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Connecticut ( ) is a
state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...
in the
New England New England is a region consisting of 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 (state), New York to the west and by the ...
region of the
Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States (also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast) is List of regions of the United States, census regions United States Census Bureau. Located on the East Coast of the United States, ...
. It borders
Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...
to the east,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
to the north,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
to the west, and
Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...
to the south. Its capital is
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
, and its most populous city is
Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...
. Connecticut lies between the major hubs of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
along the
Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, Rhod ...
, where the New York-Newark Combined Statistical Area, which includes four of Connecticut's seven largest cities, extends into the southwestern part of the state. Connecticut is the third-smallest state by area after Rhode Island and
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
, and the 29th most populous with more than 3.6 million residents as of 2024, ranking it fourth among the most densely populated U.S. states. The state is named after the
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...
, the longest in New England, which roughly bisects the state and drains into the Long Island Sound between the towns of Old Saybrook and Old Lyme. The name of the river is in turn derived from anglicized spellings of , a Mohegan-Pequot word for "long tidal river". Before the arrival of the first European settlers, the region was inhabited by various Algonquian tribes. In 1633, the
Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was gra ...
established a small, short-lived settlement called House of Hope in Hartford. Half of Connecticut was initially claimed by the Dutch colony
New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...
, which included much of the land between the Connecticut and
Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
Rivers, although the first major settlements were established by the English around the same time.
Thomas Hooker Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational church, Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was know ...
led a band of followers from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...
to form the
Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...
, while other settlers from Massachusetts founded the
Saybrook Colony The Saybrook Colony was a short-lived English colony established in New England in 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in what is today Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Saybrook was founded by a group of Puritan noblemen as a potential politic ...
and the
New Haven Colony New Haven Colony was an English colony from 1638 to 1664 that included settlements on the north shore of Long Island Sound, with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The colony joined Connecticut Colony in 16 ...
; both had merged into the first by 1664. Connecticut's official nickname, the "Constitution State", refers to the Fundamental Orders adopted by the Connecticut Colony in 1639, which is considered by some to be the first written constitution in Western history. As one of the
Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...
that rejected British rule during the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, Connecticut was influential in the development of the
federal government of the United States The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...
. In 1787,
Roger Sherman Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an early American politician, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, ...
and
Oliver Ellsworth Oliver Ellsworth (April 29, 1745 – November 26, 1807) was a Founding Father of the United States, Attorney at law, attorney, jurist, politician, and diplomat. Ellsworth was a framer of the United States Constitution, United States senator fr ...
, state delegates to the Constitutional Convention, proposed a compromise between the
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
and
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
Plans; its
bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate Deliberative assembly, assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate ...
structure for
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
, with a respectively proportional and equal representation of the states in the
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
and
Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
, was adopted and remains to this day. In January 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...
. Connecticut is a developed and affluent state, performing well on the
Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, Education Index, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income i ...
and on different metrics of income except for
equality Equality generally refers to the fact of being equal, of having the same value. In specific contexts, equality may refer to: Society * Egalitarianism, a trend of thought that favors equality for all people ** Political egalitarianism, in which ...
. It is home to a number of prestigious educational institutions, including
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
, as well as other
liberal arts colleges A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart a broad general knowledge and develop general in ...
and private
boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
s in and around the "
Knowledge Corridor Knowledge is an awareness of facts, a familiarity with individuals and situations, or a practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often characterized as true belief that is distinct from opinion or g ...
". Due to its geography, Connecticut has maintained a strong maritime tradition; the
United States Coast Guard Academy The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA), located in New London, Connecticut, is the United States service academies, U.S. service academy specifically for the United States Coast Guard. Founded in 1876, the academy provides education t ...
is located in New London by the
Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...
. The state is also associated with the aerospace industry through major companies
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...
and
Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by the Russian-American aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923, and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian ...
headquartered in
East Hartford East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,045 at the 2020 census. The town is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River, directly across from Hartford. It is home to aerospace manufactu ...
and Stratford, respectively. Historically a manufacturing center for arms, hardware, and timepieces, Connecticut, as with the rest of the region, had transitioned into an economy based on the financial, insurance, and real estate sectors; many multinational firms providing such services can be found concentrated in the state capital of
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
and along the Gold Coast in
Fairfield County Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States: * Fairfield County, Connecticut * Fairfield County, Ohio * Fairfield County, South Carolina {{Geodis, uscounty ...
.


History


First people

The name Connecticut is derived from the Mohegan-Pequot word that has been translated as "long tidal river" and "upon the long river", both referring to the
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...
. Evidence of human presence in the Connecticut region dates to as far back as 10,000 years ago. Stone tools were used for hunting, fishing, and woodworking. Semi-nomadic in lifestyle, these peoples moved seasonally to take advantage of various resources in the area. They shared languages based on Algonquian. The Connecticut region was inhabited by many Native American tribes that can be grouped into the
Nipmuc The Nipmuc or Nipmuck people are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who historically spoke an Eastern Algonquian languages, Eastern Algonquian language, probably the Loup language. Their historic territory Nippenet, meaning 'the f ...
, the Sequin or "River Indians" (which included the
Tunxis The Tunxis were a group of Quiripi speaking Connecticut Native Americans that is known to history mainly through their interactions with English settlers in New England. Broadly speaking, their location makes them one of the Eastern Algonquia ...
, Schaghticoke,
Podunk The terms ''podunk'' and ''Podunk Hollow'' in American English denote or describe an insignificant, out-of-the-way, or even completely fictitious town.Nick Bacon. "Podunk After Pratt: Place and Placelessness in East Hartford, CT." In ''Confront ...
,
Wangunk The Wangunk or Wongunk were an Indigenous people from central Connecticut. They were a subdivision of the Wappinger people, a Munsee language, Munsee-speaking people. The Wangunk settled along the Connecticut River. They had three major settleme ...
, Hammonasset, and
Quinnipiac The Quinnipiac were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They lived in present-day New Haven County, Connecticut, along the Quinnipiac River. Their primary village, also called Quinnipiac, was where New Haven, Connect ...
), the
Mattabesec Mattabesset was a region and settlement once occupied by the Wangunk, a historical Native American tribe, along the Connecticut River. The Mattabesset River reaches the Connecticut River near Middletown, Connecticut. European settler colonists est ...
or "Wappinger Confederacy" and the Pequot-Mohegan. Some of these groups still reside in Connecticut, including the Mohegans, the
Pequots The Pequot ( ) are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Connecticut including the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, o ...
, and the Paugusetts.


Colonial period

Dutchman
Adriaen Block Adriaen Courtsen Block (c. 1567 – 27 April 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four voyages ...
was the first European explorer in Connecticut. He explored the region in 1614. Dutch fur traders then sailed up the
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...
, calling it Versche Rivier ("Fresh River") and building a fort at Dutch Point in Hartford, which they named "House of Hope" (). The Connecticut Colony originally consisted of several smaller settlements in Windsor, Wethersfield, Saybrook, Hartford, and New Haven. The first English settlers came in 1633 and settled at Windsor, then at Wethersfield the following year. John Winthrop the Younger of Massachusetts received a commission to create
Saybrook Colony The Saybrook Colony was a short-lived English colony established in New England in 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in what is today Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Saybrook was founded by a group of Puritan noblemen as a potential politic ...
at the mouth of the Connecticut River in 1635. A large group of
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
s arrived in 1636 from
Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...
, led by
Thomas Hooker Thomas Hooker (July 5, 1586 – July 7, 1647) was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational church, Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was know ...
, who established the
Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...
at Hartford. The
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut The Fundamental Orders were adopted by the Connecticut Colony council on . The fundamental orders describe the government set up by the Connecticut River New England town, towns, setting its structure and powers and was a driven attempt for the ...
were adopted in January 1639, and have been described as the first constitutional document in America. The Quinnipiack Colony was established by John Davenport,
Theophilus Eaton Theophilus Eaton ( January 7, 1658) was a New England Colonies, New England colonist, politician, merchant and financier, who took part in organizing and financing the Puritan migration, Great Puritan Migration to America. He was a founder ...
, and others at New Haven in March 1638. The New Haven Colony had its own constitution called "The Fundamental Agreement of the New Haven Colony", signed on June 4, 1639. Each settlement was an independent political entity, established without official sanction of the English Crown. In 1662, Winthrop traveled to England and obtained a charter from CharlesII which united the settlements of Connecticut. Historically significant colonial settlements included Windsor (1633), Wethersfield (1634), Saybrook (1635),
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
(1636),
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
(1638), Fairfield (1639), Guilford (1639), Milford (1639), Stratford (1639), Farmington (1640), Stamford (1641), and New London (1646). The
Pequot War The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot nation and an alliance of the colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Na ...
marked the first significant clash between colonists and Native Americans in New England. The Pequot had been aggressively extending their area of control at the expense of the Wampanoag to the north, Narragansett (east), Connecticut River Valley Algonquian tribes and the Mohegan (west), and Lenape Algonquian people (south). Meanwhile, the Pequot had been reacting with increasing aggression to colonial territorial expansion. In response to the 1636 murder of an English privateer and his crew, followed by the murder of a trader, colonists raided a Pequot village on
Block Island Block Island is an island of the Outer Lands coastal archipelago in New England, located approximately south of mainland Rhode Island and east of Long Island's Montauk Point. The island is coterminous with the town of New Shoreham, Rhode Isl ...
. The Pequots laid siege to Saybrook Colony's garrison that autumn, then raided Wethersfield in the spring of 1637. Organizing a band of militia and allies from the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes, colonists declared war and attacked a Pequot village on the
Mystic River The Mystic River is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 in Massachusetts. In the Massachusett language, means "large estuary", alluding to the tidal ...
. Death toll estimates range between 300 and 700 Pequots. After suffering another major loss at a battle in Fairfield, the Pequots sued for peace. Connecticut's original Charter in 1662 granted it all the land to the "South Sea"—that is, to the Pacific Ocean. The Hartford Treaty with the Dutch was signed on September 19, 1650, but never ratified by the British, stated the western boundary of Connecticut ran north from Greenwich Bay for a distance of , "provided the said line come not within of Hudson River". This agreement was observed by both sides until war erupted between England and The Netherlands in 1652. Conflict continued concerning colonial limits until the
Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs ...
captured
New Netherland New Netherland () was a colony of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Cod. Settlements were established in what became the states ...
in 1664. Most Colonial royal grants were for long east–west strips. Connecticut took its grant seriously and established a ninth county between the
Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...
and
Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...
named Westmoreland County. This resulted in the brief Pennamite-Yankee Wars with
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
. Yale College was established in 1701, providing Connecticut with an important institution to educate clergy and civil leaders. The Congregational church dominated religious life in the colony and, by extension, town affairs in many parts. With more than of coastline including along its navigable rivers, Connecticut developed during its colonial years the antecedents of a maritime tradition that would later produce booms in shipbuilding, marine transport, naval support, seafood production, and leisure boating. Historical records list the ''Tryall'' as the first vessel built in Connecticut Colony, in 1649 at a site on the Connecticut River in present-day Wethersfield. In the two decades leading up to 1776 and the American Revolution, Connecticut boatyards launched about 100 sloops,
schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...
s and
brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...
s according to a database of U.S. customs records maintained online by the
Mystic Seaport Museum Mystic Seaport Museum (founded as Marine Historical Association) is a maritime museum in Mystic, Connecticut, and the largest in the United States. Its site holds a collection of ships and boats and a re-creation of a 19th-century seaport vill ...
, the largest being the 180-ton ''Patient Mary'' launched in New Haven in 1763. Connecticut's first
lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...
was constructed in 1760 at the mouth of the
Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...
with the
New London Harbor Light New London Harbor Light is a lighthouse in Connecticut on the west side of the New London harbor entrance. It is the nation's fifth oldest light station and the seventh oldest U.S. lighthouse. It is both the oldest and the tallest lighthouse in ...
house.


