New England

Regional statistics
Composition	Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont
Demonym	New Englander, New English, Yankee[1]
Area  - Total	71,991.8 sq mi (186,458.8 km²) (Slightly larger than Washington.)
Population  - Total  - Density	14,444,865 (2010 est.)[2] 198.2/sq mi (87.7/km²)
Governors	Dannel Malloy (D-CT) Paul LePage (R-ME) Deval Patrick (D-MA) John Lynch (D-NH) Lincoln Chafee (I-RI) Peter Shumlin (D-VT)
Largest city	Boston (pop. 617,594)
GDP	$763.7 billion (2007)[3]
HDI	5.7 (1st) (2011)
Largest Metropolitan Area	Boston-Cambridge-Quincy (pop. 4,522,858)

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. New England is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada (the Canadian Maritimes and Quebec) and the state of New York.

In one of the earliest English settlements in North America, Pilgrims from England first settled in New England in 1620, to form Plymouth Colony. Ten years later, the Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next 130 years, New England fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British defeated the French and their native allies in North America. In the late 18th century, the New England Colonies initiated the resistance to the British Parliament's efforts to impose new taxes without the consent of the colonists. The Boston Tea Party was a protest that angered Great Britain, which responded with the "Intolerable Acts", stripping the colonies of self-government. The confrontation led to open warfare in 1775, the expulsion of the British from New England in spring 1776, and the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.

The first movements of American literature, philosophy, and education originated in New England. The region played a prominent role in the movement to abolish slavery, and was the first region of the United States to be transformed by the Industrial Revolution. Today, New England is a major world center of education, high technology, insurance, and medicine. Boston is its cultural, financial, educational, medical and transportation center.

Each state is principally subdivided into small incorporated municipalities known as New England towns, which are often governed by town meeting. The only unincorporated territory in New England exists in the sparse, northern regions of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Since 1970, voters have more often supported liberal candidates at the state and federal level than those of any other region in the United States.

New England has the only non-geographic regional name recognized by the federal government. It maintains a strong sense of cultural identity set apart from the rest of the country, although the terms of this identity are often contested, combining Puritanism with liberalism, agrarian life with industry, and isolation with immigration.

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

Fall foliage in the town of Stowe, Vermont

History[link]

Eastern Algonquian peoples[link]

The earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages.^[4] Prominent tribes included the Abenaki, Penobscot, Pequot, Mohegans, Pocumtuck, and Wampanoag.^[4] Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Western Abenakis inhabited New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine.^[5] Their principal town was Norridgewock, in present-day Maine.^[6] The Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. The Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, and the Mohegan and Pequot tribes in the Connecticut region. The Connecticut River Valley, which includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, linked different indigenous communities culturally, linguistically, and politically.^[4]

As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders, exploring the New World, began to trade metal, glass, and cloth for local beaver pelts.^[4][7]

The Virginia Companies[link]

On April 10, 1606, King James I of England issued a charter for each of the Virginia Companies, London and Plymouth.^[8][9][10] These were privately-funded ventures, intended to claim land for England, trade, and return a profit.^[11]

The Virginia Company of Plymouth's charter included land extending as far as present-day northern Maine.^[12] It established the Popham Colony at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Maine in the fall of 1607. Unlike the Jamestown Settlement, it was not successful, and was abandoned the following spring.^[13] Captain John Smith, exploring the shores of the region in 1614, named it "New England"^[14] in his account of two voyages there, published as A Description of New England.

The next notable arrival in New England took place in the winter of 1616–1617 at Winter Harbor, afterwards called Biddeford Pool, by Captain Richard Vines.^[15] This location is in current-day Biddeford, Maine. Four years later, Plymouth in Massachusetts was settled by Pilgrims from the Mayflower, beginning the history of permanent European settlement in New England.^[16]

Plymouth Council for New England[link]

An early English map of New England, c. 1670, depicts the area around modern Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The name "New England" was officially sanctioned on November 3, 1620,^[17] when the charter of the Virginia Company of Plymouth was replaced by a royal charter for the Plymouth Council for New England, a joint stock company established to colonize and govern the region.^[18] As the first colonists arrived in Plymouth, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact,^[19] their first governing document.^[20] The Massachusetts Bay Colony, which would come to dominate the area, was established by royal charter in 1629^[21][22] with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630.^[23]

