New England

Coordinates: 44°N 71°W / 44°N 71°W / 44; -71
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

New England
Left-right from top:
Aquinnah, the Connecticut River valley, skyline of Providence
Official logo of New England
Motto(s): 
None official. "An Appeal to Heaven" and "Nunquam libertas gratior extat" (Latin for 'Never does liberty appear in a more gracious form') are common de facto mottos.
New England within the US, highlighted red
Location of New England (red) in the United States
Location of New England in North America
Location of New England (red) in North America
Composition
Largest metropolitan area
Largest cityBoston
Area
 • Total71,987.59 sq mi (186,447.0 km2)
 • Land62,688.4 sq mi (162,362 km2)
Population
 (2020)
 • Total15,116,205
 • Density210/sq mi (81/km2)
Demonym(s)New Englander, Yankee,[1] Novanglian, Novanglican (archaic)[2]
GDP
 • Total$1.41 trillion (2023)
DialectsNew England English, New England French

New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick to the northeast and Quebec to the north. The Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean are to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the southwest. Boston is New England's largest city and the capital of Massachusetts. Greater Boston is the largest metropolitan area, with nearly a third of New England's population; this area includes Worcester, Massachusetts, the second-largest city in New England, Manchester, New Hampshire, the largest city in New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of and largest city in Rhode Island.

In 1620, the

Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquian
allies.

In the late 18th century, political leaders from the New England colonies initiated resistance to Britain's

captured and burned a British ship which was enforcing unpopular trade restrictions, and residents of Boston threw British tea into the harbor. Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government which the colonists called the "Intolerable Acts". These confrontations led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775 and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. The region played a prominent role in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States, and it was the first region of the U.S. transformed by the Industrial Revolution, initially centered on the Blackstone and Merrimack
river valleys.

The physical geography of New England is diverse. Southeastern New England is covered by a narrow

coastal plain, while the western and northern regions are dominated by the rolling hills and worn-down peaks of the northern end of the Appalachian Mountains. The Atlantic fall line lies close to the coast, which enabled numerous cities to take advantage of water power along the many rivers, such as the Connecticut River
, which bisects the region from north to south.

Each state is generally subdivided into small municipalities known as towns, many of which are governed by town meetings. Unincorporated areas are practically nonexistent outside of Maine, and village-style governments common in other areas are limited to Vermont and Connecticut. New England is one of the U.S. Census Bureau's nine regional divisions and the only multi-state region with clear and consistent boundaries. It maintains a strong sense of cultural identity,[4] although the terms of this identity are often contrasted, combining Puritanism with liberalism, agrarian life with industry, and isolation with immigration.

History

Indigenous territories, circa 1600 in present-day southern New England

The earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the

Wampanoags.[5] Prior to the arrival of European colonists, the Western Abenakis inhabited what is now New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine.[6] Their principal town was Norridgewock in today's Maine.[7]

The Penobscots lived along the

Connecticut River Valley linked numerous tribes culturally, linguistically, and politically.[5]

As early as the year 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began exploring the New World, trading metal, glass, and cloth for local beaver pelts.[5][8]

Colonial period

Soldier and explorer John Smith coined the name "New England" in 1616.

On April 10, 1606, King

James I of England issued a charter for the Virginia Company, which consisted of the London Company and the Plymouth Company. These two privately funded ventures were intended to claim land for England, to conduct trade, and to return a profit. In 1620, the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower and established Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, beginning the history of permanent European colonization in New England.[9]

In 1616, English explorer

Plymouth Council for New England, a joint-stock company established to colonize and govern the region.[12] The Pilgrims wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact before leaving the ship,[13] and it became their first governing document.[14] The Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629[15][16] with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630.[17]

Massachusetts Puritans began to establish themselves in Connecticut as early as 1633.

