New Haven is the third-largest municipality in Connecticut, after Bridgeport and possibly Hartford, with a core population of about 124,000 people. "New Haven" may also refer to the wider Greater New Haven area, which has nearly 600,000 inhabitants in the immediate area. It is located in New Haven County, on New Haven Harbor, on the northern shore of Long Island Sound.

New Haven was founded in 1638, one of the earliest planned communities in North America. The next year, eight streets were laid out in a grid of four streets by four streets creating what is now commonly known as the "Nine Square Plan," blank">New Haven: The Elm City which is recognized by the _American Institute of Certified Planners as a National Historic Planning Landmark. The central common block is the Green, a 16 acre square, now a National Historic Landmark and the center of Downtown New Haven.

New Haven had the first public tree planting program in America, producing a canopy of mature trees (including some large elms) that gave New Haven the nickname "The Elm City."

The city is the home of Yale University. Along with Yale, healthcare (hospitals, biotechnology), professional services (legal, architectural, marketing, engineering), financial services and retail trade form the base of the economy. Since the mid-1990s, the city's downtown area has seen extensive revitalization.