Massachusetts Puritans began to settle in Connecticut in as early as 1633.^[24] Roger Williams, banished from Massachusetts for heresy, led a group south, and founded Providence, in the area that later became the state of Rhode Island, in 1636.^[25][26] At this time, Vermont was yet unsettled, and the territories of New Hampshire and Maine were claimed and governed by Massachusetts.^[27]

Colonial Wars[link]

New England's Siege of Louisbourg (1745) by Peter Monamy

Relationships between colonists and Native Americans alternated between peace and armed skirmishes, the bloodiest of which was the Pequot War in 1643, which resulted in the Mystic massacre. Six years later, the colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut joined together in a loose compact called the New England Confederation (officially "The United Colonies of New England"). The confederation was designed largely to coordinate mutual defense, but was never effective and soon collapsed.

In 1675, King Philip's War pitted the colonists and their native American allies against a widespread native American uprising, resulting in massacres and killings on both sides. The colonists won in the south decisively, however, they were forced to sign peace treaties in the North in present-day New Hampshire and Maine.

During the next seventy-four years, there were six colonial wars that took place primarily between New England and New France (see the French and Indian Wars as well as Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War). Throughout these wars, New England was allied with the Iroquois Confederacy and New France was allied with the Wabanaki Confederacy. After the New England Conquest of Acadia in 1710, mainland Nova Scotia was under the control of New England, but both present-day New Brunswick and virtually all of present-day Maine remained contested territory between New England and New France. After the British won the war in 1763, the Connecticut River Valley was opened up for settlement into western New Hampshire and what is today Vermont.

The New England colonies were settled largely by farmers, who became relatively self-sufficient. Later, aided by the Puritan work ethic, New England's economy began to focus on crafts and trade, in contrast to the Southern colonies, which had to import many goods from England.^[28]

Dominion of New England[link]

By 1686, King James II had become concerned about the increasingly independent ways of the colonies, including their self-governing charters, their open flouting of the Navigation Acts, and their growing military power. He therefore established the Dominion of New England, an administrative union comprising all of the New England colonies.^[31] In 1688, the former Dutch colonies of New York and New Jersey were added to the Dominion. The union, imposed from the outside and contrary to the rooted democratic tradition of the region, was highly unpopular among the colonists.^[32]

The Dominion significantly modified the charters of the colonies, including the appointment of Royal Governors to nearly all of them. There was an uneasy tension between the Royal Governors, their officers, and the elected governing bodies of the colonies. The governors wanted unlimited authority, and the different layers of locally elected officials would often resist them. In most cases, the local town governments continued operating as self-governing bodies, just as they had before the appointment of the governors.^[33] After the Glorious Revolution in 1689, Bostonians overthrew the royal governor, Sir Edmund Andros. They seized dominion officials and adherents to the Church of England during a popular and bloodless uprising.^[34] These tensions eventually culminated in the American Revolution, boiling over with the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775. The first battles of the war were fought in Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, later leading to the Siege of Boston by continental troops. In March of 1776, British forces were compelled to retreat from Boston.

New England and the early United States[link]

Boston College: The architecture style is Collegiate Gothic, a subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, a 19th-century movement.

Postrevolutionary New England[link]

After the War of Independence, New England ceased to be a meaningful political unit, but remained a defined cultural region consisting of its now-sovereign constituent states. By 1784, all of the states in the region had taken steps towards the abolition of slavery, with Vermont and Massachusetts introducing total abolition in 1777 and 1783, respectively.^[35]

During the War of 1812, there was a movement within New England for secession from the United States, as New England merchants, only beginning to recover, opposed war with their greatest trading partner—Great Britain.^[36] Delegates met in the Hartford Convention in the winter of 1814–15. The twenty-seven delegates met to discuss changes to the U.S. Constitution to protect the region's interests and maintain its political power, feeling used as pawns in the focus on trade restrictions.^[37]

After settling a dispute with New York, Vermont was admitted to statehood in 1791, formally completing the defined area of New England. On March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise, the territory of Maine, formerly a part of Massachusetts, was admitted to the Union as a free state.^[38] Today, New England is defined as made up of the six states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.^[39]

For the rest of the period before the American Civil War, New England remained distinct from the rest of the U.S. Politically, it often disagreed with the rest of the country.^[40] Massachusetts and Connecticut were among the last refuges of the Federalist Party, and, when the Second Party System began in the 1830s, New England became the strongest bastion of the new Whig Party. The Whigs were usually dominant throughout New England, except in the more Democratic Maine and New Hampshire. Leading statesmen—including Daniel Webster—hailed from the region. New England was distinct in other ways. Many notable literary and intellectual figures produced by the United States before the American Civil War were New Englanders, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, George Bancroft, and William H. Prescott.^[41]

