The US state of New Hampshire is located in the northeastern area or more particularly the New England area of the nation. The state name is comes from County of Hampshire in the south of England. It is bounded by Massachusetts towards the south, Vermont towards the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec towards the north. New Hampshire ranks 46th in total area of the 50 states, 42nd in population and 44th in land area.
In January the year 1776, the state of New Hampshire became the very first post-colonial sovereign country in the Americas when it severed its ties to Great Britain. Six months later, it became amongst the original thirteen states established in the United States. In the month of June 1788, it became the ninth state to ratify the United States Constitution, bringing that document into effect. the state of New Hampshire was the very first U.S. state to have its own state constitution.
"Live Free or Die" is the states motto and is carried on license plates. Another state nickname is "The Granite State," that is a reference to the states geology and its tradition of self-sufficiency.
New Hampshire's major recreational attractions include skiing, snowmobiling and different winter sports, mountaineering and hiking, motor sports at the New Hampshire Speedway, observing the fall foliage, summer cottages along the many lakes and the seacoast, and Motorcycle Week, a well-known motorcycle rally held in Weirs Beach nearby Laconia during June. The White Mountain National Forest links the Maine and Vermont regions of the Appalachian Trail, and boasts the Mount Washington Auto Road, where tourists may drive to the top of 6,288-foot (1,917 m) Mount Washington.
New Hampshire has an estimated total state product of $60 billion in the year 2008, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This ranks as the 40th biggest state economy within the nation. In that very same year, the median household income ranked seventh highest within the US, at $49,467. Its agricultural outputs are nursery stock, dairy products, eggs, cattle and apples. Its industrial outputs are electric equipment, machinery, plastic and rubber products and tourism.
In the last century, New Hampshire underwent a significant shift in its economic base. The economy was historically based on the traditional New England manufactures of textiles, small machining shops and shoe making. These businesses drew upon the low-wage labor from nearby small farms and those from north of the border within Quebec. Today, these sectors contribute only 2% for textiles, 2% for leather goods, and 9% for machining of the state's total manufacturing dollar value. They experienced a sharp decline due to obsolete plants and the lure of cheaper wages within the South.
The energy consumption and per capita energy consumption in the state of New Hampshire are among the lowest within the US, based on the Energy Information Administration. Situated near Portsmouth, the largest nuclear reactor within New England, the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant, provides 30 percent of New Hampshire's electricity. Two natural gas-fired plants and some fossil-fuel powered plants, including the coal-fired Merrimack Station plant within Bow, provide most of the rest.