Providence Plantations, which grew into the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636.[19][20] At this time, Vermont was uncolonized, and the territories of New Hampshire and Maine were claimed and governed by Massachusetts. As the region grew, it received many immigrants from Europe due to its religious tolerance and economy.[21]

French and Indian Wars

A 1638 engraving depicting the Mystic massacre
An English map of New England c. 1670 depicts the area around modern Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Relationships alternated between peace and armed skirmishes between colonists and local Native American tribes, the bloodiest of which was the Pequot War in 1637 which resulted in the Mystic massacre.[22] On May 19, 1643, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut joined in a loose compact called the New England Confederation (officially "The United Colonies of New England"). The confederation was designed largely to coordinate mutual defense, and it gained some importance during King Philip's War[23] which pitted the colonists and their Indian allies against a widespread Indian uprising from June 1675 through April 1678, resulting in killings and massacres on both sides.[24] In the aftermath of settler-Native conflicts, hundreds of captive Indians were sold into slavery.[25][26] Up until 1700, Native Americans comprised a majority of the non-white labor force in colonial New England.[27]

During the next 74 years, there were six colonial wars that took place primarily between New England and

Iroquois Confederacy and New France was allied with the Wabanaki Confederacy. Mainland Nova Scotia came under the control of New England after the Siege of Port Royal (1710)
, but both New Brunswick and most of Maine remained contested territory between New England and New France. The British eventually defeated the French in 1763, opening the Connecticut River Valley for British settlement into western New Hampshire and Vermont.

The New England Colonies were settled primarily by farmers who became relatively self-sufficient. Later, New England's economy began to focus on crafts and trade, aided by the

Puritan work ethic, in contrast to the Southern colonies which focused on agricultural production while importing finished goods from England.[29]

Dominion of New England

The New England Ensign, one of several flags historically associated with New England. This flag was reportedly used by colonial merchant ships sailing out of New England ports, 1686 – c. 1737.[30][31][32][33][34]
New England's Siege of Louisbourg (1745) by Peter Monamy

By 1686,

West New Jersey were added to the dominion. The union was imposed from the outside and contrary to the rooted democratic tradition of the colonies, and it was highly unpopular among the colonists.[36]

The dominion significantly modified the charters of the colonies, including the appointment of royal governors to nearly all of them. There was an uneasy tension among the royal governors, their officers, and the elected governing bodies of the colonies. The governors wanted unlimited authority, and the different layers of locally elected officials would often resist them. In most cases, the local town governments continued operating as self-governing bodies, just as they had before the appointment of the governors.[37]

After the

War of American Independence in 1775. The first battles of which were fought in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, leading to the Siege of Boston
by continental troops. In March 1776, British forces were compelled to retreat from Boston.

New England in the new nation

After the dissolution of the Dominion of New England, the colonies of New England ceased to function as a unified political unit but remained a defined cultural region. There were often disputes over territorial jurisdiction, leading to land exchanges such as those regarding the Equivalent Lands and New Hampshire Grants.[39]

By 1784, all of the states in the region had taken steps towards the abolition of slavery, with Vermont and Massachusetts introducing total abolition in 1777 and 1783, respectively.[40] The nickname "Yankeeland" was sometimes used to denote the New England area, especially among Southerners and the British.[41]

Vermont was admitted to statehood in 1791 after settling a dispute with New York. The territory of Maine had been a part of Massachusetts, but it was granted statehood on March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise.[42] Today, New England is defined as the six states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.[43]

New England's economic growth relied heavily on trade with the

United States Constitution to protect the region's interests and maintain its political power.[45] Radical delegates within the convention proposed the region's secession from the United States, but they were outnumbered by moderates who opposed the idea.[46]

Politically, the region often disagreed with the rest of the country.[47] Massachusetts and Connecticut were among the last refuges of the Federalist Party, and New England became the strongest bastion of the new Whig Party when the Second Party System began in the 1830s. The Whigs were usually dominant throughout New England, except in the more Democratic Maine and New Hampshire.

Industrial Revolution

Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Bread and Roses Strike. Massachusetts National Guard troops surround unarmed strikers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1912.

