The South Nashua commercial district is a major regional shopping destination, lying directly on the Massachusetts border and taking advantage of New Hampshire's lack of sales tax.

[10] Like many 19th century riverfront New England communities, New Hampshire's Dunstable was developed during the Industrial Revolution with textile mills operated from water power.

[13] During the split, the northern area, known today as "French Hill", called itself "Nashville", while the southern part kept the name Nashua.

[19] Like the rival Amoskeag Manufacturing Company upriver in Manchester,[20] the Nashua mills prospered until about World War I, after which a slow decline set in.

Water power was replaced with newer forms of energy to run factories, such as coal, and cotton could be manufactured into fabric where it grew, saving transportation costs.

[21] In 1922, it was affected by the 1922 New England Textile Strike, shutting down the mills in the city over an attempted wage cut and hours increase.

[25] But then Sanders Associates, a newly created defense firm that is now part of BAE Systems, moved into one of the closed mills and helped restart the city's economy.

[26][27] Sanders Associates also played a key role in the development of the home video game console market.

Ralph H. Baer, an employee of Sanders, developed what would become the Magnavox Odyssey, the first commercial home video game system.

The highest point in Nashua is Gilboa Hill in the southern part of the city, at 426 feet (130 m) above sea level.

[33] Nashua has a four-season humid continental climate, which has transitioned to the hot summer subtype, (Köppen Dfa), as of the 1991 to 2020 normals, with short spring and autumn transitions, long humid and warm to hot summers, and cold winters full of snow.

The downtown Nashua Riverwalk is a large, public/private venture funded through the use of tax increment financing (TIF).

Amherst Street (Route 101A) is in the northwestern part of the city and is a large thoroughfare with commercial centers along both sides.

Defense contractor BAE Systems (formerly Sanders Associates), computer firm Dell,[42] and software company Oracle Corporation are the largest representatives of the high-tech industry prominent in the region.

The three-building campus that once housed a Digital Equipment Corporation software development facility was sold to the John Flatley Company, which has renamed it "Nashua Technology Park".

The Nashua Silver Knights, part of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England (FCBL), is the city's current team.

The Nashua Pride, a Can-Am minor league baseball team, played at Holman Stadium from 1998 through 2008, then changed to the American Defenders of New Hampshire in the 2009 season.

[45] In collegiate sports, Nashua is home to the Rivier University Raiders, who compete in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC).

In the 2000 U.S Census, 22,700 residents over age three were enrolled in a Nashua educational institution, approximately a fourth of the city.

As WYCN-CD, it formerly carried a number of smaller networks, along with local programming and community calendar information of interest to Nashuans, until the sale to NBC.

[51] The new parkway provides a third crossing of the Nashua River and a way for traffic to avoid Library Hill, a busy downtown intersection.

[52] Public transportation is provided by the Nashua Transit System, which has nine scheduled bus routes in the city.

[53] Nashua Airport (Boire Field), a general aviation facility, is in the city's northwest corner.

The proposed line would connect Lowell, Massachusetts, to Bedford, New Hampshire, with the end station being near the Manchester–Boston Regional Airport.

[55][56] As of November, 2022, an ongoing study by AECOM and the State of New Hampshire for design and financing is due to be completed by early 2023, and the project is awaiting federal funding.

[58] Separately on October 11, 2017 the Nashua Board of Aldermen signed a memorandum of understanding with the now bankrupt Boston Surface Railroad Company for the creation of a rail line.

[62] In the American version of The Office, a branch of the fictional paper company Dunder Mifflin is located in Nashua and features in several episodes.