Connecticut

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2

Railroads

The principal passenger railroad in Connecticut is operated by the Metro-North division of New York State’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Metro-North’s main line in the state carries thousands of commuters daily between New York City and suburbs in Connecticut. Amtrak provides passenger service along the shore and through Hartford. The largest freight hauler is the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail). Some 51 percent of the tonnage of goods hauled by rail and originating in the state were nonmetallic minerals in 2004, and another 37 percent was waste and scrap. In 2004 the state had 874 km (543 mi) of railroad track.

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Airports

The state’s major airport, Bradley International Airport, is located near the town of Windsor Locks, north of Hartford. In 2007 there were 6 airports scattered throughout Connecticut, many of them private airfields.

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Waterways

The Connecticut River was once a major trade route but is little used today, except by pleasure boats and small barges transporting oil and gasoline to Hartford. Connecticut is linked with Long Island by ferry service from Bridgeport.

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Trade

A large part of Connecticut’s wholesale and retail trade is domestic, for Connecticut is advantageously located in a densely populated region that constitutes one of the richest consumer and industrial markets in the United States. Connecticut’s major seaports are New Haven, Bridgeport, and New London. These three ports handle the bulk of Connecticut’s foreign trade. Exports shipped from Connecticut include motors and aerospace vehicles and parts, industrial machinery, fabricated metals, instruments, chemicals, cutlery, tools, and hardware. Among the bulky raw materials imported by the state are limestone; lumber; manganese, chromium, copper, and cobalt ores; and iron and steel and other metals.

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IV

The People of Connecticut

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Population Patterns

According to the 2000 national census, Connecticut ranked 29th among the states, with a total population of 3,405,565. The 2000 total was 3.6 percent larger than the 1990 total of 3,504,809. The average density in 2006 was 279 persons per sq km (723 per sq mi), making Connecticut the fourth most densely populated state.

Connecticut has been a predominantly urban state ever since the end of the 19th century. At all of the censuses beginning in 1950 more than three-quarters of the population has been classified as urban, and in 2000 some 88 percent of the people were so counted.

Almost all of the first European settlers in Connecticut, those who came during the 17th and 18th centuries, were of English origin. Irish, who supplied much of the growing demand for labor in the state’s early stages of industrialization, were the first large foreign-born group to arrive after the American Revolution. Italians began to settle in Connecticut and came in great numbers between 1900 and 1916. Between 1880 and 1919 many new immigrants came to Connecticut from Germany and Russia. Other major sources of immigrants were Québec and other parts of Canada, Poland, Lithuania, and Czechoslovakia. In 1910 about 30 percent of Connecticut’s total population was foreign-born. By 1970, however, the foreign-born proportion had fallen to only 9 percent. In the early 1990s the countries from which most immigrants were arriving were Poland, China, countries of the former Soviet Union, and India.

Whites constitute the largest ethnic group, with 81.6 percent of the population at the time of the 2000 census. Blacks were 9.1 percent of the people, Asians 2.4 percent, Native Americans 0.3 percent, and those of mixed heritage or not reporting race 6.5 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders numbered 1,366. Hispanics, who may be of any race, were 9 percent of the people. The blacks and Puerto Ricans in the state are almost all urban. Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport have the largest black populations. In 2000 Hartford was 38 percent black, New Haven was 37 percent black, and Bridgeport was 31 percent black.

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