New England was key to the

industrial revolution in the United States.[48] The Blackstone Valley running through Massachusetts and Rhode Island has been called the birthplace of America's industrial revolution.[49] In 1787, the first cotton mill in America was founded in the North Shore seaport of Beverly, Massachusetts as the Beverly Cotton Manufactory.[50] The Manufactory was also considered the largest cotton mill of its time. Technological developments and achievements from the Manufactory led to the development of more advanced cotton mills, including Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Towns such as Lawrence, Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and Lewiston, Maine became centers of the textile industry following the innovations at Slater Mill and the Beverly Cotton Manufactory.[citation needed
]

The

Connecticut River Valley became a crucible for industrial innovation, particularly the Springfield Armory, pioneering such advances as interchangeable parts and the assembly line which influenced manufacturing processes all around the world.[51] From early in the nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth, the region surrounding Springfield, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut served as the United States' epicenter for advanced manufacturing, drawing skilled workers from all over the world.[52][53]

The rapid growth of textile manufacturing in New England between 1815 and 1860 caused a shortage of workers. Recruiters were hired by mill agents to bring young women and children from the countryside to work in the factories. Between 1830 and 1860, thousands of farm girls moved from rural areas where there was no paid employment to work in the nearby mills, such as the

Lowell Mill Girls. As the textile industry grew, immigration also grew. By the 1850s, immigrants began working in the mills, especially French Canadians and Irish.[54]

New England as a whole was the most industrialized part of the United States. By 1850, the region accounted for well over a quarter of all manufacturing value in the country and over a third of its industrial workforce.[55] It was also the most literate and most educated region in the country.[55]

During the same period, New England and areas settled by New Englanders (upstate New York, Ohio's

consistently Democratic stronghold in national elections.[57]

20th century and beyond

Autumn in New England, watercolor, Maurice Prendergast, c. 1910–1913

The flow of immigrants continued at a steady pace from the 1840s until cut off by World War I. The largest numbers came from Ireland and Britain before 1890, and after that from Quebec, Italy, and Southern Europe. The immigrants filled the ranks of factory workers, craftsmen, and unskilled laborers. The Irish assumed a larger and larger role in the Democratic Party in the cities and statewide, while the rural areas remained Republican.

The

Duncan Upshaw Fletcher) for work on the Pecora Commission, which revealed that neither Albert H. Wiggin (born in Medfield, MA) nor J. P. Morgan Jr. had paid any income taxes in 1931 and 1932; a public outcry ensued.[59]
 

Boston figured prominently on the subject of securities laws in the early 1930s in response to the Great Depression. Harvard University professors Felix Frankfurter, Benjamin V. Cohen, and James M. Landis drafted the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. was the first chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and he was from Boston.[60]

The Democrats appealed to factory workers and especially Catholics, pulling them into the New Deal coalition and making the once-Republican region into one that was closely divided. However, the enormous spending on munitions, ships, electronics, and uniforms during World War II caused a burst of prosperity in every sector.

The region lost most of its factories starting with the loss of textiles in the 1930s and getting worse after 1960. The New England economy was radically transformed after World War II. The factory economy practically disappeared. Once-bustling New England communities fell into economic decay following the flight of the region's industrial base. The textile mills one by one went out of business from the 1920s to the 1970s. For example, the Crompton Company went bankrupt in 1984 after 178 years in business, costing the jobs of 2,450 workers in five states. The major reasons were cheap imports, the strong dollar, declining exports, and a failure to diversify.[61] The shoe industry subsequently left the region as well.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a high concentration of startups and technology companies.

What remains is very high technology manufacturing, such as jet engines, nuclear submarines, pharmaceuticals, robotics, scientific instruments, and medical devices. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology invented the format for university-industry relations in high tech fields and spawned many software and hardware firms, some of which grew rapidly.[62] By the 21st century, the region had become famous for its leadership roles in the fields of education, medicine, medical research, high-technology, finance, and tourism.[63]

Some industrial areas were slow in adjusting to the new service economy. In 2000, New England had two of the ten poorest cities in the U.S. (by percentage living below the poverty line): the state capitals of Providence, Rhode Island and Hartford, Connecticut.[64] They were no longer in the bottom ten by 2010; Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire remain among the ten wealthiest states in the United States in terms of median household income and per capita income.[65]

Geography

A political and geographical map of New England shows the coastal plains in the southeast, and hills, mountains and valleys in the west and the north.
A portion of the north-central Pioneer Valley in Sunderland, Massachusetts

The states of New England have a combined area, including water surfaces, of 71,988 square miles (186,447 km2),[66] making the region slightly larger than the state of Washington and slightly smaller than Great Britain.[67][68] Maine alone constitutes nearly one-half of the total area of New England, yet is only the 39th-largest state, slightly smaller than Indiana. The remaining states are among the smallest in the U.S., including the smallest state—Rhode Island.