American Revolution

Connecticut designated four delegates to the
Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) was the meetings of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War, which established American independence ...
who signed the
Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
: Samuel Huntington,
Roger Sherman Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an early American politician, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, ...
, William Williams, and
Oliver Wolcott Oliver Wolcott Sr. ( ; November 20, 1726 December 1, 1797) was an American Founding Father and politician. He was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Connecticut, ...
. Connecticut's legislature authorized the outfitting of six new regiments in 1775, in the wake of the clashes between British regulars and Massachusetts militia at Lexington and Concord. There were some 1,200 Connecticut troops on hand at the
Battle of Bunker Hill The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on June 17, 1775, during the Siege of Boston in the first stage of the American Revolutionary War. The battle is named after Bunker Hill in Charlestown, Boston, Charlestown, Massachusetts, which was peri ...
in June 1775. In 1775, David Bushnell invented the ''Turtle'' which the following year launched the first submarine attack in history, unsuccessfully against a British warship at anchor in New York Harbor. In 1777, the British got word of
Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...
supplies in Danbury, and they landed an expeditionary force of some 2,000 troops in Westport. This force then marched to Danbury and destroyed homes and much of the depot. Continental Army troops and militia led by General
David Wooster David Wooster ( – May 2, 1777) was an American general who served in the French and Indian War and in the American Revolutionary War. He died of wounds sustained during the Battle of Ridgefield, Connecticut. Several cities, schools, and public ...
and General
Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold (#Brandt, Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American-born British military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of ...
engaged them on their return march at Ridgefield in 1777. For the winter of 1778–79, General
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
decided to split the Continental Army into three divisions encircling
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, where British General Sir Henry Clinton had taken up winter quarters. Major General
Israel Putnam Israel Putnam (January 7, 1718 – May 29, 1790), popularly known as "Old Put", was an American military officer and landowner who fought with distinction at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). He als ...
chose Redding as the winter encampment quarters for some 3,000 regulars and militia under his command. The Redding encampment allowed Putnam's soldiers to guard the replenished supply depot in Danbury and to support any operations along Long Island Sound and the
Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...
Valley. Some of the men were veterans of the winter encampment at
Valley Forge Valley Forge was the winter encampment of the Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. The Valley Forge encampment lasted six months, from December 19, 1777, to June 19, 1778. It was the t ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, the previous winter. Soldiers at the Redding camp endured supply shortages, cold temperatures, and significant snow, with some historians dubbing the encampment "Connecticut's Valley Forge". The state was also the launching site for a number of raids against Long Island orchestrated by
Samuel Holden Parsons Samuel Holden Parsons (May 14, 1737 – November 17, 1789) was an American lawyer, jurist, generalHeitman, ''Officers of the Continental Army'', 428. in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Countr ...
and Benjamin Tallmadge, and provided soldiers and material for the war effort, especially to Washington's army outside New York City. General
William Tryon Lieutenant-General William Tryon (8 June 172927 January 1788) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as governor of North Carolina from 1764 to 1771 and the governor of New York from 1771 to 1777. He also served durin ...
raided the Connecticut coast in July 1779, focusing on New Haven, Norwalk, and Fairfield. New London and Groton Heights were raided in September 1781 by Benedict Arnold, who had turned traitor to the British. At the outset of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress assigned Nathaniel Shaw Jr. of New London as its naval agent in charge of recruiting
privateer A privateer is a private person or vessel which engages in commerce raiding under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign o ...
s to seize British vessels as opportunities presented, with nearly 50 operating out of the Thames River which eventually drew the reprisal from the British force led by Arnold.


Early statehood


Early national period and industrial revolution

Connecticut
ratified Ratification is a principal's legal confirmation of an act of its agent. In international law, ratification is the process by which a state declares its consent to be bound to a treaty. In the case of bilateral treaties, ratification is usuall ...
the U.S. Constitution on January 9, 1788, becoming the fifth state. The state prospered during the era following the American Revolution, as mills and textile factories were built and seaports flourished from trade and fisheries. After Congress established in 1790 the predecessor to the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service that would evolve into the U.S. Coast Guard, President Washington assigned Jonathan Maltbie as one of seven masters to enforce customs regulations, with Maltbie monitoring the southern New England coast with a 48-foot cutter sloop named ''Argus''. In 1786, Connecticut ceded territory to the U.S. government that became part of the
Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from part of the unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established ...
. The state retained land extending across the northern part of present-day Ohio called the
Connecticut Western Reserve The Connecticut Western Reserve was a portion of land claimed by the Colony of Connecticut and later by the state of Connecticut in what is now mostly the northeastern region of Ohio. Warren, Ohio was the Historic Capital in Trumbull County. T ...
. The Western Reserve section was settled largely by people from Connecticut, and they brought Connecticut place names to Ohio. Connecticut made agreements with Pennsylvania and New York which extinguished the land claims within those states' boundaries and created the Connecticut Panhandle. The state then ceded the Western Reserve in 1800 to the federal government, which brought it to its present boundaries (other than minor adjustments with Massachusetts).


19th century

For the first time in 1800, Connecticut shipwrights launched more than 100 vessels in a single year. Over the following decade to the doorstep of renewed hostilities with Britain that sparked the War of 1812, Connecticut boatyards constructed close to 1,000 vessels, the most productive stretch of any decade in the 19th century. During the war, the British launched raids in Stonington and
Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
and
blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...
d vessels in the Thames River.
Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
native
Isaac Hull Commodore (rank), Commodore Isaac Hull (March 9, 1773 – February 13, 1843) was a United States Navy officer who served in the Quasi-War, Barbary Wars and War of 1812. During his military career, he commanded the warships , , , and . During the ...
became Connecticut's best-known naval figure to win renown during the conflict, as captain of the . The British blockade during the
War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...
hurt exports and bolstered the influence of Federalists who opposed the war. The cessation of imports from Britain stimulated the construction of factories to manufacture textiles and machinery. Connecticut came to be recognized as a major center for manufacturing, due in part to the inventions of
Eli Whitney Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765January 8, 1825) was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Whitney's ...
and other early innovators of the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
. The war led to the development of fast
clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. The term was also retrospectively applied to the Baltimore clipper, which originated in the late 18th century. Clippers were generally narrow for their len ...
s that helped extend the reach of New England merchants to the Pacific and Indian oceans. The first half of the 19th century saw as well a rapid rise in whaling, with New London emerging as one of the New England industry's three biggest home ports after
Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...
and
New Bedford New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, New Bedford had a ...
. The state was known for its political conservatism, typified by its Federalist party and the Yale College of Timothy Dwight. The foremost intellectuals were Dwight and
Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...
, who compiled his great dictionary in New Haven. Religious tensions polarized the state, as the Congregational Church struggled to maintain traditional viewpoints, in alliance with the Federalists. The failure of the
Hartford Convention The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings from December 15, 1814, to January 5, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, in which New England leaders of the Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War ...
in 1814 hurt the Federalist cause, with the
Democratic-Republican Party The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed li ...
gaining control in 1817. Connecticut had been governed under the " Fundamental Orders" since 1639, but the state adopted a new constitution in 1818.


Civil War era

Connecticut manufacturers played a major role in supplying the Union forces with weapons and supplies during the
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
. The state furnished 55,000 men, formed into thirty full regiments of infantry, including two in the U.S. Colored Troops, with several Connecticut men becoming generals. The Navy attracted 250 officers and 2,100 men, and Glastonbury native
Gideon Welles Gideon Welles (July 1, 1802 – February 11, 1878) was an American government official who was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869, a cabinet post he was awarded after supporting Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. Althou ...
was Secretary of the Navy. James H. Ward of Hartford was the first U.S. Naval Officer killed in the Civil War. Connecticut casualties included 2,088 killed in combat, 2,801 dying from disease, and 689 dying in Confederate prison camps. A surge of national unity in 1861 brought thousands flocking to the colors from every town and city. However, as the war became a crusade to end slavery, many Democrats (especially Irish Catholics) pulled back. The Democrats took a pro-slavery position and included many
Copperheads Copperhead may refer to: Snakes * ''Agkistrodon contortrix'', or eastern copperhead, a venomous pit viper species found in parts of North America * '' Agkistrodon laticinctus'', or broad-banded copperhead, a pit viper species found in the southe ...
willing to let the South secede. The intensely fought 1863 election for governor was narrowly won by the Republicans.


