Greater New England

Greater New England is composed of the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Their combined area barely reaches 66,000 square miles or 172,679 km2. With only 13 million residents, New England represents about 5% of the U.S. population. But it ranks an impressive first in per-capita income of all the regions in the country ($38.171 in 2003, source http://www.economagic.com/em-cgi/data.exe/beapi/a91200)

Vital business and industrial statistics for the region:

• First or second among the other nine regions in the country in measures of manufacturing export intensity
• The service sector including advertising, management consulting, software and insurance, entertainment, education and health care account for 46 percent of all New England jobs.
• The region has a disproportionate share of total U.S. employment in certain industries such as:

- investments (31 percent)
- securities and commodities (19 percent)
- pension, health and welfare funds (16 percent)
- life insurance (15 percent)
- higher education (14 percent)
- savings institutions (14 percent)
- libraries (13 percent)

New England's economic success is due not to natural resources, which are scarce, but to its support and innovations in the areas of biotechnology, environmental technology, information-based enterprises, computers, and communications. The region has recently launched new initiatives in such new fields as aquaculture and photonics.

Though not technically an industry, higher education has a strong influence and presence in all New England states. 260 colleges and universities host close to 800,000 students every year and employ over 28,000 professors. These universities provide a significant resource for R&D, which by the year 1997 had resulted in more than 10 percent of the patents awarded to US higher education institutions.

And, due to its rich history, New England offers more than 560 museums - of all kinds -, one for every 22,000 people.