Did you know that approximately 24% of Wiltonians work out-of-state?
The 2013 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates show that Wilton’s percentage of out-of-state workers, 16 years and older, is higher than that of the overall county.
According to ACS data, approximately 14% of Fairfield County workers leave Connecticut for their jobs.
“If you live on the state border, there’s a pretty decent chance you don’t work in Connecticut,” according to TrendCT.org’s article, Who leaves Connecticut for work? — especially if you live in Fairfield County.
TrendCT reported that approximately one-third of Greenwich, New Canaan, Darien and Sherman residents work out of state, and Ridgefield, Wilton, Weston, Westport and New Fairfield — as a group — “sends about 25% of its residents out of state for work.”
“Even in Stamford and Norwalk, two of the state’s largest cities,” TrendCT reported, “about one in seven residents leaves the state for work.”
In Wilton, nearly 11% more men leave the state for work than women.
According to ACS data, more men working out-of-state is common in Fairfield County, where men who leave the state outnumber women by 7.9%.
Out-of-county
An estimated 2% of Wiltonians work outside of Fairfield County, but in Connecticut, according to ACS data, and 1.1% more women (2.6%) leave the county than men (1.5%).
At the county level, however, men who leave Fairfield County for work outnumber women — but only by an estimated 0.6%. According to ACS data, 7.4% of Fairfield County residents work out-of-county.
Working at home
Fairfield County has a high rate of people who work from home, and women tend to do so more than men.
An estimated 12.8% of Wiltonians work from home, according to ACS data, and women work at home 1.4% more than men.
Working at home is an increasing trend among Americans. According to United States Census Bureau data, 9.2-million Americans were working at home (either exclusively or part of the time) in 1997. By 2010, there were 13.4 million.
In Fairfield County, approximately 5% of workers 16 and older work at home, with women outnumbering men by less than 1%.
How they get to work
According to TrendCT’s Who in Connecticut drives to work? Takes trains? Walks? article, one-fourth of Fairfield County workers do not drive to work.
This, according to TrendCT, probably has to do with the county’s close proximity to the Greater New York Metropolitan Area and access to the Metro-North rail line.
“Trains, and sometimes buses, are the primary mode of transportation for Fairfield County workers who don’t drive,” according to TrendCT.
Close to 66,000 people rode the Danbury Branch Line in May, according to the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council’s June 2015 Operations Report, and 319,171 rode the line between January and May.
Public transportation
According to ACS data, an estimated 12.8% of Wiltonians and 9.3% of Fairfield County workers use public transportation to get to work.
Of those who take public transportation, rail is the most common mode taken in Wilton and Fairfield County.
According to TrendCT, Darien has the state’s highest rate — at 26% — of workers taking public transportation.
In Wilton and Fairfield County, men who commute to work via public transportation outnumber women by 9% and 3.7%, respectively.
Driving
An estimated 72.7% of Wiltonians drive to work, according to ACS data, with women driving to work 6.9% more than men. Of Wiltonians who drive to work, 4% carpool.
At the county level, 81.6% drive to work — 8.5% of which carpool — and women who drive to work outnumber men by 4.1%.
Other means
Fewer than 1% of Wilton workers and approximately 1.1% of Fairfield County residents use bicycles, taxis, motorcycles and other means of transportation to get to work, according to ACS data.
Walking is another uncommon way locals get to work. According to ACS data, 1.1% of Wilton residents and 2.9% of Fairfield County residents get to work on foot.
Whatever their method of getting to work, it takes approximately 20% of Wiltonians 60 minutes or more to get to work, and the average to-work travel time for Wiltonians is 36.3 minutes.
Click here for information on the ACS.