Bethel (/ˈbɛθəl/) is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States.

[5] In 1934, Rudolph Kunett started the first vodka distillery in the U.S. after purchasing rights to the recipe from the exiled Smirnoff family.

The Bethel CDP, corresponding to the town center, has a total area of 4.1 square miles (11 km2), all land.

Bethel borders Redding to the south, Danbury to the west, Brookfield to the north, and Newtown to the east.

20.2% were of Italian, 17.5% Irish, 9.1% German, 7.0% English, 6.7% American and 6.0% Polish ancestry according to Census 2000.

[9] 88.7% spoke English, 4.4% Spanish, 3.3% Portuguese, 1.5% German and 1.0% French as their first language.

20.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

[citation needed] Interstate 84 passes through Bethel, and it has a train station on the Danbury Branch of Metro-North's New Haven Line.