Westport is a medium-sized coastal town (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Connecticut. With a population of 25,749 people and six constituent neighborhoods, Westport is the 39th largest community in Connecticut.

Westport is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 96.03% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Westport is a town of managers, professionals, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Westport who work in management occupations (24.09%), sales jobs (17.18%), and business and financial occupations (11.80%).

Of important note, Westport is also a town of artists. Westport has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Westport's character.

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

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their homes - 11.07% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

Westport, while not large, also appears to be attractive to some younger, educated professionals, who help shape the character of the town.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Westport is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates." While both of these categories describe educated professionals, urban sophisticates are quite a different demographic. Urban sophisticates are people who are both educated and wealthy, and thus tend to be older, richer, and more established than young professionals. "Urban sophisticates" is not just about being educated and well-off financially: it is a point of view and state of mind, one that you might call 'urbaneness.' But such people can and do regularly live in small towns, suburbs and rural areas, as well as in big cities. They read, support the arts and high-end shops, and love travel.

Because of many things, Westport 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, Westport really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Westport 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.

One of the nice things about Westport is that is it nautical, meaning that parts of the town are somewhat historic and on the ocean, or touch tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

One downside of living in Westport is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Westport, the average commute to work is 39.37 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average.

Westport Information and Demographics

If knowledge is power, Westport is a pretty powerful place. 69.45% of the adults in Westport have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 14.96% for all cities and towns.

The per capita income in Westport in 2000 was $73,664, which is wealthy relative to Connecticut and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $294,656 for a family of four. However, Westport contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

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