Industrial Revolution and abolitionist movement[link]

The Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

New England was key to the industrial revolution in the U.S.^[42] In 1787, the first cotton mill in America, the Beverly Cotton Manufactory, was founded in the North Shore seaport of Beverly, Massachusetts.^[43] The Manufactory was also considered the largest cotton mill of its time. Technological developments and achievements from the Manufactory led to the development of more advanced cotton mills, including Slater Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The Blackstone Valley, running through Massachusetts and Rhode Island, has been called the birthplace of America's industrial revolution.^[44] Towns such as Lawrence and Lowell in Massachusetts, Woonsocket in Rhode Island, and Lewiston in Maine became centers of the textile industry following the innovations at Slater Mill and the Beverly Cotton Manufactory.

The rapid growth of textile manufacturing in New England caused a shortage of workers. Recruiters were hired by mill agents to bring young women and children from the countryside to work in the factories. Between 1830 and 1860, thousands of farm girls moved from rural areas to work in the mills. Farmers’ daughters left their homes to aid their families financially, save for marriage, and widen their horizons. Stagecoach and railroad services made it easier for large numbers of workers to travel from the country to the city. The majority of female workers came from farming towns in northern New England. As the textile industry grew, immigration also grew. As the number of Irish workers in the mills increased, the number of young women working in the mills decreased. Mill employment of women caused a population boom in urban centers.^[45] New England was, as a whole, the most industrialized part of the U.S.; by 1850, it accounted for well over a quarter of all manufacturing value in the country, and over a third of its industrial workforce.^[46] It was also the most literate and most educated region in the country.^[46]

New England and areas settled from New England, like Upstate New York, Ohio's Western Reserve and the upper midwestern states of Michigan and Wisconsin, proved to be the center of the strongest abolitionist sentiment in the country. Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips were New Englanders, and the region was home to anti-slavery politicians like John Quincy Adams, Charles Sumner, and John P. Hale. When the anti-slavery Republican Party was formed in the 1850s, all of New England, including areas that had previously been strongholds for both the Whig and the Democratic Parties, became strongly Republican, as it would remain until the early 20th century, when immigration would begin to turn the formerly solidly Republican states of Lower New England towards the Democrats.

The region had problems transitioning from manufacturing to other industries. In 2000, New England had two of the ten poorest cities (by percentage living below the poverty line) in the U.S.: the state capital cities of Providence, Rhode Island and Hartford, Connecticut.^[47] They were no longer in the bottom ten by 2010.

Geography[link]

A political and geographical map of New England shows the coastal plains in the east and hills, mountains, and valleys in the west and the north.

The states of New England have a combined area of 71,991.8 sq mi (186,458 km²), making the region slightly larger than the state of Washington and larger than England.^[48][49] Maine alone constitutes nearly one-half of the total area of New England, yet is only the 39th-largest state, slightly smaller than Indiana. The remaining states are among the smallest in the U.S., including the smallest state, Rhode Island.

Topography[link]

New England's long rolling hills, mountains, and jagged coastline are glacial landforms resulting from the retreat of ice sheets approximately 18,000 years ago, during the last glacial period.^[50][51]

New England is geologically a part of the New England province, an exotic terrane region consisting of the Appalachian Mountains, the New England highlands, and the seaboard lowlands.^[52] The Appalachian Mountains roughly follow the border between New England and New York. The Berkshires in Massachusetts and the Green Mountains in Vermont, as well as the Taconic Mountains, form a spine of Precambrian rock.^[53] The Appalachians extend northwards into New Hampshire as the White Mountains, and then into Maine and Canada. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is the highest peak in the Northeast and the second-highest peak in the Appalachian Mountain system, at 6,288 ft (1,917 m).^[54] It is the site of the second highest recorded wind speed on Earth,^[55][56] and has the reputation of having the world's worst weather.^[54][57]

The coast of the region, extending from southwestern Connecticut to northeastern Maine, is dotted with lakes, hills, swamps, and sandy beaches.^[51] Important valleys in the region include the Connecticut River Valley and the Merrimack Valley.^[51] The longest river is the Connecticut River, which flows from northeastern New Hampshire for 655 km (407 mi), emptying into Long Island Sound, roughly bisecting the region. Lake Champlain, wedged between Vermont and New York, is the largest lake in the region, followed by Moosehead Lake in Maine and Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.^[51]

Climate[link]

The White Mountains of New Hampshire are part of the Appalachian Mountains.