The areas of the states (including water area) are:

Geology

New England's long rolling hills, mountains, and jagged coastline are

last glacial period.[70][71]

New England is geologically a part of the

The Berkshires in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the Green Mountains in Vermont, as well as the Taconic Mountains, form a spine of Precambrian rock.[73]

The Appalachians extend northwards into New Hampshire as the

White Mountains, and then into Maine and Canada. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is the highest peak in the Northeast, although it is not among the ten highest peaks in the eastern United States.[74] It is the site of the second highest recorded wind speed on Earth,[75][76] and has the reputation of having the world's most severe weather.[77][78]

The coast of the region, extending from southwestern Connecticut to northeastern Maine, is dotted with lakes, hills, marshes and wetlands, and sandy beaches.

Connecticut River Valley and the Merrimack Valley.[71] The longest river is the Connecticut River, which flows from northeastern New Hampshire for 407 mi (655 km), emptying into Long Island Sound, roughly bisecting the region. Lake Champlain, which forms part of the border between Vermont and New York, is the largest lake in the region, followed by Moosehead Lake in Maine and Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.[71]

Climate

Köppen climate types in New England
White Mountains of New Hampshire are part of the Appalachian Mountains
.

The climate of New England varies greatly across its 500 miles (800 km) span from northern Maine to southern Connecticut:

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and western Massachusetts have a

). In this region the winters are long and cold, and heavy snow is common (most locations receive 60–120 inches (150–300 cm) of snow annually in this region). The summer's months are moderately warm, though summer is rather short and rainfall is spread through the year.

In central and eastern Massachusetts, northern Rhode Island, and northern Connecticut, the same humid continental prevails (Dfa), though summers are warm to hot, winters are shorter, and there is less snowfall (especially in the coastal areas where it is often warmer).

Southern and coastal Connecticut is the broad transition zone from the cold

subtropical climates to the south. The frost free season is greater than 180 days across far southern/coastal Connecticut, coastal Rhode Island, and the islands (Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard). Winters also tend to be much sunnier in southern Connecticut and southern Rhode Island compared to the rest of New England.[79]

Regions

1.
Connecticut Shoreline

Biodiversity

New England contains forested ecosystems with a variety of terrestrial vertebrates. Land-use patterns and land disturbance, such as the dramatic increase in land clearing for agriculture in the mid eighteenth century to nineteenth century, greatly altered the ecosystem and resulted in extinctions, local extirpations, and recolonizations.[80]

According to an analysis of USDA Forest Service data, tree species diversity increases from north to south at about 2-3 species per degree in latitude. In addition, taller trees are associated with higher tree species diversity, and tree height is a better predictor than general forest age or biomass. Due to an increasing the amount of nitrogen in the soil from climate change, the red maple is becoming one of the most abundant trees in the region, and outcompeting other maples such as the sugar maple.[81]

Largest cities

The most populous cities as of the 2020 U.S. Census were (metropolitan areas in parentheses):[82][83]

  1. Massachusetts Boston, Massachusetts: 675,647 (4,941,632)
  2. Worcester, Massachusetts: 206,518 (923,672)
  3. Rhode Island Providence, Rhode Island: 190,934 (1,604,291)
  4. Springfield, Massachusetts: 155,929 (699,162)
  5. Connecticut Bridgeport, Connecticut: 148,654 (939,904)
  6. Stamford, Connecticut: 135,470 (part of Greater Bridgeport)
  7. New Haven, Connecticut: 134,023 (862,477)
  8. Hartford, Connecticut: 121,054 (1,214,295)
  9. Cambridge, Massachusetts: 118,403 (part of Greater Boston)
  10. New Hampshire Manchester, New Hampshire: 115,644 (406,678)

During the 20th century, urban expansion in regions surrounding New York City has become an important economic influence on neighboring Connecticut, parts of which belong to the New York metropolitan area. The U.S. Census Bureau groups Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties in western Connecticut together with New York City and other parts of New York and New Jersey as a combined statistical area.[84]

Metropolitan areas and capitals

Metropolitan areas

The following are metropolitan statistical areas as defined by the United States Census Bureau.

