Although Moncton's economy was traumatized twice—by the collapse of the shipbuilding industry in the 1860s and by the closure of the CNR locomotive shops in the 1980s—the city was able to rebound strongly on both occasions.

[9] Its economy is stable and diversified, primarily based on its traditional transportation, distribution, retailing, and commercial heritage, and supplemented by strength in the educational, health care, financial, information technology, and insurance sectors.

[16] Later that year, Governor Charles Lawrence issued a decree ordering the expulsion of the Acadian population from Nova Scotia (including recently captured areas of Acadia such as Le Coude).

At that time, the Westmorland Road became open to year-round travel and a regular mail coach service was established between Saint John and Halifax.

[23] Moncton grew rapidly during the early 20th century, particularly after provincial lobbying helped the city become the eastern terminus of the massive National Transcontinental Railway project in 1912.

[31] The Eatons catalogue division, CNR's locomotive shops facility and CFB Moncton closed during this time,[32] throwing thousands of citizens out of work.

[34] By the late 1990s, retail, manufacturing and service expansion began to occur in all sectors and within a decade of the closure of the CNR locomotive shops Moncton had more than made up for its employment losses.

The confidence of the community has been bolstered by its ability to host major events such as the Francophonie Summit in 1999, a Rolling Stones concert in 2005, the Memorial Cup in 2006, and both the IAAF World Junior Championships in Athletics and a neutral site regular season CFL football game in 2010.

[14] The Petitcodiac river valley at Moncton is broad and relatively flat, bounded by a long ridge to the north (Lutes Mountain) and by the rugged Caledonia Highlands to the south.

Spring is often delayed because the sea ice that forms in the nearby Gulf of St. Lawrence during the winter requires time to melt, and this cools onshore winds, which can extend inland as far as Moncton.

[50] Moncton generally remains a "low rise" city, but its skyline encompasses buildings and structures with varying architectural styles from many periods.

The most popular park in the area is Centennial Park which has lighted cross country skiing and hiking trails, the city's largest playground, lawn bowling and tennis facilities, a boating pond, a treetop adventure course, and Rocky Stone Field, a city owned 2,500 seat football stadium with artificial turf, and home to the Moncton Minor Football Association.

The CMA includes the neighbouring city of Dieppe and the town of Riverview, as well as adjacent suburban areas in Westmorland and Albert counties.

[39] The adjacent city of Dieppe is about 64% Francophone and has benefited from an ongoing rural depopulation of the Acadian Peninsula and areas in northern and eastern New Brunswick.

[74] Common non-official languages spoken as mother tongues are Arabic (1.4%), Punjabi (0.7%), Chinese (0.7%), Tagalog (0.6%), Korean (0.6%), Spanish (0.6%), Vietnamese (0.5%), and Portuguese (0.5%).

This is due to Moncton's central location in the Maritimes: it has the largest catchment area in Atlantic Canada with 1.6 million people living within a three-hour drive of the city.

Some of the larger centres include Asurion, Numeris, ExxonMobil, Royal Bank of Canada, Tangerine Bank, UPS, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Rogers Communications and Nordia Inc.[83] A number of nationally or regionally prominent corporations have their head offices in Moncton including Atlantic Lottery Corporation, Assumption Life Insurance, Medavie Blue Cross Insurance, Armour Transportation Systems and Major Drilling Group International.

[88][89] Tourism is an important industry in Moncton and historically owes its origins to the presence of two natural attractions, the tidal bore of the Petitcodiac River (see above) and the optical illusion of Magnetic Hill.

The Magnetic Hill area includes (in addition to the phenomenon itself), a golf course, major water park, zoo, and an outdoor concert facility.

[108] Historically there has been a longstanding presence of a Moncton-based team in the Maritime Junior A Hockey League, but the Dieppe Commandos (formerly known as the Moncton Beavers) relocated to Edmundston at the end of the 2017 season.

[111] The Universite de Moncton has a number of active CIS university sports programs including hockey, soccer, and volleyball.

[118] The construction of this new stadium led directly to Moncton being awarded a regular season neutral site CFL game between the Toronto Argonauts and the Edmonton Eskimos, which was held on September 26, 2010.

Major sporting events hosted by Moncton include: The municipal government consists of a mayor and ten city councillors elected to four-year terms of office.

In 1940, a large military supply base (later known as CFB Moncton) was constructed on a railway spur line north of downtown next to the CNR shops.

[124] Military flight training in the Moncton area terminated at the end of World War II and the naval listening station closed in 1971.

[137] Wheeler Boulevard (Route 15) serves as an internal ring road, extending from the Petitcodiac River Causeway to Dieppe before exiting the city and heading for Shediac.

Although the presence of the CNR in Moncton has diminished greatly since the 1970s, the railway still maintains a large classification yard and intermodal facility in the west end of the city, and the regional headquarters for Atlantic Canada is still located here as well.

Moncton has been the home of a number of notable people, including National Hockey League Hall of Famer and NHL scoring champion Gordie Drillon,[143] World and Olympic champion curler Russ Howard,[144] distinguished literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye,[145] former Governor General of Canada Roméo LeBlanc,[146] and former Supreme Court Justice Ivan Cleveland Rand, developer of the Rand Formula and Canada's representative on the UNSCOP commission.

[147] Trudy Mackay FRS, renowned quantitative geneticist, member of the Royal Society[148] and National Academy of Sciences,[149] and recipient of the prestigious Wolf Prize for agriculture[150] (2016), was born in Moncton.

[156] Harry Currie, noted Canadian conductor, musician, educator, journalist and author was born in Moncton[157] and graduated from MHS.