New Canaan is a somewhat small town located in the state of Connecticut. With a population of 19,395 people and four constituent neighborhoods, New Canaan is the 53rd largest community in Connecticut.

New Canaan is a decidedly white-collar town, with fully 94.64% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, New Canaan is a town of managers, sales and office workers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in New Canaan who work in management occupations (27.18%), sales jobs (19.62%), and business and financial occupations (11.29%).

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

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their homes - 8.54% 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.

In addition, New Canaan 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, New Canaan 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, New Canaan really has some of the features that families look for when choosing a good community to raise children. Is New Canaan 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 downside of living in New Canaan, however, is that residents on average have to contend with a long commute, spending on average 35.66 minutes every day commuting to work.

New Canaan Information and Demographics

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to New Canaan, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. New Canaan is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 71.60% 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 New Canaan in 2000 was $82,049, which is wealthy relative to Connecticut and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $328,196 for a family of four. However, New Canaan contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

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

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