Rank Metropolitan area State(s) Population (2020) Encompassing CSA
1 Boston  Massachusetts
 New Hampshire
4,941,632 Boston
2 Providence  Massachusetts
 Rhode Island
1,676,579 Boston
3 Hartford  Connecticut 1,213,531 Hartford
4
Worcester
 Connecticut
 Massachusetts
978,529 Boston
5 Bridgeport  Connecticut 957,419 New York
6 New Haven  Connecticut 864,835 Hartford
7 Springfield  Massachusetts 699,162 Springfield
8 Portland  Maine 551,740 Portland
9 Manchester-Nashua  New Hampshire 422,937 Boston
10 Norwich-New London  Connecticut 268,555 Hartford
11 Barnstable  Massachusetts 228,996 Boston
12 Burlington  Vermont 225,562 Burlington
13 Bangor  Maine 152,199
14 Pittsfield  Massachusetts 129,026
15 Lewiston-Auburn  Maine 111,139 Portland

State capitals

Montpelier, Vermont, is the smallest state capital in the United States.[85]

Demographics

Largest self-reported ancestry groups in New England. Americans of Irish descent form a plurality in most of Massachusetts, while Americans of English descent form a plurality in much of the central parts of Vermont and New Hampshire as well as nearly all of Maine.

In 2020, New England had a population of 15,116,205, a growth of 4.6% from 2010.[86] Massachusetts is the most populous state with 7,029,917 residents, while Vermont is the least populous state with 643,077 residents.[86] Boston is by far the region's most populous city and metropolitan area.

Although a great disparity exists between New England's northern and southern portions, the region's average population density is 234.93 inhabitants/sq mi (90.7/km2). New England has a significantly higher population density than that of the U.S. as a whole (79.56/sq mi), or even just the contiguous 48 states (94.48/sq mi). Three-quarters of the population of New England, and most of the major cities, are in southern New England—the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island—where the combined population density is 786.83/sq mi (2000 census). In northern New England—the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont—the combined population density is 63.56/sq mi (2000 census).

According to the 2006–08 American Community Survey, 48.7% of New Englanders were male and 51.3% were female. Approximately 22.4% of the population were under 18 years of age; 13.5% were over 65 years of age. The six states of New England have the lowest birth rate in the U.S.[87]

Ethnic origins in New England
World's largest Irish flag in Boston. People who claim Irish descent constitute the largest ethnic ancestry in New England.

European Americans
. As of 2014, Hispanics and Latinos of any race made up 10.2% of New England's population. Connecticut had the highest proportion at 13.9%, while Vermont had the lowest at 1.3%. There were nearly 1.5 million Hispanic and Latino individuals reported in New England in 2014.

Puerto Ricans were the most numerous of the Hispanic and Latino subgroups. Over 660,000 Puerto Ricans lived in New England in 2014, forming 4.5% of the population. The Dominican population is over 200,000, and the Mexican and Guatemalan populations are each over 100,000.[88] Americans of Cuban descent are scant in number; there were roughly 26,000 Cuban Americans in the region in 2014. People of all other Hispanic and Latino ancestries, including Salvadoran, Colombian and Bolivian, formed 2.5% of New England's population and numbered over 361,000 combined.[88]

According to the 2014 American Community Survey, the top ten largest reported European ancestries were the following:

French Canadian: 13.1% (1.9 million),[90] German: 7.4% (1.1 million), Polish: 4.9% (roughly 715,000), Portuguese: 3.2% (467,000), Scottish: 2.5% (370,000), Russian: 1.4% (206,000), and Greek
: 1.0% (152,000).

Lusophone ethnic enclaves.[91]

English is, by far, the most common language spoken at home. Approximately 81.3% of all residents (11.3 million people) over the age of five spoke only English at home. Roughly 1,085,000 people (7.8% of the population) spoke Spanish at home, and roughly 970,000 people (7.0% of the population) spoke other Indo-European languages at home. Over 403,000 people (2.9% of the population) spoke an Asian or Pacific Island language at home.[92] Slightly fewer (about 1%) spoke French at home,[93] although this figure is above 20% in northern New England, which borders francophone Québec.[citation needed] Roughly 99,000 people (0.7% of the population) spoke languages other than these at home.[92]

As of 2014, approximately 87% of New England's inhabitants were born in the U.S., while over 12% were foreign-born.[94] 35.8% of foreign-born residents were born in Latin America, 28.6% were born in Asia,[95] 22.9% were born in Europe, and 8.5% were born in Africa.[96]

Southern New England forms an integral part of the

most densely populated states in the U.S.
; only New Jersey has a higher population density than the states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Combined Statistical Area of over 8.2 million.[97]

Economy

The Port of Portland in Portland, Maine, is the largest tonnage seaport in New England.

