Nashua is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, USA. As of the 2000 census, Nashua had a total population of 86,605 making it the second largest city in the state (and in the three northern New England states) after Manchester (pop. 107,219). The estimated population of Nashua in 2007 was 87,150.
Built around the now-departed textile industry, in recent decades it has been swept up in southern New Hampshire's economic expansion as part of the Boston region. Nashua was twice named "Best Place to Live in America" in annual surveys by Money magazine. It is the only city to get the No. 1 ranking two times—in 1987 and 1997. Nashua is currently ranked #87, as of summer 2006. In 2007, the Morgan Quitno Press ranked Nashua as the 27th safest city in the country.
The area was part of a 200-square-mile tract of land in Massachusetts called Dunstable, which had been awarded to Edward Tyng of Dunstable, England. Nashua lies approximately in the center of the original 1673 grant. When New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts in 1741, the state line between them was redrawn. As a consequence, the township of Dunstable was divided in two. Tyngsboro and some of Dunstable remained in Massachusetts, while Dunstable, New Hampshire was incorporated in 1746 from the northern section of the town.
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