Weather patterns vary throughout the region. Most of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont have a humid continental short summer climate,^[58] with mild summers and cold winters. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, southern coastal Maine, and southern New Hampshire and Vermont have a humid continental long summer climate,^[58] with warm summers and cold winters. Owing to thick deciduous forests, fall in New England brings bright and colorful foliage, which comes earlier than in other nearby regions, attracting tourism by "leaf peepers."^[59] In general, springs are wet and cloudy. Average rainfall ranges from 40 to 60 inches (1,000 to 1,500 mm) a year, although the northern parts of Vermont and Maine experience slightly less, from 20 to 40 inches (510 to 1,000 mm). Snowfall often exceeds 98 in (2,500 mm) annually. As a result, the mountains and ski resorts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are popular destinations in the winter.^[42][60]

The lowest recorded temperature in New England was −50 °F (−46 °C) at Bloomfield, Vermont, on December 30, 1933. This was tied by Big Black River, Maine in 2009.^[61] Rhode Island is the warmest state in New England, Maine the coolest; the former is the 27th warmest in the U.S., the latter, the 48th warmest (3rd coolest).^[62]

Demographics[link]

Boston is considered to be the cultural and historical capital of New England.^[64][65]

According to the 2006–08 American Community Survey, New England had a population of 14,265,187, of which 48.7% were male and 51.3% were female. Approximately 22.4% of the population were under 18 years of age; 13.5% were over 65 years of age.

In terms of race and ethnicity, White Americans made up 84.9% of New England's population, of which 81.2% were whites of non-Hispanic origin. Black Americans comprised 5.7% of the region's population, of which 5.3% were blacks of non-Hispanic origin. Native Americans made up 0.3% of the population, numbering 37,234. There were just over 500,000 Asian Americans residing in New England at the time of the survey, making up 3.5% of the region's population. There were 158,282 Chinese Americans, constituting 1.1% of the region's total population, and 119,140 Indian Americans (0.8%). Japanese Americans numbered 14,501 (0.1%).

Pacific Islander Americans numbered 4,194, 0.03% of the populace. There were 138 Samoan Americans residing in the region. Multiracial Americans made up 1.8% of New England's population. The largest mixed-race group comprised those of African and European descent; there were 84,143 people of black and white ancestry, making up 0.6% of the population. People of Native American and European American ancestry made up 0.4% of the population, and people of Asian and European heritage 0.3%.

Hispanic and Latino Americans are New England's largest minority, and they are the second-largest group in the region behind non-Hispanic European Americans. Hispanics and Latinos of any race made up 7.9% of New England's population, and there were over 1.1 million Hispanic and Latino individuals reported in the survey. Puerto Ricans were the most numerous of the Hispanic and Latino subgroups. Over half a million (507,000) Puerto Ricans live in New England, forming 3.6% of the population. There are also just over 100,000 Mexican Americans. The Dominican population is more than 70,000.^[66] Americans of Cuban descent are scant in number; there were roughly 20,000 Cuban Americans in the region. People of other Hispanic and Latino ancestries, for example Salvadoran, Colombian, and Bolivian, formed 3.5% of New England's population, and numbered over 492,000.^[67]

New England's European American population is ethnically diverse. The majority of the Euro-American population is of Irish, Italian, English, French, and German descent. Smaller but significant populations of Poles, French Canadians, and Portuguese exist as well.

According to the 2006–2008 survey, the top ten largest European ancestries were the following:

• Irish: 21.1% (Over 3 million)
• French and French Canadian: 15.3% (1.5 million French and roughly 700,000 French Canadian)
• Italian: 14.4% (Over 2 million)
• English: 13.7% (1.9 million)
• German: 8.2% (1.2 million)
• Polish: 5.6% (Roughly 800,000)
• Portuguese: 3.5% (Over 500,000)
• Scottish: 3.1% (Over 440,000)
• Scotch-Irish: 2.1% (Over 290,000)

English is, by far, the most common language spoken at home. Approximately 82.7% of all residents (11.1 million people) over the age of five spoke only English at home. Roughly 885,000 people (6.6% of the population) spoke Spanish at home, and roughly 1,023,000 people (7.6% of the population) spoke other Indo-European languages at home. Over 313,000 people (2.3% of the population) spoke an Asian or Pacific Island language at home. Slightly fewer (about 2%) spoke French at home, although this figure is above 20% in northern New England, which borders francophone Québec.^[68] Roughly 99,000 people (0.7% of the population) spoke languages other than these at home.

