | 11.6 | 1.14× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 28 | 6.2 | 1.10× |
| Roofing contractors | 26 | 5.7 | 0.93× |
| Self-storage facilities | 15 | 3.3 | 0.74× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 14 | 3.1 | 1.39× |
Ratio above 1.00: the trade holds a bigger share of the local business base than it does nationally; below 1.00, a smaller one.
Some trades are heavier here than in the country at large: electrical contractors, landscaping services, plumbing and HVAC contractors and grocery stores. Electrical contractors stand out with 178 locations, 2 times what the national mix would predict. Fewer than the national pattern would suggest: general freight trucking, real estate lessors and self-storage operators. General freight trucking: 63 establishments, about half of the national share. Roofing contractors, concrete contractors and specialty trade contractors sit near their national proportions.
By raw count the largest categories here are restaurants (783), physicians' offices (268) and personal care services (237). Adjusted for population, restaurants are the thickest on the ground (172.1 per 100,000), with physicians' offices and personal care services next. Grouped, the home-services trades hold 1.5 times the share they hold nationally, while trucking, storage, real estate and road construction sit at about 59% of.
When electrical contractors, landscaping services and plumbing and HVAC contractors are this common, customers compare. That makes the review profile and the speed of the first reply the deciding factors, and it makes conversion tracking essential so budget flows to the searches that turn into booked work. A business in general freight trucking, real estate lessors and self-storage operators enters a lightly contested auction. That is the time to build organic visibility and a review base before the category fills in. High homeownership (68.6%) means a large pool of people who pay for their own repairs, replacements and yard work, which favors the home-services trades in this market. An older-than-average market (median age 2.9 years above the national median) responds to search results, review counts and a phone number that is answered; it is less swayed by feed advertising.
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Waterbury, CT has 454,969 residents (US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimate), ranking 118th of 387 metropolitan areas.
The median household income in Waterbury, CT is $86,191 (ACS 2024 5-year), above the US median of $80,734.
The Census Bureau counts 9,114 employer establishments in Waterbury, CT (County Business Patterns 2023), or 20 businesses per 1,000 residents.
The median home value in Waterbury, CT is $317,700, and 68.6% of homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2024 5-year).
Measured against the US business mix (County Business Patterns 2023), electrical contractors, landscaping services and plumbing and HVAC contractors have more establishments per resident than the US average; general freight trucking, real estate lessors and self-storage operators have fewer in Waterbury, CT.
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Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023. Updated 2026-09-29.