Bridgeport by various sites has been consistently ranked as among the 25 most ethnically and culturally diverse American cities. Although none are headquartered within the city itself, more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies are based in its metropolitan area, which it shares with Stamford. Bridgeport is officially nicknamed 'Park City', due to its public parks, 35 public parks taking up 1,300 acres, including two large ones. Bridgeport is home to three museums, the University of Bridgeport, Housatonic Community College, Paier College, and part of Sacred Heart University as well as the state's only zoo. Bridgeport's crime rate started going down significantly around 2010 by 2018, it had been reduced by almost 50 percent. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Bridgeport has begun extensive redevelopment of its downtown and other neighborhoods. After World War II, industrial restructuring and suburbanization caused the loss of many large companies and affluent residents, leaving Bridgeport struggling with issues of poverty and violent crime. The world's first Subway restaurant opened in the city's North End in 1965. The Frisbie Pie Company was founded and operated in Bridgeport.

Inventor Harvey Hubbell II invented the electric plug outlet in Bridgeport in 1912. Bridgeport was the site of the world's first mutual telephone exchange (1877), the first dental hygiene school (1949), and the first bank telephone bill service in the US (1981). The city in the early 20th century saw an economic and population boom, becoming by all measures Connecticut's chief manufacturing city by 1905. Barnum built four houses in Bridgeport and housed his circus in town during winter. Barnum was a resident of the city and served as the town's mayor (1871). Inhabited by the Paugussett Native American tribe until English settlement in the 1600s, Bridgeport was incorporated in 1821 as a town, and as a city in 1836. The Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk–Danbury metropolis forms part of the New York metropolitan area.

Bridgeport and other towns in Fairfield County make up the Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, as well as the Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk–Danbury metropolitan statistical area, the second largest metropolitan area in Connecticut. It is bordered by the towns of Trumbull to the north, Fairfield to the west, and Stratford to the east. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnock River on Long Island Sound, it is a port city 60 miles (97 km) from Manhattan and 40 miles (64 km) from The Bronx. state of Connecticut and the fifth-most populous city in New England, with a population of 148,654 in 2020.

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