Retail Food Sales

The 2017 Economic Census—still the latest year of available data—estimates that the six New England states had sales of $85.5 billion ($5,772 per person) at retail food stores and food and beverage serving businesses. This estimate includes purchases made by New England residents and visitors. Grocery stores ($39.4 billion, 46.1% of total sales) and all types of restaurants ($32.1 billion, 37.6%) accounted for 83.7% of retail food sales. Direct to consumer sales at farmers markets, farm stands, and community supported agriculture (CSAs)—the only official source of local food sales available—accounted for just 0.3% ($293 million) of total sales. In 2017, Massachusetts had 46.4% of New England’s population and accounted for 49% ($41.9 billion) of New England’s retail food sales. Connecticut had 24.1% of the region’s population and accounted for 22% ($19.0 billion) of retail food sales.

New England Food Sales

Note About Connecticut Maps: Although Connecticut has not had county governments since 1960, county boundaries have historically been used to depict data. For example, all USDA Census of Agriculture data for Connecticut is collected at a county-level. In 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau shifted to using Connecticut's nine planning regions as county equivalent geographic units for data collection. This has presented a challenge for depicting data for Connecticut's planning regions in Tableau. This mapping challenge has not been resolved yet, but when a solution is available, we will update Connecticut maps.