Bethel is a somewhat small town located in the state of Connecticut. With a population of 18,067 people and four constituent neighborhoods, Bethel is the 61st largest community in Connecticut.

Unlike some towns where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Bethel is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Bethel is a town of sales and office workers, professionals, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Bethel who work in office and administrative support jobs (15.37%), management occupations (12.12%), and sales jobs (11.53%).

Also of interest is that Bethel has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

In addition, Bethel is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates," which are people who are not only wealthy and employed in professional occupations, but highly educated to boot. Urban sophisticates have urbane tastes - whether they reside in a big or small city, a suburb, or a little town. Urban sophisticates support bookstores, quality clothing stores, enjoy luxury travel, and in big cities, they are truly the patrons of the arts, attending and supporting institutions such as opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre.

Because of many things, Bethel is a very good place for families to consider. With an enviable combination of good schools, low crime, college-educated neighbors who tend to support education because of their own experiences, and a high rate of home ownership in predominantly single-family properties, Bethel really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Bethel perfect? Of course not, and if you like frenetic night life, it will be far from your cup of tea. But overall this is a solid community, with many things to recommend it as a family-friendly place to live.

For most residents of Bethel, getting to work requires a car. In fact, 96.5% of people in Bethel drive alone to work on most days, making Bethel a very car-oriented town. In general, car-oriented communities tend to emphasize streets, highways, and ease of parking, often to the detriment of walkability. Strip centers are a feature of Bethel's landscape.

Being a small town, Bethel does not have a public transit system used by locals to get to and from work.

Bethel Information and Demographics

The education level of Bethel citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (14.96%): 36.75% of adults in Bethel have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Bethel in 2000 was $28,927, which is middle income relative to Connecticut, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $115,708 for a family of four. However, Bethel contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

The people who call Bethel home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Bethel is White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Bethel include Italian, Irish, German, English, and Polish.

The most common language spoken in Bethel is English. Some people also speak Spanish.