SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT PROGRAM IN Stamford

Stamford

Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, 34 miles outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England and Connecticut’s second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford surpassed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 census. It is in the Bridgeport–Stamford–Danbury metropolitan statistical area, which is part of the New York City metropolitan area. The city covers a land area of 37.7 square miles and borders Long Island Sound, the Connecticut towns of Darien, New Canaan, and Greenwich, as well as New York State.

Stamford was known as Rippowam by the Siwanoy Native American inhabitants of the region. On July 1, 1640, Nathaniel Turner of the New Haven Colony signed an agreement to purchase the land comprising present-day Stamford with Siwanoy Sagamores. The town was founded in 1641 by 28 pioneers from Wethersfield, near Hartford, and was named for its English counterpart in 1642. Stamford was a farming community until the railroad reached it in the 1840s, after which the town grew in size and began to acquire industries — in particular, the Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company in 1868, makers of Yale locks, hoists, and other hardware. A city government was formed in 1893, and the town and city merged in 1949.

The economy of Stamford is robust and is considered an anomaly for having a large number of corporate headquarters in a city of its size. In the 1980s and 1990s, Stamford had the third-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the country, with 18 companies headquartered in the city. The only two cities that had higher concentrations were New York City and Chicago. As of 2023, Stamford is home to eight Fortune 500 companies and numerous divisions of large corporations, giving it the largest financial district in the New York metropolitan region outside New York City and one of the nation’s largest concentrations of corporations. Dominant sectors of Stamford’s economy include financial management and real estate, tourism, information technology, healthcare, telecommunications, transportation, and retail.

Among the larger companies with headquarters in Stamford are Charter Communications, Harman International, Synchrony Financial, Indeed.com, Webster Bank, United Rentals, Conair, Gartner, WWE, Pitney Bowes, ITT Inc., Gen Re, NBC Sports Group, Nestlé Waters North America, Crane Co., and Vineyard Vines. WWE has had its global headquarters in Stamford since 1985. Corporate headquarters in Stamford contribute to a daytime population of 200,000.

In 2020, the racial makeup of the city was 49.3% non-Hispanic White, 14.1% Black or African American, 8.6% Asian American, 3.2% from two or more races, and 27.2% Hispanic or Latino of any race. The median household income is $111,586 and the median age is 38.4 years. As of 2024, 31.2% of Stamford residents were born outside of the United States. About 53.9% of residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, well above the Connecticut and national averages.

Stamford is governed via the strong-mayor form of the mayor-council system. The city’s legislative body is called the Board of Representatives. The forty members of the Board of Representatives are elected from twenty districts, with each district electing two representatives every four years, concurrent with the mayor’s term. Caroline B. Simmons is the mayor of Stamford. She won the 2021 Stamford mayoral election, becoming the city’s first female mayor, and won reelection in 2025 in a landslide.

Stamford’s cluster of corporate headquarters has attracted numerous television and media productions. Three NBCUniversal syndicated programs relocated to Stamford’s Rich Forum in 2009. Television shows produced in Stamford have included Hell’s Kitchen, Pawn Stars, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Queer Eye on Netflix, and The Four: Battle for Stardom.

Stamford has three official sister cities: Sparta, Greece; Jiangdu, China; and Settefrati, Italy. Notable people connected to Stamford include escape artist Harry Houdini, who had a summer home in Stamford; baseball legend Jackie Robinson, who made North Stamford his home later in life; actor Christopher Lloyd, born in Stamford; comedian Gilda Radner, who lived in the city; former governor Dan Malloy; and U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, who was born and raised in Stamford.

City of Stamford