In an increasingly global marketplace, New Haven has many distinct advantages. From its diverse, highly productive workforce, to its plentiful artistic, educational, and cultural opportunities, to its growing tech, health care, and life sciences industries, our City is well positioned to compete successfully.

The consistently low residential vacancy rate (around 5.6% in 2019) and thousands of new units in the development pipeline are testaments to New Haven’s unbeatable location and the high demand for New Haven living.

The mission of the Department of Economic Development is to build on these advantages, by facilitating commercial development, attracting quality businesses and investment, and improving employment opportunity, to create a model, modern, world-class city in which everyone who wants a good-paying, career-oriented job can find one

Our goal is to create a dynamic economic environment by pursuing six key objectives. Please click on links below to view how we achieve these objectives:

• Attracting and Retaining Quality Investment
• Growing Neighborhood Businesses & Entrepreneurs
• Promoting New Haven's Cultural Economy
• Welcoming and Accommodating New Residents
• Connecting Residents to Economic Opportunity
• Connecting New Haven to the World

New Haven Key Indicators

• In 2017, Verizon named New Haven the top US city in which to launch a tech startup.
• New Haven is the 2^nd largest bioscience cluster in New England.
• 506 new business openings in 2018
• Throughout fiscal year 2019, 9 New Haven organizations received $497 million in NIH grants.
• As of 2014, New Haven had a residential vacancy rate of 2%, one of the lowest in the country.
• As of 2018, there are eight colleges/universities located within the region with a total enrollment over 51,000 students, employing nearly 9,000 full and part-time faculty, and another 31,000 employees with a total economic impact of over $2 billion.
• Unemployment has dropped 8% in the past 6 years (2013 – 2019).
• New Haven contains 40 miles of bike lanes and is the safest cycling city east of the Mississippi
• Ranked 2^nd for greatest reduction in congestion in 2018, following Salt Lake City and tied with Portland
• As of 2017, 17% of New Haven is dedicated to parks and open spaces.
• According to CityLab, New Haven received $200 Mil in venture capital funding in 2016.