Manchester is the largest city in the
U.S. state of
New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in
New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of
Maine,
New Hampshire, and
Vermont. It was first named by the merchant and inventor Samuel Blodget (after whom the
Samuel Blodget Park in Manchester North is named). Blodget's vision was to create a great industrial center similar to that of
Manchester in England, which was the world's first industrialized city. It is located in
Hillsborough County along the banks of the
Merrimack River, which divides the city into eastern and western sections. Manchester is near the northern end of the
Northeast megalopolis. As of the
2010 census, the city had a population of 109,565, and its 2014 population estimate was 110,448. As of the 2014 population estimate, Manchester is the largest New England city north of Boston, including other Massachusetts cities. The Manchester-Nashua metropolitan area, with an estimated population in 2014 of 405,184, is home to nearly one-third of the population of New Hampshire.