Quick! What’s the average household income in Westport (as of 2021, anyway)?
$279,100? $428,300? $624,800?
Yep. It’s that third figure: nearly 2/3 of the way to a million dollars.
That puts 06880 in only 8th place though, among Connecticut Zip codes.
We trail 06831 (in Greenwich’s back country), which leads our state’s average household income ($1.2 million), as well as 06830 in Greenwich ($999,600), and other Zip codes in Riverside, Darien, Old Greenwich, New Canaan, and Norwalk’s 06853 (Rowayton; $627,000).
Southport was behind 06880, in 9th place ($525,400), while Weston’s 06883 was 10th ($440,100).
IRS statistics — first reported by CT Insider — show that 45% of Westport’s average household income comes from wages. Another 38% is derived from investments: capital gains, interest and dividends).
(Wages and investments columns are less than 100% due to other income sources like retirement distributions, social security and business income.)
Westport’s average income was almost double — 49% higher — than the 2013 figure.
Residents who can afford a home like this one at 50 Compo Mill Cove — $12.25 million for 5 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms, on 0.39 acre — pull Westport’s average income upward.
The wealthiest ZIP Code in the US was 33109: Fisher Island, Florida. Residents there had an average income of $6 million. Just 6% came from wages; 86% were from investments.
It’s safe to say that — with Wall Street’s booming economy — Westport’s average income will increase even more, when the 2023 IRS figures are tabulated.
Obviously, data like this can be skewed by a few ultra-wealthy individuals.
Has Westport’s near-double growth in average household income in just 8 years been affected by an influx of new, young and very affluent arrivals, perhaps during the pandemic?
Did investments by savvy older, already wealthy Westporters pay off?
It’s hard to tell.
But one thing is certain: The inequality in Zip codes is stark.
06604 — the heart of Bridgeport, less than 10 miles from here — had a 2021 average household income of $43,000.
In the 8 years the report covered, it rose just 7%.
(Click here for the full CT Insider story. Hat tip: Lisa Wexler)
(“06880” does not come close to the average Westport household. That’s why we ask readers for tax-deductible contributions. Please click here to support our work.)
Wow Dan, these are amazing statistics. Amazing to see The actual numbers And percentages.
Dorothy, Here’s something more amazing. In 1952 my father’s income was $2,600 dollars for that year. We owned a house at 56 North Maple Avenue and he bought a new car that year. In January 1952, we drove to Hollywood Florida to visit a relative.
Lol. Love this comment, Jack. The Westport where a achool teacher dad getting his masters at NYU, and a mom violinist, bank teller could raise 2 children, have a decent rancher type home, 2 cars, music lessons, swim lessons, etc. Not everyone had to have mansions. And I miss that Westport. I also bet you our childhood rocked more! A la Wonder Years style. Our neighbors were interesting and hardworking. One dad was a chef at that restaurant on the corner of the Post Road and Myrtle I believe. He also worked at Coffee An on weekends. I thnk it was just called The Donut Shop then. Another family lived around the corner, and the dad opened Big Top while we lived there. Everyone in that little hood was interesting and lovely. We were like a big family on the street. Had beach cookouts together. Simple and beautiful life. We exchanged Christmas cards for decades after we moved from some of those folks who also moved.
I love the memories and am looking for my BFF on our old street. I won’t post her name here. We were inseparable on the block from practically the day we moved in. I was 3 and a half, she was 4. We played endlessly. We rode our bikes forever with training wheels and streamers on the handle bars. Boys clipped decks of cars with closthes pins on their wheels to sound like motorcycles . We made up plays behind their grape arbor and invited the neighbors and charged stones and leaves for admission. All the parents came too, and sat in lawn chairs. None of us lived in mansions. I know she went all the way through Westport school system to graduate from Staples. We were so little but the play was free and creative. I don’t think she lives in Westport anymore.
BJ, Clipped baseball cards on the wheels to sound like a motorcycle. That was the “ in thing” in the mid 1950s.
Average is deceiving. Example: 99 people earn 50K, and 1 earns 5mil. This makes the100 people earn an average of 100K, doubling what most earn. This is an example of how a few top earners skew the reality. But it’s fun to create statistical illusions especially living in La La Land where all the children are above average…. to quote Garrison Keller. The take-away is most rich people don’t live in Bridgeport.
As Mark Yurkiw pointed out above, average income statistics are deceiving. According to the US Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the median household income in Westport is only $236,892 plus or minus $27,007. Median income means half the households have incomes above that level and half the households have income below that level.
Thank you. MEDIAN is the more appropriate context for these numbers, not mean (aka average). Greenwich is home to most of CT’s billionaires and thus, significantly skew the mean. Most in Westport are “well off” but it’s all relative. In the end, does anyone really derive value from knowing Westport is 8th in this study?
Dan, it would be awesome to get data to compare how philanthropical the town of Westport is, for so many great causes. It should be a testament that those who make a lot of money, want to live in this town. This town is one beautiful place on the coast line. It is run by fantastic selectmen and selectwomen over the years, with a great town govt, great police and fire, and so many organizations to solve for just about everything. We have businesses, restaurants, bars, gyms, shops, and so much more, yet it still has a small town feel. Many of us wish we could go back to the days of more walking and no cell phones, and no crime. However, overall, this is one of the best towns in the country, maybe the world. Hats off to all things, including 06880woog, of which there is only one in the world, and its right here in westport!!!!
To BJ and Jack. I remember those days just as you describe them. I am a Staples grad 1958. When I went to college my dad earned less than $5,000.00 a year. I don’t remember the exact figure. I probably was under $4,000.00. We were not the in the “commute into NYC and back out in the “bar car” group.” Neither of my parents finished college. Even so the wife of the First Selectman took an interest in me through Girl Scouting and did so much for me that has impacted my life positively. Those were the days, the good old days in Westport. Everyone was valued from Jimmy the Barber to the farmers. I was so sad to read in an earlier post that someone said unkind words about Michael Calise. His family was a vital part of Westport. I believe that he served in the Marines and has always made an important contribution to Westport.
When I grew up in Westport from 1955-62, there was definite economic segregation in eastern Westport, going from 1/2 acre zoning in the southern parts to 2 acre zoning in the north. Greens Farms School had many students whose parents owned businesses in Westport while Burr Farms and Coleytown had students whose fathers commuted to New York or worked for United Aircraft.
While my father worked in New York, my best friend growing up, Jimmy Sipperly, had a father who worked in a scissor factory in Bridgeport. They lived in a modest house on North Maple Avenue and his mother didn’t have a car, so my mother chauffeured him to after school events along with me. At the time I never gave a thought to the economic disparities between our families
My parents were able to send me to Northeastern University in Boston where I got to experience the full dorm experience while he lived at home and went to a community college (despite having better grades than I had). Sadly he died during his freshmen year.
“The rich get rich and the poor get poorer…Ain’t we got fun?