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The total population of the area covered by the Borough council is 157,748 (ONS 2004 estimate). Approximately 60,000 live in the town and over 42,400 in the surrounding suburban and semi-rural parishes. Around 16,600 live in South Woodham Ferrers. The remainder of the population live in the surrounding rural areas, including the villages of Galleywood, Bicknacre, East, West and South Hanningfield, Boreham, Ford End, Pleshey, Highwood, Good and High Easter, Chignal St James, Chignal Smealy, Howe Green, Roxwell, Great and Little Leighs, Broomfield, Great and Little Waltham, Great and Little Baddow, Danbury, Sandon, Rettendon, Runwell, Margaretting, Stock and Writtle. (Source: population derived from 2001 census).

Originally an agricultural and market town, Chelmsford has been an important centre for industry since the 19th century. Following the opening of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation in 1797, cheaper transportation and raw materials made milling and malting the main industries until the 1850s, when increasing prosperity created a local market for agricultural machinery.

Foundries and engineering works followed, opened notably by Fell Christy (1858), Coleman and Moreton, and Eddington and Steevenson (makers of traction engines).

Chelmsford became home to the United Kingdom's first electrical engineering works (established by Colonel R E B Crompton in 1878). Crompton was a pioneer of electric street lighting, and installed electric street lights to celebrate the incorporation of the Borough of Chelmsford in 1888. Although this made Chelmsford one of the earliest towns to receive electric street lighting, the Council later decided to have it removed — because gas was cheaper!

The United Kingdom's first ball bearing factory was established in 1898. The Hoffmann Manufacturing Company achieved worldwide fame for their precision-made bearings — boasting an accuracy better than 1/10,000 of an inch (2.5 micrometres) for all their products. Hoffmann bearings were later used in the first transatlantic flights.

In 1898, Guglielmo Marconi, the "father of radio" opened the world's first "wireless" factory in Hall Street, employing around 50 people. For this reason Chelmsford is credited as the "birthplace of radio", and this phrase can be seen on administrative signs on major roads entering the town. In 1920 the factory was also the location of the first officially publicised sound broadcasts in the United Kingdom, one of them featuring Dame Nellie Melba. In 1922 the world's first regular wireless broadcasts for entertainment began from the Marconi Research Centre at Writtle near Chelmsford - station '2LO'.

Chelmsford is also the home of Britvic soft drinks, which began life as the British Vitamin Company in 1948. However, the origins of the company can be traced back to a chemist's in the town's Tindal Street, where flavoured waters were on sale as early as the mid-19th century.

As well as the headquarters of Essex County and Chelmsford Borough Councils, the modern town is home to a range of national and international companies including M&G Group, e2v Technologies, BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies (Insyte) and EBM Papst (UK) Ltd. The continuing importance of Chelmsford as an employment centre is demonstrated by the fact that the number of "in" commuters (mostly from other parts of Essex) almost exactly balances the number of workers commuting into London.

Chelmsford is a significant town centre retail location. As well as the leading High Street names, there is also a wide variety of specialist retailers, especially in Baddow Road and Moulsham Street, just off the pedestrianised High Street.

Founded as the "Chelmsford Chronicle" in 1764, the weekly "Essex Chronicle" newspaper is said to be the longest in continuous publication in the country. Until the closure of the printing plant in 2002, the paper was also printed in the town. It is now printed on other presses owned by the Northcliffe Group which now owns the paper.

Chelmsford is largely a commercial town which employs around 80,000 people. There are two medium sized shopping centres — High Chelmer and The Meadows and a large High Street full of independent and chain stores. However, there are large employers in the surrounding industrial districts such as Dukes Park where thousands are employed at the Britvic distribution centre. The Central Business District is slowly becoming the financial hub of Essex as many new office buildings are being built. Plans for a major flagship store on the gasworks site near the river Chelmer are being considered to try and push Chelmsford into City Status. Plans to knock down the High Chelmer multi-storey for another flagship store & the extension of High Chelmer are also on the way.

Chelmsford's location on two large rivers, the River Chelmer and Can, means there are still traces of its industrial past. Brownfield and derelict sites are being redeveloped. A major development in the West End of Chelmsford just off Duke Street called "54 Parkway" which will contain shops, apartments and a health club. Another scheme near Central Park is also being constructed. This will be a mixed zone site with residential and commercial properties being built, centred around a riverside plaza. Another site near the large suburb of Springfield is in its planning stages. It will be a new neighbourhood which is supposed to be an urban village containing 3,500 homes. A new Northern Relief Road would be built.