The vast majority of New England's inhabitants, roughly 12.3 million people or 86.3% of the population, were born in the U.S. However, there is a significant foreign-born population in the region. 2.2% of the population (315,000 people) were born in Puerto Rico, in a U.S. territory, or abroad to American parents. Altogether, the native population totals roughly 12,630,000 people, or 88.5% of the population. The foreign-born population forms over ten percent (11.5%) of New England's total population. There are roughly 1.6 million foreigners residing in the region. Thirty-five percent of foreigners were born in Latin America, 27.9% were born in Europe, 24.5% were born in Asia, and 6.9% were born in Africa. People born in other parts of North America made up 5.3% of the foreign-born populace. Oceania-born residents formed 0.4% of the foreign population, just over 6,000. Of the 1.6 million foreigners, 47.7% were naturalized citizens of the U.S., and the majority (52.3%) were not U.S. citizens.^[69]

The six states of New England have the lowest birth rate in the U.S.^[70]

In 2005, the total population of New England was 14,239,724 people, roughly a 50% increase from its 1929 population of 9,813,000.^[71] The region's average population density is 221.66 inhabitants/sq mi (85.59/km²), although a great disparity exists between its northern and southern portions. The population density is much greater than that of the U.S. as a whole (79.56/sq mi) or even just the contiguous 48 states (94.48/sq mi).

Three-quarters of the population of New England, and most of the major cities, are in the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Their combined population density is 786.83/sq mi, compared to northern New England's 63.56/sq mi (2000 census). The most populous state is Massachusetts, and the most populous city is Massachusetts' political and cultural capital, Boston.

Providence claims the largest contiguous area of National Register of Historic Places-listed buildings in the U.S.

The coastline is more urban than the western parts of the region, which are typically rural, even in urban states like Massachusetts. This is due mainly to historical factors; the original colonists settled mostly on the coastline of Massachusetts Bay. The only New England state without access to the Atlantic Ocean, Vermont, is also the least urbanized.^[72] After nearly 400 years, the region still maintains, for the most part, its historical population layout.

New England's coast is dotted with urban centers, such as Portland, Portsmouth, Boston, New Bedford, Fall River, Providence, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Stamford, as well as smaller cities such as Newburyport, Gloucester, Biddeford, Bath, Rockland, Newport, Westerly, and the small twin cities of Groton and New London in Connecticut.

Southern New England forms an integral part of the BosWash megalopolis, a conglomeration of urban centers that spans from Boston to Washington, D.C.. The region includes three of the four most densely populated states in the U.S.; only New Jersey has a higher population density than the states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Greater Boston, which includes parts of southern New Hampshire, has a total population of approximately 4.4 million,^[73] while over half the population of New England falls inside Boston's Combined Statistical Area of over 7.4 million.^[74]

In 2009, two New England states were among the five highest in the U.S. in divorce rates. Maine was second highest with 13.6% of people over the age of 15 divorced; Vermont was fifth with 12.6% divorced.^[75] Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, on the other hand, have below-average divorce rates. Massachusetts is tied with Georgia with the lowest divorce rate in the U.S., at 2.4%.^[76]

Largest cities[link]

The most populous cities are as of the 2010 Census (metropolitan areas in parentheses):^[77]

1. Boston, Massachusetts: 617,594 (4,552,402)
2. Worcester, Massachusetts: 181,045 (798,552)
3. Providence, Rhode Island: 178,042 (1,600,852)
4. Springfield, Massachusetts: 153,060 (692,942)
5. Bridgeport, Connecticut: 144,229 (916,829)
6. New Haven, Connecticut: 129,779 (862,477)
7. Hartford, Connecticut: 124,775 (1,212,381)
8. Stamford, Connecticut: 122,643 (part of Bridgeport's MSA)
9. Waterbury, Connecticut: 110,366 (228,984)
10. Manchester, New Hampshire: 109,565 (400,721)
11. Lowell, Massachusetts: 106,519 (315,158)
12. Cambridge, Massachusetts: 105,162 (part of Greater Boston)

