Hartford is the capital of the State of Connecticut. It is located in Hartford County on the Connecticut River, north of the center of the state and about 24 miles south of "sister-city" Springfield, Massachusetts. As of 2006, it had a population of 124,512 and is the state's third-largest city, after New Haven which is second and Bridgeport which is the largest. Greater Hartford is also the largest metro area in Connecticut and 45th in the country (2006 census estimate) with a population of 1,188,841. Sometimes referred to as the "insurance capital of the world," Hartford houses many of the world's insurance company headquarters, and insurance is one of the region's major industries. (The State of Connecticut is sometimes still known as "the land of steady habits.") Hartford includes both sections of Elizabeth Park, featuring the oldest and largest municipal rose garden in the country. Hartford is also home to Bushnell, Colt, Goodwin, Rocky Ridge, Keney, Pope, and Riverside Parks. Greater Hartford is an international center of the insurance industry, with companies such as Travelers, Aetna, and The Hartford based in the city. The area is also home to CIGNA, Colt Firearms, and large corporations like United Technologies (the corporate parent of Pratt & Whitney, Otis Elevator, Sikorsky Aircraft, Carrier Corporation, Hamilton Sundstrand, UTC Fire & Security and UTC Fuel Cells). Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Hartford was a major manufacturing and publishing city but, as in many northern industrial cities, many factories have been closed, relocated, or reduced.

Hartford has long been important to insurance companies and is often called the "insurance capital of the world," although recent insurance mergers reduced employment at insurance companies in Hartford. MetLife and Lincoln Financial have cut their Hartford workforces and MassMutual has relocated its Hartford operations to Enfield, Connecticut to be closer to its headquarters in Springfield, Massachusetts. Recently, Hartford has shown continuing viability as an insurance mecca. St. Paul Travelers has announced it will bring 600 jobs to the area (500 of them in downtown Hartford); Aetna is moving more than 3,500 employees to the city from Middletown, Connecticut.

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