Second industrial revolution

Connecticut's extensive industry, dense population, flat terrain, and wealth encouraged the construction of railroads starting in 1839. By 1840, of line were in operation, growing to in 1850 and in 1860. The
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...
, called the ''New Haven'' or "The Consolidated", became the dominant Connecticut railroad company after 1872.
J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. As the head of the banking firm that ...
began financing the major New England railroads in the 1890s, dividing territory so that they would not compete. The New Haven purchased 50 smaller companies, including steamship lines, and built a network of light rails (electrified trolleys) that provided inter-urban transportation for all of southern New England. By 1912, the New Haven operated over of track with 120,000 employees. As steam-powered passenger ships proliferated after the Civil War, Noank would produce the two largest built in Connecticut during the 19th century, with the 332-foot wooden steam paddle wheeler ''Rhode Island'' launched in 1882, and the 345-foot paddle wheeler ''Connecticut'' seven years later. Connecticut shipyards would launch more than 165 steam-powered vessels in the 19th century. In 1875, the first telephone exchange in the world was established in New Haven.


20th century


World War I

When World War I broke out in 1914, Connecticut became a major supplier of weaponry to the U.S. military; by 1918, 80% of the state's industries were producing goods for the war effort.
Remington Arms Remington Arms Company, LLC, was an American firearms manufacturer, manufacturer of firearms and ammunition. It was formerly owned by the Remington Outdoor Company, which went bankrupt in 2020 with its lines of business sold to several purchase ...
in Bridgeport produced half the small-arms cartridges used by the U.S. Army, with other major suppliers including
Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
in New Haven and Colt in Hartford. Connecticut was also an important U.S. Navy supplier, with
Electric Boat An electric boat is a powered watercraft driven by electric motors, which are powered by either on-board battery packs, solar panels or generators. While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power ...
receiving orders for 85 submarines, Lake Torpedo Boat building more than 20 subs, and the Groton Iron Works building freighters. On June 21, 1916, the Navy made Groton the site for its East Coast submarine base and school. The state enthusiastically supported the American war effort in 1917 and 1918 with large purchases of war bonds, a further expansion of industry, and an emphasis on increasing food production on the farms. Thousands of state, local, and volunteer groups mobilized for the war effort and were coordinated by the Connecticut State Council of Defense. Manufacturers wrestled with manpower shortages; Waterbury's American Brass and Manufacturing Company was running at half capacity, so the federal government agreed to furlough soldiers to work there.


Interwar period

In 1919, J. Henry Roraback started the Connecticut Light & Power Co. which became the state's dominant electric utility. In 1925,
Frederick Rentschler Frederick Brant Rentschler (November 8, 1887 – April 25, 1956) was an American aircraft engine designer, aviation engineer, industrialist, and the founder of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Rentschler created and manufactured many revolutiona ...
spurred the creation of
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...
in Hartford to develop engines for aircraft; the company became an important military supplier in World WarII and one of the three major manufacturers of jet engines in the world. On September 21, 1938, the most destructive storm in New England history struck eastern Connecticut, killing hundreds of people. The eye of the "Long Island Express" passed just west of New Haven and devastated the Connecticut shoreline between Old Saybrook and Stonington from the full force of wind and waves, even though they had partial protection by Long Island. The hurricane caused extensive damage to infrastructure, homes, and businesses. In New London, a sailing ship was driven into a warehouse complex, causing a major fire. Heavy rainfall caused the Connecticut River to flood downtown Hartford and East Hartford. An estimated 50,000 trees fell onto roadways.


World War II

The advent of
lend-lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (),3,000 Hurricanes and >4,000 other aircraft) * 28 naval vessels: ** 1 Battleship. (HMS Royal Sovereign (05), HMS Royal Sovereign) * ...
in support of Britain helped lift Connecticut from the Great Depression, with the state a major production center for weaponry and supplies used in World WarII. Connecticut manufactured 4.1% of total U.S. military armaments produced during the war, ranking ninth among the 48 states, with major factories including Colt for firearms,
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...
for aircraft engines, Chance Vought for fighter planes,
Hamilton Standard Hamilton Standard was an American aircraft propeller (aircraft), propeller parts supplier. It was formed in 1929 when United Aircraft and Transport Corporation consolidated Hamilton Aero Manufacturing and Standard Steel Propeller into the Hamilto ...
for propellers, and
Electric Boat An electric boat is a powered watercraft driven by electric motors, which are powered by either on-board battery packs, solar panels or generators. While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power ...
for submarines and PT boats. In Bridgeport, General Electric produced a significant new weapon to combat tanks: the
bazooka The Bazooka () is a Man-portable anti-tank systems, man-portable recoilless Anti-tank warfare, anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the "stovepipe", th ...
. On May 13, 1940,
Igor Sikorsky Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, (25 May 1889 – 26 October 1972) was a Russian-American aviation pioneer in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. His first success came with the Sikorsky S-2, the second aircraft of his design and construc ...
made an untethered flight of the first practical
helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
. The helicopter saw limited use in World War II, but future military production made
Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by the Russian-American aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923, and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian ...
's Stratford plant Connecticut's largest single manufacturing site by the start of the 21st century.


Post-World War II economic expansion

Connecticut lost some wartime factories following the end of hostilities, but the state shared in a general post-war expansion that included the construction of highways and resulting in middle-class growth in suburban areas.
Prescott Bush Prescott Sheldon Bush Sr. (May 15, 1895 – October 8, 1972) was an American banker and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician. as a Wall Street executive investment banker, he represented Connecticut in the from 1952 ...
represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1952 to 1963; his son
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
and grandson
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
both became presidents of the United States. In 1965, Connecticut ratified its current constitution, replacing the document that had served since 1818. In 1968, commercial operation began for the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Haddam; in 1970, the Millstone Nuclear Power Station began operations in
Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...
. In 1974, Connecticut elected Democratic Governor
Ella T. Grasso Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Grasso (née Tambussi; May 10, 1919 – February 5, 1981) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the 83rd governor of Connecticut from January 8, 1975, to December 31, 1980, after r ...
, who became the first woman in any state to be elected governor without being the wife or widow of a previous governor. In 1975, Connecticut enacted the Freedom of Information Act, marking a significant step in public access to government records.


Late 20th century

Connecticut's dependence on the defense industry posed an economic challenge at the end of the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
. The resulting budget crisis helped elect
Lowell Weicker Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. (; May 16, 1931 – June 28, 2023) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the 85th Governor of Connecticut. Weicker unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for presi ...
as governor on a third-party ticket in 1990. Weicker's remedy was a state income tax which proved effective in balancing the budget, but only for the short-term. He did not run for a second term, in part because of this politically unpopular move. In 1992, initial construction was completed on Foxwoods Casino at the
Mashantucket Pequots The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation is a federally recognized American Indian tribe in the state of Connecticut. They are descended from the Pequot people, an Algonquian-language tribe that dominated the southern New England coastal areas, and ...
reservation in eastern Connecticut, which became the largest casino in the Western Hemisphere.
Mohegan Sun Mohegan Sun is a large casino and entertainment complex located on 240 acres (97 ha) of the Mohegan Indian Reservation in Uncasville, Connecticut, along the banks of the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River. It is owned and operated by the fe ...
followed four years later.


Early 21st century

In 2000, presidential candidate
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
chose Senator
Joe Lieberman Joseph Isadore Lieberman (; February 24, 1942 – March 27, 2024) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. Originally a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Dem ...
as his running mate, marking the first time that a major party presidential ticket included someone of the Jewish faith. Gore and Lieberman fell five votes short of
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
and
Dick Cheney Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American former politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He has been called vice presidency o ...
in the Electoral College. In the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, 65 state residents were killed, mostly
Fairfield County Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States: * Fairfield County, Connecticut * Fairfield County, Ohio * Fairfield County, South Carolina {{Geodis, uscounty ...
residents who were working in the World Trade Center. In 2004, Republican Governor John G. Rowland resigned during a corruption investigation, later pleading guilty to federal charges. Connecticut was hit by three major storms in just over 14 months in 2011 and 2012, with all three causing extensive property damage and electric outages.
Hurricane Irene Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. The ninth tropical cyclone naming, named storm, first hurricane, and first major ...
struck Connecticut August 28, and damage totaled $235 million. Two months later, the "Halloween nor'easter" dropped extensive snow onto trees, resulting in snapped branches and trunks that damaged power lines; some areas were without electricity for 11 days.
Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...
hit New Jersey and passed over Connecticut with hurricane-force winds and tides up to 12 feet above normal. Many coastal buildings were damaged or destroyed. Sandy's winds drove storm surges into streets and cut power to 98% of homes and businesses, with more than $360 million in damage. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, and then killed himself. The massacre spurred renewed efforts by activists for tighter laws on gun ownership nationally. In the summer and fall of 2016, Connecticut experienced a drought in many parts of the state, causing some water-use bans. As of , 45% of the state was listed at Severe Drought by the U.S. Drought Monitor, including almost all of
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
and Litchfield counties. All the rest of the state was in Moderate Drought or Severe Drought, including
Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
, Fairfield, New London,
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
, Windham, and Tolland counties. This affected the agricultural economy in the state.


