Manchester Named Connecticut’s 9th ‘Best’ Big Town

Connecticut Magazine recently released its latest “Rating the Towns” list of the top places to live in Connecticut, and Manchester falls squarely in the middle of the list of towns with populations over 50,000 residents. 

Manchester placed 9th out of 19 communities with populations over 50,000 on the magazine’s latest list, placing the town ahead of nearby larger communities like Hartford, East Hartford and New Britain, but behind more affluent communities like West Hartford, Stamford and Fairfield. Because of its strong education system, low crime rate and economic activity, Greenwich placed first on the list.

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, Manchester ranked 9th in Education, 8th in Crime, 10th in Economy, 9th in Cost, and 11th in Leisure. In 2009, the last time the magazine released its full rankings of all communities in the state, Manchester ranked 8th on the list of towns over 50,000. The full list can be viewed here.