With a 2005 median family income of $75,541, Connecticut ranks first in the nation, due in part to the substantial number of state residents who earn their high salaries in the neighboring financial center of New York City. The state also boasts the fourth highest percentage of college-educated residents (approximately 35 percent) and is home to Ivy League standout Yale University, which frequently claims the top ratings in national surveys of research universities and law schools.

Long known as the "insurance capital" of the United States, Connecticut is headquarters to a number of other important industries, including high tech services and manufacturing (General Electric, GTE, Xerox, Pitney Bowes), other financial services (Deloitte & Touche, Dun & Bradstreet), aerospace and defense (United Technologies, General Dynamics/Electric Boat), paper manufacturing (Champion International), and more. In 1997, 22 of the 500 largest companies in the United States were headquartered in Connecticut.

The third-smallest state in terms of land area, Connecticut's population of about 3.4 million is largely concentrated in several medium-sized cities: Stamford, Bridgeport, Norwalk and New Haven along the south-central coast, Hartford, Waterbury and New Britain in the central part of the state, Danbury in the southwest and Groton-New London on the northern coast. The northwestern corner of Connecticut is largely rural.

In spite of the state's impressive median family income, a significant gap separates the wealthy enclaves of Greenwich and Fairfield County from the blighted neighborhoods of Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven, which have struggled in recent years with high levels of poverty, unemployment and crime. In 1991, the financial plight of Connecticut's urban centers propelled newly elected Governor Lowell Weicker, an independent, to propose adopting the state's first ever broad-based state income tax, a move that was widely controversial at the time but eventually became law.

Connecticut's four-season climate is relatively mild compared with other New England states. Although variable in temperature, the climate is moderated substantially by air masses coming in from Long Island Sound. The topography of the state is mostly hilly, with the extremes of heat in the summer and cold in the winter, as well as greater precipitation, generally occurring in the higher elevation northwest corner. Annual precipitation statewide averages around 46 inches.

Though nicknamed the "Nutmeg State," nutmeg (a tropical fruit) is not grown in Connecticut. However, the state's temperate climate is favorable to growing a wide range of crops, from peaches to nursery plants, and its primary agricultural products are dairy, eggs, cattle, and tobacco. Connecticut's oyster harvest is second only to Louisiana's in terms of pounds per year landed.