Geography

Connecticut is bordered on the south by
Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...
, on the west by
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
, on the north by
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, and on the east by
Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...
. The state capital and fourth largest city is
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
, and other major cities and towns (by population) include
Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...
,
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
, Stamford,
Waterbury Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Waterbury had a population of 114,403 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. The city is southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury i ...
, Norwalk, Danbury,
New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...
,
Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
, and
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
. There are 169 incorporated towns in Connecticut, with cities and villages included within some towns. The highest peak in Connecticut is Bear Mountain in
Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...
in the northwest corner of the state. The highest point is just east of where Connecticut,
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, and New York meet (42°3′ N, 73°29′ W), on the southern slope of
Mount Frissell Mount Frissell, , which straddles the border of southwest Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut, is part of the Taconic Range. Frissell's south slopes include the highest point in Connecticut, a popular destination for highpointers. Frissel ...
, whose peak lies nearby in Massachusetts. At the opposite extreme, many of the coastal towns have areas that are less than above sea level. Connecticut has a long maritime history and a reputation based on that history—yet the state has no direct oceanfront (technically speaking). The coast of Connecticut sits on
Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...
, which is an
estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...
. The state's access to the open Atlantic Ocean is both to the west (toward New York City) and to the east (toward the "race" near Rhode Island). Due to this unique geography, Long Island Sound and the Connecticut shoreline are relatively protected from high waves from storms. The
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...
cuts through the center of the state, flowing into Long Island Sound. The most populous metropolitan region centered within the state lies in the
Connecticut River Valley The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges into Long Isl ...
. Despite Connecticut's relatively small size, it features wide regional variations in its landscape; for example, in the northwestern Litchfield Hills, it features rolling mountains and horse farms, whereas in areas to the east of New Haven along the coast, the landscape features coastal
marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...
es,
beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...
es, and large scale maritime activities. Connecticut's rural areas and small towns in the northeast and northwest corners of the state contrast sharply with its industrial cities such as Stamford, Bridgeport, and New Haven, located along the coastal highways from the New York border to New London, then northward up the Connecticut River to Hartford. Many towns in northeastern and northwestern Connecticut center around a
green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
. Near the green typically stand historical visual symbols of
New England New England is a region consisting of 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 (state), New York to the west and by the ...
towns, such as a white
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
, a
colonial meeting house A colonial meeting house was a meeting house used by communities in colonial New England. Built using tax money, the colonial meeting house was the focal point of the community where the town's residents could discuss local issues, conduct reli ...
, a colonial
tavern A tavern is a type of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that ...
or
inn Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway. Before the advent of motorized transportation, they also provided accomm ...
, several colonial houses, and so on, establishing a scenic historical appearance maintained for both
historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK) is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
and tourism. Many of the areas in southern and coastal Connecticut have been built up and rebuilt over the years, and look less visually like traditional New England. The northern boundary of the state with Massachusetts is marked by the Southwick Jog or Granby Notch, an approximately square detour into Connecticut. The origin of this anomaly is clearly established in a long line of disputes and temporary agreements which were finally concluded in 1804, when southern Southwick's residents sought to leave Massachusetts, and the town was split in half. The southwestern border of Connecticut where it abuts New York State is marked by a panhandle in
Fairfield County Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States: * Fairfield County, Connecticut * Fairfield County, Ohio * Fairfield County, South Carolina {{Geodis, uscounty ...
and the Western Connecticut Planning Region, containing the towns of
Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
, Stamford, New Canaan, Darien, and parts of Norwalk and Wilton. This irregularity in the boundary is the result of
territorial disputes A territorial dispute or boundary dispute is a disagreement over the possession or control of territories (land, water or airspace) between two or more political entities. Context and definitions Territorial disputes are often related to the ...
in the late 17th century, culminating with New York giving up its claim to the area, whose residents considered themselves part of Connecticut, in exchange for an equivalent area extending northwards from Ridgefield to the Massachusetts border, as well as undisputed claim to
Rye, New York Rye is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, within the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. It received its charter as a city in 1942, making it the most recent such charter in the state. Its area of ...
. Areas maintained by the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
include
Appalachian National Scenic Trail The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian T ...
,
Quinebaug and Shetucket Rivers Valley National Heritage Corridor The Last Green Valley National Heritage Corridor is a federally designated National Heritage Area, National Heritage Corridor in northeastern Connecticut and portions of Massachusetts. It has a rural character with rolling hills, farmland and cla ...
, and
Weir Farm National Historic Site Weir Farm National Historical Park is located in Ridgefield and Wilton, Connecticut. It commemorates the life and work of American impressionist painter J. Alden Weir and other artists who stayed at the site or lived there, to include Childe H ...
.


Climate

Connecticut lies at the rough transition zone between the southern end of the
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
, and the northern portion of the
humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
. Northern Connecticut generally experiences a climate with hot, humid summers and moderataely cold winters with periodic snowfall. Far southern and coastal Connecticut has a climate with cool winters with a mix of rain and infrequent snow, and the long hot and humid summers typical of the middle and lower East Coast.


Precipitation

Connecticut sees a fairly even precipitation pattern with rainfall/snowfall spread throughout the 12 months. Connecticut averages 56% of possible sunshine (higher than the U.S. national average), averaging 2,400 hours of
sunshine Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrared (typically per ...
annually. Occasionally, some months may see extremes in precipitation, either much higher or lower than normal, though long term droughts and floods are rare. Early spring can range from slightly cool (40s to low 50s F) to warm (65 to 70 F), while mid and late spring (late April/May) is warm. By late May, the building Bermuda High creates a southerly flow of warm and humid tropical air, bringing hot weather conditions throughout the state. Average highs are in New London and in Windsor Locks at the peak of summer in late July. On occasion, heat waves with highs from 90 to occur across Connecticut. Connecticut's record high temperature is which occurred in Danbury on July 15, 1995. Although summers are sunny in Connecticut, quick moving summer thunderstorms can bring brief downpours with thunder and lightning. Occasionally these thunderstorms can be severe, and the state usually averages one tornado per year. During hurricane season, the remains of tropical cyclones occasionally affect the region, though a direct hit is rare. Some notable hurricanes to impact the state include the
1938 New England hurricane The 1938 New England Hurricane (also referred to as the Great Long Island - New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to strike the United States. The storm formed near th ...
, Hurricane Carol in 1954,
Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as Superstorm Sandy) was an extremely large and devastating tropical cyclone which ravaged the Caribbean and the coastal Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States in late ...
in 2012, and Hurricane Isaias in 2020. Weather commonly associated with the fall season typically begins in October and lasts to the first days of December. Daily high temperatures in October and November range from the 50s to 60s F. Winters (December through mid-March) are moderately generally cold from south to north in Connecticut. The coldest month (January) has average high temperatures ranging from in the coastal lowlands to in the inland and northern portions on the state. The lowest temperature recorded in Connecticut is which has been observed twice: in Falls Village on February 16, 1943, and in
Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...
on January 22, 1961. The average yearly snowfall ranges from about in the higher elevations of the northern portion of the state to only along the southeast coast of Connecticut (Branford to Groton). Most of Connecticut has less than 60 days of snow cover, while coastal areas often only see 30 days or so of snowcover. Annually, 95% of seasonal snowfall in Connecticut falls from early December to late March. On occasion in winter, Connecticut can occasionally get heavy snowstorms, called
nor'easter A nor'easter (also northeaster; see below) is a large-scale extratropical cyclone in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The name derives from the direction of the winds that blow from the northeast. Typically, such storms originate as a low ...
s, which may produce as much as two feet of snow on rare occasions. Although rare,
Ice storm An ice storm, also known as a glaze event or a silver storm, is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain. The National Weather Service, U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulatio ...
s also occur on occasion, such as the
Southern New England ice storm of 1973 The Southern New England ice storm of 1973 was a winter storm that caused considerable damage to trees and power lines in parts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. It also affected New York State. Initial storm A low pressure ...
.


Flora

Forests consist of a mix of
Northeastern coastal forests The Northeastern coastal forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of the northeast and middle Atlantic region of the United States. The ecoregion covers an area of 34,630 sq miles (89,691 km2) encompassing the Piedmont ...
of oak in southern areas of the state, to the upland New England-Acadian forests in the northwestern parts of the state. Mountain Laurel (''
Kalmia latifolia ''Kalmia latifolia'', the mountain laurel, calico-bush, or spoonwood, is a flowering plant and one of the 10 species in the genus of Kalmia belonging to the heath(er) family Ericaceae. It is native to the eastern United States. Its range stretch ...
'') is the state flower and is native to low ridges in several parts of Connecticut. Rosebay rhododendron (''
Rhododendron maximum ''Rhododendron maximum'' is a species of ''Rhododendron'' native to the Appalachians of eastern North America, from Alabama north to coastal Nova Scotia. Its common names include great laurel, great rhododendron, rosebay rhododendron, American rh ...
'') is also native to eastern uplands of Connecticut and
Pachaug State Forest Pachaug State Forest is the largest forest in the Connecticut state forest system, encompassing over 27,000 acres (110 km²) of land. It is located on the Rhode Island border in New London County, and parcels of the forest lie in the town ...
is home to the Rhododendron Sanctuary Trail. Atlantic white cedar (''
Chamaecyparis thyoides ''Chamaecyparis thyoides'' (Atlantic white cedar, Atlantic white cypress, southern white cedar, whitecedar, or false-cypress), a species of ''Cupressaceae'', is native to the Atlantic coast of North America and is found from southern Maine to Geo ...
''), is found in wetlands in the southern parts of the state. Connecticut has one native cactus (''
Opuntia humifusa ''Opuntia humifusa'', common name, commonly known as the devil's-tongue, eastern prickly pear or Indian fig, is a cactus of the genus ''Opuntia'' present in parts of the eastern United States and northeastern Mexico. Description As is the case ...
''), found in sandy coastal areas and low hillsides. Several types of beach grasses and wildflowers are also native to Connecticut. Connecticut spans USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 5b to 7a. Coastal Connecticut is the broad transition zone where more southern and subtropical plants are cultivated.


Fauna


Largest cities and towns


Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, Connecticut has a population of 3,605,944, an increase of 31,847 people (0.9%) from the 2010 United States census. Among the census records, 20.4% of the population was under 18. In 1790, 97% of the population in Connecticut was classified as "rural". The first census in which less than half the population was classified as rural was 1890. In the 2000 census, only 12.3% was considered rural. Most of western and southern Connecticut (particularly the Gold Coast) is strongly associated with New York City; this area is the most affluent and populous region of the state and has high property costs and high incomes. The
center of population In Demography, demographics, the center of population (or population center) of a region is a geographical point that describes a centerpoint of the region's population. There are several ways of defining such a "center point", leading to dif ...
of Connecticut is located in the town of
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
. According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 2,930 homeless people in Connecticut. In common with the majority of the United States, non-Hispanic whites have remained the dominant racial and ethnic group in Connecticut. From being 98% of the population in 1940, however, they have declined to 63% of the population as of the 2020 census. These statistics have represented fewer Americans identifying as non-Hispanic white, which has given rise to the Hispanic and Latino American population and Asian American population overall. , 46.1% of Connecticut's population younger than age1 were minorities. As of 2004, 11.4% of the population (400,000) was foreign-born. In 1870, native-born Americans had accounted for 75% of the state's population, but that had dropped to 35% by 1918. Also as of 2000, 81.69% of Connecticut residents age5 and older spoke English at home and 8.42% spoke Spanish, followed by Italian at 1.59%, French at 1.31%, and Polish at 1.20%. The largest ancestry groups since 2010 were: 19.3%
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, 17.9% Irish, 10.7% English, 10.4%
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, 8.6% Polish, 6.6% French, 3.0%
French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
, 2.7% American, 2.0%
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
, and 1.4% Scotch Irish. The top countries of origin for Connecticut's immigrants in 2018 were
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
, the
Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
and
Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
.


