The city was named for the place of origin of many of the early settlers, Danbury, Essex in England. The city has been nicknamed Hat City, because it used to be a center of the hat industry, at one point producing 25% of America's hats.
Danbury is home to Danbury Hospital and Danbury High School.
As of July 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 78,736. This number does not include illegal aliens, which various anecdotal estimates place between 10,000 and 20,000 or some 12-25% of the total. In 2005, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said the city actually numbers around near 90,000, due to recent immigration from Ecuador and Brazil. An unofficial estimate is that there are 5,000 Ecuadorians (mostly from the Andes province of Azuay) and 15,000 Brazilians (mostly from the southeastern state of Minas Gerais). Danbury has the one of the largest concentration of immigrants from Brazil for a city of its size.
As of the census of 2000, there were 74,848 people, 27,183 households, and 17,886 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,777.4 people per square mile (686.3/km²). There were 28,519 housing units at an average density of 677.2/sq mi (261.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 76.0% White, 6.8% African American, 0.29% Native American, 5.5% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 7.6% from other races, and 4.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 15.8% of the population.
There were 27,183 households out of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.1% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.2% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.64 and the average family size was 3.18.
The population was distributed as follows: 21.7% under the age of 18, 10.2% from 18 to 24, 35.4% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 96.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $53,664, and the median income for a family was $61,899. Males had a median income of $39,016 versus $31,319 for females. The per capita income for the city was $24,500. About 5.9% of families and 8.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.7% of those under age 18 and 8.3% of those age 65 or over.
The newest statistics for the State of Connecticut show that Danbury, Connecticut has the highest percentage of foreign born people at 34% of Danbury's residents are foreign born. In 2006, 13% of Connecticut residents were foreign born.
When ZIP codes were introduced in 1963, the 06810 code was given to all of Danbury; it was shared with a then-still-rural New Fairfield to its north. In 1984, the 06810 was cut back to part of Danbury, which received additional ZIPs; New Fairfield received its own code, 06812.
Danbury is the terminus of the Danbury branch line of the MTA Metro-North Railroad which begins in Norwalk. The line was first built by the Danbury and Norwalk Railroad which was later bought by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company. Danbury was an important junction between the Danbury Branch and the Maybrook Line. The Maybrook line was the New Haven's main freight line which terminated in Maybrook, New York, where the New Haven exchanged traffic with other railroads. After the ill-fated Penn Central took over the New Haven, the Maybrook line was shut down when a fire on the New Haven bridge over the Hudson River made the line unusable. Many believe the fire was set by Penn Central to reroute that freight traffic over their Boston & Albany route to the north. Today, the historic station is part of the Danbury Railroad Museum. The Providence and Worcester Railroad, along with the Housatonic Railroad provide local rail freight service in Danbury.
Local bus service is provided by Housatonic Area Regional Transit (HART).
The city is also the location of Danbury Municipal Airport (DXR).
Interstate 84 and U.S. Route 7 are the main highways of the city. I-84 runs east-west from the Hudson Valley region of New York towards Waterbury and Hartford. US 7 runs north-south from Norwalk (connecting to I-95) to the Litchfield Hills region. The two highways overlap in the downtown area. The principal surface roads through the city are Lake Avenue, West Street, White Street, and Federal Road. Other secondary state highways are U.S. Route 6 in the western part of the city, Newtown Road, which connects to US 6 east of the city, Route 53 (Main Street and South Street), Route 37 (North Street, Padaranam Road, and Pembroke Road), and Route 39 (Clapboard Ridge Road and Ball Pond Road).