Darien is a somewhat small coastal town (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Connecticut. With a population of 19,607 people and five constituent neighborhoods, Darien is the 51st largest community in Connecticut.

Darien is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 95.37% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Darien is a town of managers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Darien who work in management occupations (25.27%), sales jobs (20.58%), and business and financial occupations (11.77%).

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

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

A relatively large number of people in Darien telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 8.27% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.

In addition, Darien is home to many people who could be described as "urban sophisticates." 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, Darien 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, Darien really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is Darien 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 Darien 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 Darien, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 36.41 minutes every day commuting to work.

Darien Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to Darien, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. Darien is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 70.45% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 14.96%.

The per capita income in Darien in 2000 was $77,519, which is wealthy relative to Connecticut and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $310,076 for a family of four. However, Darien contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

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