Birth data

''Note: Births in table do not add up because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.'' * Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one ''Hispanic'' group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.


Religion

A 2014 Pew survey of Connecticut residents' religious self-identification showed the following distribution of affiliations Protestant 35%,
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
33%,
non-religious Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ration ...
28%, Jewish 3%,
Mormonism Mormonism is the theology and religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationism, Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to va ...
1%, Orthodox 1%,
Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co- ...
1%,
Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
1%,
Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
1% and
Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
1%. Jewish congregations had 108,280 (3.2%) members in 2000. The Jewish population is concentrated in the towns near Long Island Sound between
Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...
and
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
, in
Greater New Haven Greater New Haven is the metropolitan area whose extent includes those towns in the U.S. state of Connecticut that share an economic, social, political, and historical focus on the city of New Haven. It occupies the south-central portion of the s ...
and in
Greater Hartford Greater Hartford is a region located in the U.S. state of Connecticut, centered on the state's capital of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. It represents the only combined statistical area in Connecticut defined by a city within the state, being b ...
, especially the suburb of
West Hartford West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census. The town's popular downtown area is colloquiall ...
. According to the
Association of Religion Data Archives The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) is a free source of online information related to American and international religion. One of the primary goals of the archive is to democratize access to academic information on religion by making t ...
, the largest Christian denominations, by number of adherents, in 2010 were: the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, with 1,252,936; the
United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a socially liberal mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Restorationist, Continental Reformed, and Lutheran t ...
, with 96,506; and non-denominational Evangelical Protestants, with 72,863. Recent immigration has brought other non-Christian religions to the state, but the numbers of adherents of other religions are still low. Connecticut is also home to New England's largest Protestant church: The First Cathedral in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Hartford is seat to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, which is sovereign over the Diocese of Bridgeport and the
Diocese of Norwich The Diocese of Norwich is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Church of England, forming part of the Province of Canterbury in England. Its origins trace back to the early medieval bishopric of See of Elmham, Elmham and Thetford, which were ...
. By a 2020
Public Religion Research Institute The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) is an American nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization that conducts public opinion polls on a variety of topics, specializing in the quantitative and qualitative study of politic ...
survey, 71% of the population identified as some form of Christian. It found the state to be 21%
non-religious Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ration ...
and specifically 19% white
mainline Protestant The mainline Protestants (sometimes also known as oldline Protestants) are a group of Protestantism in the United States, Protestant denominations in the United States and Protestantism in Canada, Canada largely of the Liberal Christianity, theolo ...
, 19% white Catholic, 9% white evangelical Protestant, 7% black Protestant, and 7% Hispanic Catholic. In contrast to the 2014 Pew survey, the 2020 PRRI survey found Connecticut to be 40% Protestant and 28% Catholic (with the remainder of Christians being Mormon at 2%, and Orthodox at 1%). The PRRI survey found Jewish citizens to be 2% of the population and, like the Pew survey: Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims to be 1% each.


Economy

The total 2023
gross state product Gross regional domestic product (GRDP), gross domestic product of region (GDPR), or gross state product (GSP) is a statistic that measures the size of a region's economy. It is the aggregate of gross value added (GVA) of all resident producer unit ...
for Connecticut was $345.9 billion, up from $321.7 billion in 2022. Connecticut's adjusted per capita personal income in 2022 was estimated at $77,940, third-highest among states. There is a large disparity in incomes throughout the state; Connecticut was tied with California and Massachusetts for the second highest (after New York's 0.52)
Gini coefficient In economics, the Gini coefficient ( ), also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution, income inequality, the wealth distribution, wealth inequality, or the ...
, at 0.50, as of 2020. According to a 2018 study by Phoenix Marketing International, Connecticut had the third-largest number of millionaires per capita in the United States, with a ratio of 7.75%. New Canaan is the wealthiest town in Connecticut, with a per capita income of $105,846.
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
is the poorest municipality in Connecticut, with a per capita income of $16,798 in 2020. At the county level, per capita income ranged from $48,295 in
Fairfield County Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States: * Fairfield County, Connecticut * Fairfield County, Ohio * Fairfield County, South Carolina {{Geodis, uscounty ...
to $26,585 in Windham County, which is close to the United States average. As of December 2019, Connecticut's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.8%, with U.S. unemployment at 3.5% that month. Dating back to 1982, Connecticut recorded its lowest unemployment in 2000 between August and October, at 2.2%. The highest unemployment rate during that period occurred in November and December 2010 at 9.3%, but economists expected record new levels of layoffs as a result of business closures in the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.


Taxation

Tax is collected by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services and by local municipalities. As of 2012, Connecticut residents had the second highest rate in the nation of combined state and local taxes after New York, at 12.6% of income compared to the national average of 9.9% as reported by the
Tax Foundation The Tax Foundation is an international research think tank based in Washington, D.C. that collects data and publishes research studies on Taxation in the United States, U.S. tax policies at both the federal and state levels. Its stated mission ...
. Before 1991, Connecticut had an investment-only
income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...
system. Income from employment was untaxed, but income from investments was taxed at 13%, the highest rate in the U.S., with no deductions allowed for costs of producing the investment income, such as interest on borrowing. In 1991, under Governor Lowell P. Weicker Jr., an independent, the system was changed to one in which the taxes on employment income and investment income were equalized at a maximum rate of 4%. The new tax policy drew investment firms to Connecticut; ,
Fairfield County Fairfield County is the name of three counties in the United States: * Fairfield County, Connecticut * Fairfield County, Ohio * Fairfield County, South Carolina {{Geodis, uscounty ...
was home to the headquarters for 16 of the 200 largest
hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...
s in the world. , the income tax rates on Connecticut individuals were divided into seven tax brackets of 3% (on income up to $10,000); 5% ($10,000–$50,000); 5.5% ($50,000–$100,000); 6% ($100,000–$200,000); 6.5% ($200,000–$250,000); 6.9% ($250,000–$500,000); and 6.99% above $500,000, with additional amounts owed depending on the bracket. All wages of Connecticut residents are subject to the state's income tax, even if earned outside the state. However, in those cases, Connecticut income tax must be withheld only to the extent the Connecticut tax exceeds the amount withheld by the other jurisdiction. Since New York has higher income tax rates than Connecticut, this effectively means that Connecticut residents who work in New York have no Connecticut income tax withheld. Connecticut permits a credit for taxes paid to other jurisdictions, but since residents who work in other states are still subject to Connecticut income taxation, they may owe taxes if the jurisdictional credit does not fully offset the Connecticut tax amount. Connecticut levies a 6.35% state
sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
on the retail sale, lease, or rental of most goods. Some items and services in general are not subject to sales and use taxes unless specifically enumerated as taxable by
statute A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
. A provision excluding clothing under $50 from sales tax was repealed . There are no additional sales taxes imposed by local jurisdictions. In 2001, Connecticut instituted what became an annual sales tax "holiday" each August lasting one week, when retailers do not have to remit sales tax on certain items and quantities of clothing that has varied from year to year. State law authorizes municipalities to tax property, including real estate, vehicles and other personal property, with state statute providing varying exemptions, credits and abatements. All assessments are at 70% of
fair market value The fair market value of property is the price at which it would change hands between a willing and informed buyer and seller. The term is used throughout the Internal Revenue Code, as well as in bankruptcy laws, in many state laws, and by several ...
. The maximum property tax credit is $200 per return and any excess may not be refunded or carried forward. According to the Tax Foundation, on a per capita basis in the 2017 fiscal year Connecticut residents paid the 3rd highest average property taxes in the nation after
New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
and New Jersey. , gasoline taxes and fees in Connecticut were 40.13 cents per gallon, 11th highest in the United States which had a nationwide average of 36.13 cents a gallon excluding federal taxes. Diesel taxes and fees as of January 2020 in Connecticut were 46.50 cents per gallon, ninth highest nationally with the U.S. average at 37.91 cents.


Real estate

In 2019, sales of single-family homes in Connecticut totaled 33,146 units, a 2.1 percent decline from the 2018 transaction total. The median home sold in 2019 recorded a transaction amount of $260,000, up 0.4 percent from 2018. Connecticut had the seventh highest rate of home foreclosure activity in the country in 2019 at 0.53 percent of the total housing stock.