Places of interest within the Borough include Writtle, where Robert the Bruce is said to have married his second wife Elizabeth de Burgh in 1302. The village also has English Royal connections, with King John building a hunting lodge there in 1211. Much of the site now lies within the grounds of Writtle College, the internationally famous centre for horticulture and agriculture.

A few miles away is the attractive village of Pleshey, where stand the ruins of a once important castle mentioned in William Shakespeare's play Richard II. The entire circuit of the castle walls can still be traced in the village streets.

Hylands House and Park just to the west of the town is a former country house and parkland saved from dereliction and purchased by the local council in 1966 after the death of the last private owner. Much damaged by fire and vandalism by the time of the sale, the house has now been completely restored by Chelmsford Borough Council. The house dates originally from 1730, and the park (currently 574 acres or 232 ha) was landscaped by Humphry Repton. It is open to the public and used for a wide range of community events. It is also available for weddings and other private hires including conferences etc. The park has in recent years been the site of popular annual music festivals, such as the V Festival and the Chelmsford Spectacular. It has been chosen as the site for the 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007 and has already hosted Eurojam in the summer of 2005.

Henry VIII's former Palace of Beaulieu is also nearby, now occupied by the New Hall School.

Other places to visit include the RHS Garden, Hyde Hall at Rettendon, and there are numerous open spaces both in the town and elsewhere in the Borough.

Arms of the former Chelmsford Rural District which did not include the town

In 1199 the Bishop of London was granted a Royal Charter for the town to hold a market, marking the origin of the modern town. An under-cover market, operating Tuesday to Saturday, is still an important part of the town centre over 800 years later. The town's name derives from 'Ceolmaer's ford', which was close to the site of the present bridge.

Before 1199, there were settlements nearby from ancient times. A Neolithic and a late Bronze Age settlement have been found in the Springfield suburb, and the town was occupied by the Romans. A Roman fort was built in 60 AD, and a civilian town grew up around it. The town was given the name of Caesaromagus (the market place of Caesar), although the reason for it being given the great honour of bearing the imperial prefix are now unclear — possibly as a failed 'planned town' provincial capital to replace Londinium or Camulodunum. The remains of a mansio, a combination post office, civic centre and hotel, lie beneath the streets of modern Moulsham, and the ruins of an octagonal temple are located beneath the Odeon roundabout.

An important Anglo-Saxon burial was discovered at Broomfield, to the north of Chelmsford, and the finds are now in the British Museum.

The town became the seat of the local assize during the early 13th century (though assizes were also held at Brentwood) and by 1218 was recognised as the county town of Essex, a position it has retained to the present day.

Chelmsford was significantly involved in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, and Richard II moved on to the town after quelling the rebellion in London. Many of the ringleaders were executed on the gallows at what is now Primrose Hill.

In the 17th century many of the victims of Matthew Hopkins (the self-styled "Witchfinder General") spent their last days imprisoned in Chelmsford, before being tried at the Assize and hanged for witchcraft.

During World War II Chelmsford, an important centre of light engineering war production, was attacked from the air on several occasions, both by aircraft of the Luftwaffe and by missile. The worst single loss of life took place on Tuesday December 19, 1944, when the 367th V2 to hit England fell on a residential area near the Hoffmans' ball bearing factory and not far from the Marconi electronics factory which may also have been the target. Thirty-nine people were killed and 138 injured, 47 of them seriously, while several dwellings were destroyed and hundreds more damaged. A monument to the dead — recently restored — is in the cemetery in Writtle Road.

Since the war, Chelmsford has suffered from a decline in its manufacturing and defence-related industries — especially Marconi. However, the town's location — close to London and at the centre of Essex — has helped it grow in importance as an administrative and distribution centre.

On January 6, 2005, Chelmsford was granted Fairtrade Town status.

From over 600,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene ice age, until the Anglian glaciation around 475,000 years ago, the early River Thames flowed through the area where Chelmsford now stands, from Harlow to Colchester, before crossing what is now the North Sea to become a tributary of the Rhine. Consequently gravel deposits are frequently found in the area, and current and former gravel pits are relatively common.

Chelmsford is home to three radio stations.

• Essex FM — Owned by GCap Media, which moved to studios in Glebe Road in late 2004. It had previously been based in Southend.
• BBC Essex — On air since 1986, its studios are based in New London Road.
• Chelmsford Calling — A community radio station serving the local area. This station will serve the older generation, playing a mix of jazz and comedy programmes.

Another station, Dream 107.7 FM recently moved to studios in Maldon, having vacated its Cater House premises in November 2006. This station was previously known as 107.7 Chelmer FM (1998–2002). It is the local station for mid-Essex. Tindle Radio have owned this station since 2002, where it was purchased from Mid Essex Radio Ltd.