During the 20th century, urban expansion in regions surrounding New York City has become an important economic influence on neighboring Connecticut, parts of which belong to the New York Metropolitan Area. The U.S. Census Bureau groups Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties in western Connecticut together with New York City, and other parts of New York and New Jersey as a combined statistical area.^[78]

Health[link]

The six states of New England ranked within the top thirteen "healthiest states" of the U.S. in 2007.^[79] In 2008, they all placed within the top eleven states. New England also had the largest proportion of its population covered by health insurance.^[80]

For 2006, four states in the region, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, joined 12 others nationwide, where the number of deaths caused by drugs had overtaken traffic fatalities. This was due in part to declining traffic fatalities, and in part to increased deaths caused by prescription drugs.^[81]

In comparing national obesity rates by state, four of the six lowest obesity states were Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island. New Hampshire and Maine had the 15th and 18th lowest obesity rates, making New England the least overweight part of the U.S.^[82]

In 2008, three of New England's states had the least number of uninsured motorists (out of the top five states); Massachusetts – 1%, Maine – 4%, and Vermont – 6%.^[83]

In 2006, Massachusetts adopted health care reform that requires nearly all state residents obtain health insurance,^[84] which served as an important model for the federal 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.^[85]

Nursing home care can be expensive in the region. A private room in Connecticut averaged $125,925 annually. A one-bedroom in an assisted living facility averaged $55,137 in Massachusetts. Both are national highs.^[86]

Economy[link]

Hartford, once known as the "Insurance Capital of the World"^[87]

Overview[link]

Several factors combine to make the New England economy unique. The region is geographically isolated from the rest of the U.S., and is relatively small. It is an important supplier of natural resources and products, such as granite, lobster, and codfish.

Its population is concentrated on the coast and in its southern states, and its residents have a strong regional identity.^[88] America's textile industry began along the Blackstone River with the Slater Mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island.^[89] This was soon duplicated at similar sources of water power such as Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Uxbridge, Massachusetts, and the manufacturing centers of Waltham, Massachusetts, Lowell, Lawrence, Massachusetts, Fall River, Massachusetts, and Manchester, New Hampshire

In the early 20th century, the region underwent a long period of deindustrialization as traditional manufacturing companies relocated to the Midwest. In the mid-to-late 20th century, manufacturing was replaced by education, health services, finance, and high technology (including computer and electronic equipment manufacturing) as the region's most important economic motors.

As of 2007, the inflation-adjusted combined GSPs of the six states of New England was $763.7 billion, with Massachusetts ($365 billion) contributing the most, and Vermont ($25.4 billion) the least.^[90]

Exports[link]

Portland, Maine, the largest tonnage seaport city in New England^[91]

Exports consist mostly of industrial products, including specialized machines and weaponry (aircraft and missiles especially), built by the region's educated workforce. About half of the region's exports consist of industrial and commercial machinery, such as computers and electronic and electrical equipment. This, when combined with instruments, chemicals, and transportation equipment, makes up about three-quarters of the region's exports. Granite is quarried at Barre, Vermont,^[92] guns made at Springfield, Massachusetts and Saco, Maine, boats at Groton, Connecticut and Bath, Maine, and hand tools at Turners Falls, Massachusetts. Insurance is a driving force in and around Hartford, Connecticut.^[88]

Vermont Maple Syrup

New England exports food products, ranging from fish to lobster, cranberries, Maine potatoes, and maple syrup. The service industry is important, including tourism, education, financial and insurance services, plus architectural, building, and construction services. The U.S. Department of Commerce has called the New England economy a microcosm for the entire U.S. economy.^[88]

Manufacturing[link]

In 2010, a University of Connecticut study indicated that five of the six states rank 43rd or lower for manufacturing costs, meaning that manufacturing in New England is generally costlier than in other parts of the U.S. Only Maine was less costly. Vermont, Rhode Island and New Hampshire tied for last place.^[93] Historic manufacturing cities like Lowell, Massachusetts have attempted to reuse mill buildings for residential and commercial purposes.^[94]

Agriculture[link]

Agriculture is limited by the area's rocky soil and cooler climate. Some New England states, however, are ranked highly among U.S. states for particular areas of production. Maine is ranked ninth for aquaculture,^[95] and has abundant potato fields in its northeast part. Vermont is fifteenth for dairy products,^[96] and Connecticut and Massachusetts seventh and eleventh for tobacco, respectively.^[97][98] Cranberries are grown in Massachusetts' Cape Cod-Plymouth-South Shore area, and blueberries in Maine.