Industries

Finance, insurance and real estate was Connecticut's largest industry in 2018 as ranked by gross domestic product, generating $75.7 billion in GDP that year. Major employers include
The Hartford The Hartford Insurance Group, Inc., usually known as The Hartford, is an American investment and insurance company. The Hartford is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in its namesake city of Hartford, Connecticut. It was ranked 160th in Fortune ...
, Travelers,
Harman International Harman International Industries, Inc., commonly known as Harman, is an American audio electronics company. Since 2017, the company has been operating as an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut ...
,
Cigna The Cigna Group is an American multinational for-profit managed healthcare and insurance company based in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Its insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and r ...
, the
Aetna Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...
subsidiary of CVS Health, Mass Mutual, People's United Financial,
Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...
,
Realogy Anywhere Real Estate Inc., formerly Realogy (), is an American publicly traded real estate services company. It owns and franchises several real estate brands and brokerages, and offers consumer programs, lead generation, relocation, and tit ...
,
Bridgewater Associates Bridgewater Associates, LP (informally known as "Bridgewater") is an American investment management firm founded by Ray Dalio in 1975. The firm serves institutional clients including pension funds, Financial endowment, endowments, Foundation (no ...
,
GE Capital GE Capital was the financial services division of General Electric. Its various units were sold between 2013 and 2021, including the notable spin-off of the North American consumer finance division as Synchrony Financial. Ultimately, only one div ...
, William Raveis Real Estate, and
Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...
through reinsurance and residential real estate subsidiaries. The combined educational, health and social services sector was the largest single industry as ranked by employment, with a combined workforce of 342,600 people at the end of 2019, ranking fourth the year before in GDP at $28.3 billion. The broad business and professional services sector had the second highest GDP total in Connecticut in 2018 at an estimated $33.7 billion. Manufacturing was the third biggest industry in 2018 with GDP of $30.8 billion, dominated by
Raytheon Technologies RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon Technologies Corporation, is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by reve ...
formed in the March 2020 merger of Hartford-based
United Technologies United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational corporation, multinational list of conglomerates, conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous are ...
and Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon Co. As of the merger, Raytheon Technologies employed about 19,000 people in Connecticut through subsidiaries
Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...
and
Collins Aerospace Collins Aerospace is an American technology company that is one of the world's largest suppliers of aerospace and defense products. It was formed in 2018 from the merger of Rockwell Collins and UTC Aerospace Systems. Headquartered in Charlotte, ...
.
Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
subsidiary
Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by the Russian-American aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923, and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian ...
operates Connecticut's single largest manufacturing plant in Stratford, where it makes helicopters. Major audio equipment manufacturing company
Harman International Harman International Industries, Inc., commonly known as Harman, is an American audio electronics company. Since 2017, the company has been operating as an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut ...
is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. It owns many brands like
JBL JBL is an American audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 1946 by James Bullough Lansing, an American audio engineer and loudspeaker designer. JBL currently serves the ho ...
, Akg and
Harman kardon Harman/Kardon is a brand of US-based Harman International Industries. Harman Kardon was originally founded in Westbury, New York, in 1953 by business partners Sidney Harman and Bernard Kardon. The company is focused on three audio equipment b ...
. Other major manufacturers include the
Electric Boat An electric boat is a powered watercraft driven by electric motors, which are powered by either on-board battery packs, solar panels or generators. While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power ...
division of
General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...
, which makes submarines in Groton,
Boehringer Ingelheim C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co. is the parent company of the Boehringer Ingelheim group, which was founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer (1861–1939) in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. As of 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's List of la ...
, a pharmaceuticals manufacturer with its U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield, and ASML, which in Wilton makes precision lithography machines used to create circuitry on semiconductors and flat-screen displays. Connecticut historically was a center of gun manufacturing, and four gun-manufacturing firms continued to operate in the state , employing 2,000 people: Colt, Stag,
Ruger Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc., better known by the shortened name Ruger, is an American firearm manufacturing company based in Southport, Connecticut, with production facilities also in Newport, New Hampshire; Mayodan, North Carolina; and ...
, and Mossberg.
Marlin Marlins are fish from the family Istiophoridae, which includes between 9 and 11 species, depending on the taxonomic authority. Name The family's common name is thought to derive from their resemblance to a sailor's marlinspike. Taxonomy T ...
, owned by Remington, closed in April 2011. Other large components of the Connecticut economy in 2018 included wholesale trade ($18.1 billion in GDP); information services ($13.8 billion); retail ($13.7 billion); arts, entertainment and food services ($9.1 billion); and construction ($8.3 billion). Tourists spent $9.3 billion in Connecticut in 2017 according to estimates as part of a series of studies commissioned by the state of Connecticut.
Foxwoods Resort Casino Foxwoods Resort Casino is an integrated resort owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their Indian reservation, reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of . The casino ...
and
Mohegan Sun Mohegan Sun is a large casino and entertainment complex located on 240 acres (97 ha) of the Mohegan Indian Reservation in Uncasville, Connecticut, along the banks of the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River. It is owned and operated by the fe ...
are the two biggest tourist draws and number among the state's largest employers; both are located on Native American reservations in the southeastern Connecticut. Connecticut's agricultural production totaled $580 million in 2017, with just over half of that revenue the result of nursery stock production. Milk production totaled $81 million that year, with other major product categories including eggs,
vegetables Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including flowers, fruits, ...
and
fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...
,
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
and
shellfish Shellfish, in colloquial and fisheries usage, are exoskeleton-bearing Aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrates used as Human food, food, including various species of Mollusca, molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish ...
.


Energy

Connecticut's economy uses less energy to produce each dollar of GDP than all other states except California, Massachusetts, and New York. It uses less energy on a per-capita basis than all but six other states. It has no fossil-fuel resources, but does have renewable resources. Average retail electricity prices are the highest among the 48 contiguous states. While most of the state's energy consumption is generated using fossil fuels,
nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...
delivered over 40% of state's electricity generation in 2019.
Refuse-derived fuel Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is a Waste-to-energy, fuel produced from various types of waste such as municipal solid waste (MSW), industrial waste or commercial waste. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development provides a definition: ' ...
s and other
biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...
provided the largest share of renewable electricity at about a 3% share. Solar and wind generation have grown in recent years. More than three-quarters of solar generation came from distributed small-scale installations such as rooftop solar in 2019, and there is planning underway to significantly increase renewable generation with the state's offshore wind resource.


Transport


Roads

The
Interstate highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Hi ...
s in the state are
Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...
(I-95) traveling southwest to northeast along the coast,
I-84 Interstate 84 may refer to: * Interstate 84 (Oregon–Utah), passing through Idaho, formerly known as Interstate 80N * Interstate 84 (Pennsylvania–Massachusetts), passing through New York and Connecticut {{road disambiguation ...
traveling southwest to northeast in the center of the state,
I-91 Interstate 91 (I-91) is an Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the New England region of the United States. It is the primary north–south thoroughfare in the western part of the region. Its southern terminus is in New Haven, ...
traveling north to south in the center of the state, and I-395 traveling north to south near the eastern border of the state. The other major highways in Connecticut are the
Merritt Parkway The Merritt Parkway (also known locally as "The Merritt") is a controlled-access parkway in Fairfield County, Connecticut, with a small section at the northern end in New Haven County. Designed for Connecticut's Gold Coast, the parkway is k ...
and Wilbur Cross Parkway, which together form
Connecticut Route 15 Route 15 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Connecticut that runs from a connection with New York (state), New York's Hutchinson River Parkway in Greenwich, Connecticut, to its northern terminus intersecting with Interstate 84 (east) ...
(Route 15), traveling from the
Hutchinson River Parkway The Hutchinson River Parkway (known colloquially as the Hutch) is a controlled-access highway, controlled-access Parkways in New York, parkway in southern New York (state), New York in the United States. It extends for from the Bruckner Interc ...
in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
parallel to I-95 before turning north of
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
and traveling parallel to I-91, finally becoming a surface road in
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. I-95 and Route 15 were originally
toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...
s; they relied on a system of
toll plaza A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or '' toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and maintenan ...
s at which all traffic stopped and paid fixed tolls. A series of major crashes at these plazas eventually contributed to the decision to remove the tolls in 1988. Other major arteries in the state include U.S. Route7 (US7) in the west traveling parallel to the New York state line, Route8 farther east near the industrial city of Waterbury and traveling north–south along the Naugatuck River Valley nearly parallel with US7, and Route9 in the east. Between New Haven and New York City, I-95 is one of the most congested highways in the United States. Although I-95 has been widened in several spots, some areas are only three lanes and this strains traffic capacity, resulting in frequent and lengthy
rush hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English, Indian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice e ...
delays. Frequently, the congestion spills over to clog the parallel Merritt Parkway and even US1. The state has encouraged traffic reduction schemes, including rail use and ride-sharing. Connecticut also has a very active bicycling community, with one of the highest rates of bicycle ownership and use in the United States, particularly in New Haven. According to the U.S. Census 2006 American Community Survey, New Haven has the highest percentage of commuters who bicycle to work of any major metropolitan center on the East Coast.


Rail

Rail is a popular travel mode between New Haven and New York City's
Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...
. Southwestern Connecticut is served by the
Metro-North Railroad The Metro-North Commuter Railroad Company , also branded as MTA Metro-North Railroad and commonly called simply Metro-North, is a suburban commuter rail service operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a New York State publ ...
's
New Haven Line The New Haven Line is a commuter rail line operated by the Metro-North Railroad in the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and Connecticut. Running from New Haven, Connecticut, to New York City, the New Haven Line joins the Harlem Line ...
, operated by the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a New York state public benefit corporations, public benefit corporation in New York (state), New York State responsible for public transportation in the New York metropolitan area, New York Ci ...
. Metro-North provides commuter service between New York City and New Haven, with branches to New Canaan, Danbury, and
Waterbury Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Waterbury had a population of 114,403 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. The city is southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury i ...
. Connecticut lies along
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
's
Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, Rhod ...
, which features frequent
Northeast Regional The ''Northeast Regional'' is an intercity rail service operated by Amtrak in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. In the past it has been known as the ''NortheastDirect'', ''Acela Regional'', or ''Regional''. It is Amtrak's busie ...
and
Acela Express The ''Acela'' ( ; originally the ''Acela Express'' until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship passenger train service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern megalopolis, Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C. and ...
service from New Haven south to New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Norfolk, VA, as well as north to New London, Providence and Boston. Since 1990, coastal cities and towns between New Haven and New London are also served by the
Shore Line East Shore Line East (SLE) is a commuter rail service which operates along the Northeast Corridor through southern Connecticut, United States. The rail service is a fully owned subsidiary of the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT) and i ...
commuter line. In June 2018, a commuter rail service called the
Hartford Line The Hartford Line is a commuter rail service between New Haven, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, using the Amtrak-owned New Haven–Springfield Line. The project is a joint venture between the states of Connecticut and Massachuset ...
began operating between New Haven and Springfield on Amtrak's New Haven-Springfield Line. Hartford Line service is provided by both Amtrak and the Connecticut Department of Transportation's
CT Rail CT Rail, stylized as CT''rail'', is the brand for commuter rail services overseen by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT), in the U.S. state of Connecticut, with services on the Hartford Line extending into Massachusetts. CTDOT ove ...
, and in addition to its termini serves New Haven State Street, Wallingford, Meriden, Berlin,
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
, Windsor, and Windsor Locks. Several infill stations are planned to be added in the near future as of 2021. Amtrak's Vermonter runs from Washington to St. Albans, Vermont via the same line. In July 2019, Amtrak launched the '' Valley Flyer'', which runs between New Haven and
Greenfield, Massachusetts Greenfield is the county seat, and sole city, of Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. Greenfield was first settled in 1686. The population was 17,768 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Greenfield is home to Greenfield Commun ...
. A proposed commuter rail service, the Central Corridor Rail Line, would connect New London with
Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
, Willimantic, Storrs via the main campus of the
University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...
, and Stafford Springs, with service continuing into
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
and
Brattleboro, Vermont Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a New England town, town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located about north of the Massachusetts state line at the confluence of Vermont's West River (Vermont), West River and the Connec ...
. The proposal also adds stops to service popular tourist destinations
Foxwoods Resort Casino Foxwoods Resort Casino is an integrated resort owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation on their Indian reservation, reservation located in Ledyard, Connecticut. Including six casinos, the resort covers an area of . The casino ...
and
Mohegan Sun Mohegan Sun is a large casino and entertainment complex located on 240 acres (97 ha) of the Mohegan Indian Reservation in Uncasville, Connecticut, along the banks of the Thames River (Connecticut), Thames River. It is owned and operated by the fe ...
.


