State of the City

While Republican Mayor Erin Stewart reports on the state of the city in her sixth year in office, key data on income, poverty and education still shows New Britain being behind.

Jobs and the Economy

Of the 169 cities and towns in Connecticut, New Britain had the sixth lowest median household income in the state in 2017, the most recent data in the state’s Municipal Fiscal Indicators (MFI) report.

Median household income is the most accurate measure of average income. For a household at the median income, half of the other households are richer than them and half are poorer. They are the exact middle.

New Britain’s 2017 median household income of $43,611 was only 59.1% of the statewide median.

Also in the Municipal Fiscal Indicators report, New Britain’s 2018 unemployment was the sixth highest in the state at 5.1%.

Poverty

According to the 2017 American Community Survey from the United States Bureau of the Census, the most recent year for which the data is available, an estimate of nearly 15,000 New Britain residents lived below the poverty level, 21.3% of the city’s population.

Poverty for children was worse, with 35% of the city’s population under eighteen living below the poverty level, an estimate of 5,490 children and youth. For children and youth from five to seventeen years of age, the poverty rate was 36.7%

According to the Census estimates, 34% of New Britain Latinos, more than 10,000 people, lived below the poverty line.

The level of poverty also shows in the need for public assistance. Of all of the cities and towns in the state, New Britain had the second highest percentage of its population in 2018 receiving the need-based Temporary Family Assistance benefit. According the to the MFI report, only Hartford families had a greater need for the program.

Education

New Britain had the lowest state school test scores of all of the city and town school districts on the 2017-18 testing. New Britain’s scores were actually the lowest in the state in two separate testing categories – math and English language arts.

The data is from the State Department of Education’s Performance Index Report, including the district-wide scores for all students.

The Department of Education says that, in each subject area, the index is given from 0 to 100. The state goal is an index value 75, but New Britain’s index scores were 51.5 in English language arts and 44.6 in math.