Several factors combine to make the New England economy unique. The region is distant from the geographic center of the country, and it is a relatively small region but densely populated. It historically has been an important center of industry and manufacturing and a supplier of natural resource products, such as granite, lobster, and

U.S. Department of Commerce has called the New England economy a microcosm for the entire U.S. economy.[98]

The region underwent a long period of deindustrialization in the first half of the 20th century, as traditional manufacturing companies relocated to the Midwest, with textile and furniture manufacturing migrating to the South. In the late-20th century, an increasing portion of the regional economy included high technology, military defense industry, finance and insurance services, and education and health services. As of 2018, the GDP of New England was $1.1 trillion.[99]

New England exports food products ranging from fish to lobster, cranberries, potatoes, and maple syrup. About half of the region's exports consist of industrial and commercial machinery, such as computers and electronic and electrical equipment. Granite is quarried at Barre, Vermont,[100] guns made at Springfield, Massachusetts, and Saco, Maine, submarines at Groton, Connecticut, surface naval vessels at Bath, Maine, and hand tools at Turners Falls, Massachusetts.

Urban centers

The Hartford headquarters of Aetna is housed in a 1931 Colonial Revival building.

In 2017, Boston was ranked as having the ninth-most competitive financial center in the world and the fourth-most competitive in the United States.[101] Boston-based Fidelity Investments helped popularize the mutual fund in the 1980s and has made Boston one of the top financial centers in the United States.[102] The city is home to the headquarters of Santander Bank and a center for venture capital firms. State Street Corporation specializes in asset management and custody services and is based in the city.

Boston is also a printing and publishing center.

Bedford-St. Martin's and Beacon Press. The city is also home to the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay and the Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center and Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on the South Boston waterfront.[104]

The

Converse, New Balance and Reebok. Rockport, Puma and Wolverine World Wide have headquarters or regional offices[106] just outside the city.[107]

Hartford is the historic international center of the insurance industry, with companies such as

Fairfield County, Connecticut, has a large concentration of investment management firms in the area, most notably Bridgewater Associates (one of the world's largest hedge fund companies), Aladdin Capital Management and Point72 Asset Management. Moreover, many international banks have their North American headquarters in Fairfield County, such as NatWest Group and UBS.

Agriculture

A plowed field in Bethel, Vermont

Agriculture is limited by the area's rocky soil, cool climate, and small area. Some New England states, however, are ranked highly among U.S. states for particular areas of production. Maine is ranked ninth for aquaculture,[109] and has abundant potato fields in its northeast part. Vermont is fifteenth for dairy products,[110] and Connecticut and Massachusetts seventh and eleventh for tobacco, respectively.[111][112] Cranberries are grown in Massachusetts' Cape Cod-Plymouth-South Shore area, and blueberries in Maine.

Energy

Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire

The region is mostly energy-efficient compared to the U.S. at large, with every state but Maine ranking within the ten most energy-efficient states;[113] every state in New England also ranks within the ten most expensive states for electricity prices.[114] Wind power, mainly from offshore sources, is expected to gain market share in the 2020s.

Employment

Unemployment rates in New England
Employment area October 2010 October 2011 October 2012 October 2013 December 2014 December 2015[115] December 2016[116] Net change
United States 9.7 9.0 7.9 7.2 5.6 5.0 4.7 −5.0
New England 8.3 7.6 7.4 7.1 5.4 4.3 3.5 −4.7
Connecticut 9.1 8.7 9.0 7.6 6.4 5.2 4.4 −4.7
Maine 7.6 7.3 7.4 6.5 5.5 4.0 3.8 −3.8
Massachusetts 8.3 7.3 6.6 7.2 5.5 4.7 2.8 −5.5
New Hampshire 5.7 5.3 5.7 5.2 4.0 3.1 2.6 −3.1
Rhode Island 11.5 10.4 10.4 9.4 6.8 5.1 5.0 −6.5
Vermont 5.9 5.6 5.5 4.4 4.2 3.6 3.1 −2.8

As of January 2017, employment is stronger in New England than in the rest of the United States. During the Great Recession, unemployment rates ballooned across New England as elsewhere; however, in the years that followed, these rates declined steadily, with New Hampshire and Massachusetts having the lowest unemployment rates in the country, respectively. The most extreme swing was in Rhode Island, which had an unemployment rate above 10% following the recession, but which saw this rate decline by over 6% in six years.