Bus

Statewide
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
service is supplied by
Connecticut Transit CT Transit (styled as CT''transit'') is a public transportation bus system serving many metropolitan areas and their surrounding suburbs in the state of Connecticut. CT Transit is a division of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, alth ...
, owned by the
Connecticut Department of Transportation The Connecticut Department of Transportation (officially referred to as CTDOT, occasionally ConnDOT, and CDOT in rare instances) is responsible for the development and operation of highways, Rail transport, railroads, mass transit systems, por ...
, with smaller municipal authorities providing local service. Bus networks are an important part of the transportation system in Connecticut, especially in urban areas like Hartford, Stamford, Norwalk, Bridgeport and New Haven. Connecticut Transit also operates
CTfastrak CTfastrak (constructed as the New Britain-Hartford Busway) is a regional bus rapid transit system currently operating between downtown Hartford and Downtown New Britain station in New Britain in central Connecticut. Operated by Connecticut Tr ...
, a bus rapid transit service between
New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...
and
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
, which opened to the public on March 28, 2015.


Air

Connecticut's largest airport is
Bradley International Airport Bradley International Airport – historically known as Bradley Field – is a public international airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, Windsor Locks, Connecticut, United States. Owned and operated by the Connecticut Airport Authority, Con ...
in Windsor Locks, north of
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
. Many residents of central and southern Connecticut also make heavy use of JFK International Airport and
Newark International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport is a major international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. The airport straddles the boundary between the cities of Newark in Essex County and Elizabeth in Union County, in the U.S. sta ...
s, especially for international travel. Smaller regional air service is provided at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport. Larger civil airports include
Danbury Municipal Airport Danbury Municipal Airport is a public use general aviation and commercial airport located three miles (5 km) southwest of the central business district of Danbury, in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The airport opened in 1 ...
and Waterbury-Oxford Airport in western Connecticut,
Hartford–Brainard Airport Hartford–Brainard Airport is a towered public airport three miles (5 km) southeast of downtown Hartford, in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is owned by the Connecticut Airport Authority. The Federal Aviation Administratio ...
in central Connecticut, and Groton-New London Airport in eastern Connecticut. Sikorsky Memorial Airport is located in Stratford and mostly services cargo, helicopter and private aviation.


Ferry

Several ferry services cross Long Island Sound and connect the state to
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
. The
Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry The Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, commonly referred to as the Bridgeport & Port Jefferson Ferry, is a privately owned transportation company that operates a passenger and vehicle ferry service across the Long Island Sound, betwe ...
travels between
Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the List of cities in New England by population, fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Loc ...
, and Port Jefferson, New York. Ferry service also operates out of New London to Orient, New York; Fishers Island, New York; and Block Island, Rhode Island, which are popular tourist destinations. Two ferries cross the Connecticut River: the Rocky Hill–Glastonbury ferry and the Chester–Hadlyme Ferry, Chester–Hadlyme ferry, the former of which is the oldest continuously operating ferry in the United States, operating since 1655.


Law and government

Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
has been the sole capital of Connecticut since 1875. Before then,
New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...
and Hartford alternated as dual capitals.


Constitutional history

Connecticut is known as the "Constitution State". The origin of this nickname is uncertain, but it likely comes from Connecticut's pivotal role in the federal constitutional convention of 1787, during which
Roger Sherman Roger Sherman (April 19, 1721 – July 23, 1793) was an early American politician, lawyer, and a Founding Father of the United States. He is the only person to sign all four great state papers of the United States: the Continental Association, ...
and
Oliver Ellsworth Oliver Ellsworth (April 29, 1745 – November 26, 1807) was a Founding Father of the United States, Attorney at law, attorney, jurist, politician, and diplomat. Ellsworth was a framer of the United States Constitution, United States senator fr ...
helped to orchestrate what became known as the Connecticut Compromise, or the Great Compromise. This plan combined the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan to form a bicameral legislature, a form copied by almost every state constitution since the adoption of the federal constitution. Variations of the bicameral legislature had been proposed by Virginia and New Jersey, but Connecticut's plan was the one that was in effect until the early 20th century, when Senators ceased to be selected by their state legislatures and were instead directly elected. Otherwise, it is still the design of Congress. The nickname also might refer to the Fundamental Orders of 1638–39. These Fundamental Orders represent the framework for the first formal Connecticut state government written by a representative body in Connecticut. The State of Connecticut government has operated under the direction of four separate documents in the course of the state's History of the Connecticut Constitution, constitutional history. After the Fundamental Orders, Connecticut was granted governmental authority by King Charles II of England through the Connecticut Charter of 1662. Separate branches of government did not exist during this period, and the General Assembly acted as the supreme authority. A constitution similar to the modern U.S. Constitution was not adopted in Connecticut until 1818. Finally, the current state constitution was implemented in 1965. The 1965 constitution absorbed a majority of its 1818 predecessor, but incorporated a handful of important modifications.


Executive

The governor heads the executive branch. , Ned Lamont is the List of Governors of Connecticut, Governor and Susan Bysiewicz is the List of Lieutenant Governors of Connecticut, Lieutenant Governor; both are Democrats. From 1639 until the adoption of the 1818 constitution, the governor presided over the General Assembly. In 1974, Ella Grasso was elected as the governor of Connecticut. This was the first time in United States history when a woman was a governor without her husband being governor first. There are several executive departments: Administrative Services, Agriculture, Banking, Children and Families, Consumer Protection, Correction, Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Department of Developmental Services, Developmental Services, Construction Services, Education, Emergency Management and Public Protection, Energy & Environmental Protection, Higher Education, Insurance, Labor, Mental Health and Addiction Services, Military, Motor Vehicles, Public Health, Public Utility Regulatory Authority, Public Works, Revenue Services, Social Services, Connecticut Department of Transportation, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs. In addition to these departments, there are other independent bureaus, offices and commissions. In addition to the governor and lieutenant governor, there are four other executive officers named in the state constitution that are elected directly by voters: secretary of the state, treasurer, comptroller, and attorney general. All executive officers are elected to four-year terms.


Legislative

Connecticut's legislative branch is known as the Connecticut General Assembly, General Assembly. It is a bicameral legislature consisting of an upper body, the Connecticut Senate, State Senate (36 senators); and a lower body, the Connecticut House of Representatives, House of Representatives (151 representatives). Bills must pass each house in order to become law. The governor can veto bills, but this veto can be overridden by a two-thirds majority in both houses. Per Article XV of the state constitution, Senators and Representatives must be at least 18 years of age and are elected to two-year terms in November on even-numbered years. There also must always be between 30 and 50 senators and 125 to 225 representatives. The Lieutenant Governor presides over the Senate, except when absent from the chamber, when the Presidents pro tempore of the Connecticut Senate, President pro tempore presides. The Speaker (politics), Speaker of the House presides over the House. , Matthew Ritter is the Speaker of the House of Connecticut. , Connecticut's United States Senators are Richard Blumenthal (Democrat) and Chris Murphy (Democrat). Connecticut has five U.S. Congressional Delegations from Connecticut, representatives in the U.S. House, all of whom are Democrats. Locally elected representatives also develop local ordinances to govern cities and towns. The town ordinances often include noise pollution#Humans, noise control and zoning guidelines. However, the State of Connecticut also provides statewide ordinances for noise control as well.


Judicial

The highest court of Connecticut's judicial branch is the Connecticut Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of Connecticut. The Supreme Court is responsible for deciding on the constitutionality of laws, or cases as they relate to the law. Its proceedings are similar to those of the United States Supreme Court: no testimony is given by witnesses, and the lawyers of the two sides each present oral arguments no longer than thirty minutes. Following a court proceeding, the court may take several months to arrive at a judgment. , the Chief Justice is Richard A. Robinson. In 1818, the court became a separate entity, independent of the legislative and executive branches. The Connecticut Appellate Court is a lesser statewide court, and the Superior Courts are lower courts that resemble county courts of other states.


