New Haven is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Connecticut. With a population of 138,915 people and 32 associated neighborhoods, New Haven is the third largest community in Connecticut. Much of the housing stock in New Haven was built prior to World War II, making it one of the older and more historic cities in the country.

A relatively large number of people in New Haven telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 11.61% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

One thing noticeable about New Haven, although not a huge city, is that it has a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. That’s because New Haven is full of single people in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting careers in professional occupations. This makes New Haven a pretty good place for young, educated career starters looking to find many people like themselves, with good opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.

New Haven is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

Many people in New Haven take advantage of public transportation to get around. In fact, for the size of the city, the number of people who use the bus to commute to work is quite high. This helps to fill a need among New Haven citizens for affordable transportation.

The education level of New Haven citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 38.53% of adults in New Haven have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in New Haven in 2018 was $33,449, which is low income relative to Connecticut, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $133,796 for a family of four. However, New Haven contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

New Haven is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call New Haven home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of New Haven residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. New Haven also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 30.67% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in New Haven include Italian, Irish, German, English, and Polish.

Foreign born people are also an important part of New Haven's cultural character, accounting for 17.50% of the city’s population.

The most common language spoken in New Haven is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.