As of December 2016, the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) with the lowest unemployment rate, 2.1%, was Burlington-South Burlington, Vermont; the MSA with the highest rate, 4.9%, was Waterbury, Connecticut.[117]

Overall tax burden

In 2023, three of the six New England states were among the top ten states in the country in terms of taxes paid per taxpayer, while one was among the top five least. The rankings being #3 Maine (11.14%), #4 Vermont (10.28%), #5 Connecticut (9.83%), #11 Rhode Island (9.07%), #20 Massachusetts (8.48%), and #48 New Hampshire (6.14%). While overall tax burden varies widely, all six states sport exceptionally high property taxes with five of the six states being within the nationwide top 10. The rankings being #1 Maine (5.33%), #2 Vermont (4.98%), #3 New Hampshire (4.94%), #6 Connecticut (4.24%), #7 Rhode Island (4.17%), and #13 Massachusetts (3.42%).[118]

Government

Town meetings

New England town meeting in Huntington, Vermont

New England town meetings were derived from meetings held by church elders, and are still an integral part of government in many New England towns. At such meetings, any citizen of the town may discuss issues with other members of the community and vote on them. This is the strongest example of direct democracy in the U.S. today, and the strong democratic tradition was even apparent in the early 19th century, when Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America
:

New England, where education and liberty are the daughters of morality and religion, where society has acquired age and stability enough to enable it to form principles and hold fixed habits, the common people are accustomed to respect intellectual and moral superiority and to submit to it without complaint, although they set at naught all those privileges which wealth and birth have introduced among mankind. In New England, consequently, the democracy makes a more judicious choice than it does elsewhere.[119]

By contrast,

Federalist No. 55 that, regardless of the assembly, "passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob."[120] The use and effectiveness of town meetings is still discussed by scholars, as well as the possible application of the format to other regions and countries.[121]

Politics

Elections

State and national elected officials in New England recently have been elected mainly from the Democratic Party.[122] The region is generally considered to be the most liberal in the United States, with more New Englanders identifying as liberals than Americans elsewhere. In 2010, four of six of the New England states were polled as the most liberal in the United States.[123]

Flag of the New England Governor's Conference (NEGC)

As of 2021, five of the six states of New England have voted for every Democratic presidential nominee since 1992. In that time, New Hampshire has voted for Democratic nominees in every presidential election except 2000, when

democratic socialist,[125][126] representing Vermont and Angus King
, an Independent representing Maine.

In the

electoral votes
.

The following table presents the vote percentage for the popular-vote winner for each New England state, New England as a whole, and the United States as a whole, in each presidential election from 1900 to 2020, with the vote percentage for the Republican candidate shaded in red and the vote percentage for the Democratic candidate shaded in blue:

Year Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont New England United States
2020 59.2% 53.1% 65.6% 52.7% 59.4% 66.1% 61.2% 51.3%
2016 54.6% 47.8% 60.0% 46.8% 54.4% 56.7% 55.3% 48.2%
2012 58.1% 56.3% 60.7% 52.0% 62.7% 66.6% 59.1% 51.1%
2008 60.6% 57.7% 61.8% 54.1% 62.9% 67.5% 60.6% 52.9%
2004 54.3% 53.6% 61.9% 50.2% 59.4% 58.9% 57.7% 50.7%
2000 55.9% 49.1% 59.8% 48.1% 61.0% 50.6% 56.1% 48.4%
1996 52.8% 51.6% 61.5% 49.3% 59.7% 53.4% 56.8% 49.2%
1992 42.2% 38.8% 47.5% 38.9% 47.0% 46.1% 44.4% 43.0%
1988 52.0% 55.3% 53.2% 62.5% 55.6% 51.1% 49.5% 53.4%
1984 60.7% 60.8% 51.2% 68.7% 51.7% 57.9% 56.2% 58.8%
1980 48.2% 45.6% 41.9% 57.7% 47.7% 44.4% 44.7% 50.8%
1976 52.1% 48.9% 56.1% 54.7% 55.4% 54.3% 51.7% 50.1%
1972 58.6% 61.5% 54.2% 64.0% 53.0% 62.7% 52.5% 60.7%
1968 49.5% 55.3% 63.0% 52.1% 64.0% 52.8% 56.1% 43.4%
1964 67.8% 68.8% 76.2% 63.9% 80.9% 66.3% 72.8% 61.1%
1960 53.7% 57.0% 60.2% 53.4% 63.6% 58.6% 56.0% 49.7%
1956 63.7% 70.9% 59.3% 66.1% 58.3% 72.2% 62.0% 57.4%
1952 55.7% 66.0% 54.2% 60.9% 50.9% 71.5% 56.1% 55.2%
1948 49.5% 56.7% 54.7% 52.4% 57.6% 61.5% 51.5% 49.6%
1944 52.3% 52.4% 52.8% 52.1% 58.6% 57.1% 52.4% 53.4%
1940 53.4% 51.1% 53.1% 53.2% 56.7% 54.8% 52.8% 54.7%
1936 55.3% 55.5% 51.2% 49.7% 53.1% 56.4% 50.9% 60.8%
1932 48.5% 55.8% 50.6% 50.4% 55.1% 57.7% 49.1% 57.4%
1928 53.6% 68.6% 50.2% 58.7% 50.2% 66.9% 53.2% 58.2%
1924 61.5% 72.0% 62.3% 59.8% 59.6% 78.2% 63.3% 54.0%
1920 62.7% 68.9% 68.5% 59.8% 64.0% 75.8% 66.7% 60.3%
1916 49.8% 51.0% 50.5% 49.1% 51.1% 62.4% 51.1% 49.2%
1912 39.2% 39.4% 35.5% 39.5% 39.0% 37.1% 36.6% 41.8%
1908 59.4% 63.0% 58.2% 59.3% 60.8% 75.1% 60.2% 51.6%
1904 58.1% 67.4% 57.9% 60.1% 60.6% 78.0% 60.4% 56.4%
1900 56.9% 61.9% 57.6% 59.3% 59.7% 75.7% 59.4% 51.6%

Political party strength

Judging purely by party registration rather than voting patterns, New England today is one of the most Democratic regions in the U.S.

Gallup, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont are "solidly Democratic", Maine "leans Democratic", and New Hampshire is a swing state.[131] Though New England is today considered a Democratic Party stronghold, much of the region was staunchly Republican before the mid-twentieth century. This changed in the late 20th century, in large part due to demographic shifts[132] and the Republican Party's adoption of socially conservative platforms as part of their strategic shift towards the South.[57] For example, Vermont voted Republican in every presidential election from 1856 through 1988 with the exception of 1964, and has voted Democratic every election since. Maine and Vermont were the only two states in the nation to vote against Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt all four times he ran for president. Republicans in New England are today considered by both liberals and conservatives to be more moderate (socially liberal) compared to Republicans in other parts of the U.S.[133]

State Governor Senior U.S. Senator Junior U.S. Senator U.S. House Delegation Upper House Majority Lower House Majority
CT N. Lamont R. Blumenthal C. Murphy Democratic 5–0 Democratic 24–12 Democratic 97–54
ME J. Mills S. Collins A. King[†] Democratic 2-0 Democratic 22–13 Democratic 82–67–2
MA M. Healey E. Warren E. Markey Democratic 9–0 Democratic 37–3 Democratic 132–25–1
NH C. Sununu J. Shaheen M. Hassan Democratic 2-0 Republican 14–10 Republican 198-196-3
RI D. McKee J. Reed S. Whitehouse Democratic 2–0 Democratic 33–5 Democratic 65-9-1
VT P. Scott B. Sanders[†] P. Welch Democratic 1–0 Democratic 22–7–1 Democratic 104–38–5–3
: Elected as an independent, but caucuses with the Democratic Party.

New Hampshire primary

New Hampshire primary
.