Local government

Connecticut does not have County (United States), county government, unlike all other states except
Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...
. Connecticut county governments were mostly eliminated in 1960, with the exception of Sheriffs in the United States, sheriffs elected in each county. In 2000, the county sheriff was abolished and replaced with the Connecticut State Marshal, state marshal system, which has districts that follow the old county territories. The judicial system is divided into judicial districts at the trial-court level which largely follow the old county lines. The list of Connecticut counties, eight counties are still widely used for purely geographical and statistical purposes, such as Weather forecasting, weather reports and census reporting, although the latter will cease using the counties in 2024. The state is divided into nine regional Councils of governments in Connecticut, councils of government defined by the state Office of Planning and Management, which facilitate regional planning and coordination of services between member towns. The Intragovernmental Policy Division of this Office coordinates regional planning with the administrative bodies of these regions. Each region has an administrative body made up chief executive officers of the member towns. The regions are established for the purpose of planning "coordination of regional and state planning activities; redesignation of logical planning regions and promotion of the continuation of regional planning organizations within the state; and provision for technical aid and the administration of financial assistance to regional planning organizations". By 2015, the State of Connecticut recognized COGs as county equivalents, allowing them to apply for funding and grants made available to county governments in other states. In 2019 the state recommended to the United States Census Bureau that the nine Councils of Governments replace its counties for statistical purposes. This proposal was approved by the Census Bureau in 2022, and will be fully implemented by 2024. Connecticut shares with the rest of
New England New England is a region consisting of 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 (state), New York to the west and by the ...
a governmental institution called the New England town. The state is divided into 169 towns which serve as the fundamental political jurisdictions. There are also 21 cities, most of which simply follow the boundaries of their namesake towns and have a merged city-town government. There are two exceptions: the Groton (city), Connecticut, City of Groton, which is a subsection of the Groton (town), Connecticut, Town of Groton, and the City of Winsted, Connecticut, Winsted in the Town of Winchester, Connecticut, Winchester. There are also nine incorporated Borough (Connecticut), boroughs which may provide additional services to a section of town. Naugatuck is a consolidated town and borough.


Politics

Connecticut is a blue state. As of 2024, both of its U.S. Senators, all five of its U.S. House representatives, as well as its Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State, are members of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. The last Republican presidential candidate to win Connecticut's votes in the Electoral College was
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
in 1988.


Registered voters

Connecticut residents who register to vote may declare an affiliation to a political party, may become unaffiliated at will, and may change affiliations subject to certain waiting periods. , around 58% of registered voters are enrolled in a political party. The Democratic Party of Connecticut is the largest party in the state by voter registration, with 36% of voters, followed by the Connecticut Republican Party with approximately 21%. An additional 1.6% are registered to Third party (politics), third parties. As of 2022, 4 third parties have statewide enrollment privileges (meaning any state resident may register as a member), including the Libertarian Party of Connecticut, the Independent Party of Connecticut, the Connecticut Green Party, and the Connecticut Working Families Party. Connecticut allows electoral fusion, where the same candidate can run on the ballot of more than one political party; this is often used by the Connecticut Working Families Party to cross-endorse Democratic candidates.


Voting

In July 2009, the Connecticut legislature overrode a veto by Governor M. Jodi Rell to pass SustiNet, the first significant public-option health care reform legislation in the nation. In April 2012, both houses of the Connecticut state legislature passed a bill (20 to 16 and 86 to 62) that abolished Capital punishment in the United States, capital punishment for all future crimes, while 11 inmates who were waiting on the death row at the time could still be executed.


Education

Connecticut ranked third in the nation for Education in the United States, educational performance, according to Education Week's Quality Counts 2018 report. It earned an overall score of 83.5 out of 100 points. On average, the country received a score of 75.2. Connecticut posted a B-plus in the Chance-for-Success category, ranking fourth on factors that contribute to a person's success both within and outside the K-12 education system. Connecticut received a mark of B-plus and finished fourth for School Finance. It ranked 12th with a grade of C on the K-12 Achievement Index.


K–12


Public schools

Hartford Public High School (1638) is the third-oldest secondary school in the nation after the Collegiate School (New York), Collegiate School (1628) in Manhattan and the Boston Latin School (1635). Today, the Connecticut State Board of Education manages the public school system for children in grades K–12. Board of Education members are cronyism, appointed by the List of Governors of Connecticut, Governor of Connecticut.


Private schools

Connecticut has a number of Independent school, private schools. Private schools may file for approval by the state Department of Education, but are not required to. Per state law, private schools must file yearly attendance reports with the state. Notable private schools include Choate Rosemary Hall, Hotchkiss School, The Hotchkiss School, Loomis Chaffee School, and Taft School.


Colleges and universities

Connecticut was home to the nation's first law school, Litchfield Law School, which operated from 1773 to 1833 in Litchfield, Connecticut, Litchfield. Well known universities in the state include
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
, Wesleyan University, Trinity College (Connecticut), Trinity College, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield University, Quinnipiac University, and the
University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...
. The Connecticut State University System includes 4 state universities, and the state also has 12 community colleges. The
United States Coast Guard Academy The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA), located in New London, Connecticut, is the United States service academies, U.S. service academy specifically for the United States Coast Guard. Founded in 1876, the academy provides education t ...
is located in New London.


Sports

There are two Connecticut teams in the American Hockey League. The Bridgeport Islanders is a farm team for the New York Islanders which competes at the Total Mortgage Arena in
Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Is ...
. The Hartford Wolf Pack is an affiliate of the New York Rangers; they play in the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. The Hartford Yard Goats of the Double-A Northeast are a AA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. Also, the Norwich Sea Unicorns play in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. The New Britain Bees play in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. The Connecticut Sun of the WNBA currently play at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, Uncasville. In soccer, Hartford Athletic began play in the USL Championship in 2019. The state hosts several major sporting events. Since 1952, a PGA Tour golf tournament has been played in the Hartford area. It was originally called the "Insurance City Open" and later the "Greater Hartford Open" and is now known as the Travelers Championship. Lime Rock Park in Salisbury is a road racing course, home to the International Motor Sports Association, SCCA, United States Auto Club, and K&N Pro Series East races. Thompson International Speedway, Stafford Motor Speedway, and Waterford Speedbowl are oval tracks holding weekly races for NASCAR Modifieds and other classes, including the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour. The state also hosts several major mixed martial arts events for Bellator MMA and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.


Professional sports teams

The Hartford Whalers of the National Hockey League played in Hartford from 1975 to 1997 at the Hartford Civic Center. They departed to Raleigh, North Carolina, after disputes with the state over the construction of a new arena, and they are now known as the Carolina Hurricanes. A baseball team known as the Hartfords (or Hartford Dark Blues) played in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, National Association from 1874 to 1875, before becoming charter members of the National League (baseball), National League in 1876. The team moved to Brooklyn, New York, and then disbanded one season later. In 1926, Hartford also had a franchise in the National Football League known as the Hartford Blues. From 2000 until 2006 the city was home to the Hartford FoxForce of World TeamTennis.


College sports

The Connecticut Huskies are the team of the University of Connecticut (UConn); they play NCAA Division I sports. Both the Connecticut Huskies men's basketball, men's basketball and Connecticut Huskies women's basketball, women's basketball teams have won multiple national championships. In 2004, UConn became the first school in NCAA DivisionI history to have its men's and women's basketball programs win the national title in the same year; they repeated the feat in 2014 and are still the only DivisionI school to win both titles in the same year. The UConn women's basketball team holds the record for the longest consecutive winning streak in NCAA college basketball at 111 games, a streak that ended in 2017. Both teams play in the historic Harry A. Gampel Pavilion and PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. The UConn Huskies football team has played in the Football Bowl Subdivision since 2002, and has played in four bowl games. New Haven biennially hosts "Harvard–Yale football rivalry, The Game" between the Yale Bulldogs and the Harvard Crimson, the country's second-oldest college football rivalry. Yale alumnus Walter Camp is deemed the "Father of American Football", and he helped develop modern football while living in New Haven. Other Connecticut universities which feature DivisionI sports teams are Quinnipiac Bobcats, Quinnipiac University, Fairfield Stags, Fairfield University, Central Connecticut Blue Devils, Central Connecticut State University and Sacred Heart Pioneers, Sacred Heart University.


Etymology and symbols

The name "Connecticut" originated with the Mohegan word ''quonehtacut'', meaning "place of long tidal river". Connecticut's official nickname is "The Constitution State", adopted in 1959 and based on its colonial constitution of 1638–1639 which was the first in America and, arguably, the world. Connecticut is also unofficially known as "The Nutmeg State", whose origin is unknown. It may have come from its sailors returning from voyages with nutmeg, which was a very valuable spice in the 18th and 19th centuries. It may have originated in the early machined sheet tin nutmeg grinders sold by early Connecticut peddlers. It is also facetiously said to come from Yankee peddlers from Connecticut who would sell small carved knobs of wood shaped to look like nutmeg to unsuspecting customers.
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
gave Connecticut the title of "The Provisions State" because of the material aid that the state rendered to the American Revolutionary War effort. Connecticut is also known as "The Land of Steady Habits". According to ''Webster's New International Dictionary'' (1993), a person who is a native or resident of Connecticut is a "Connecticuter". There are numerous other terms coined in print but not in use, such as "Connecticotian" (Cotton Mather in 1702) and "Connecticutensian" (Samuel Peters (clergyman), Samuel Peters in 1781). Linguist Allen Walker Read suggests the more playful term "Connecticutie". "Nutmegger" is sometimes used, as is "Yankee". The official state song is "Yankee Doodle". The traditional abbreviation of the state's name is "Conn."; the official United States postal abbreviations, postal abbreviation is CT. Commemorative stamps issued by the United States Postal Service with Connecticut themes include Nathan Hale, Eugene O'Neill, Josiah Willard Gibbs,
Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...
,
Eli Whitney Eli Whitney Jr. (December 8, 1765January 8, 1825) was an American inventor, widely known for inventing the cotton gin in 1793, one of the key inventions of the Industrial Revolution that shaped the economy of the Antebellum South. Whitney's ...
, the whaling ship the ''Charles W. Morgan (ship), Charles W. Morgan'', which is docked at Mystic Seaport, and a decoy of a broadbill duck. File:Charter Oak in Hartford CT.jpg, The Charter Oak File:SS-571-Nautilus-trials.gif, The


Notable people


See also

* Index of Connecticut-related articles * Outline of Connecticut * List of states and territories of the United States * USS Connecticut, USS ''Connecticut'', 7 ships


Notes


References


External links


Official website

CTVisit.com
��Official tourism website

��U.S. Census Bureau Library of Congress
Connecticut: State Resource Guide
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