Greater Boston

Boston Combined Statistical Area
Boston–Worcester–Providence
Metropolitan region

Coordinates: 42°21′29″N 71°03′49″W / 42.35817°N 71.06369°W / 42.35817; -71.06369Coordinates: 42°21′29″N 71°03′49″W / 42.35817°N 71.06369°W / 42.35817; -71.06369
Country  United States
State(s)
Principal cities
Population (2014)
  Total 4,732,161 (MSA) or 8,099,575 (CSA)
  Rank
Time zone EST
Area code(s) 617, 781, 857, 339, 978, 508, 351, 774, 603, 401

Greater Boston is the region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston and surrounding areas. It forms the northern arc of the U.S. northeast megalopolis. The region consists of most of the eastern third of Massachusetts, excluding the South Coast region and Cape Cod. Greater Boston can be described as either a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) or combined statistical area (CSA), the latter of which includes the municipalities of Manchester (largest city in New Hampshire), Providence (capital of Rhode Island) and Worcester (second largest city in New England). Greater Boston's most impactful contributions to human civilisation involve the region's higher education institutions, innovation, scientific research, and sports culture.

Greater Boston is ranked tenth in population among U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, home to 4,732,161 people as of the 2014 U.S. Census estimate, and sixth among combined statistical areas, with a population of 8,099,575.[1] The area has many people and sites significant to American culture and history, particularly American literature,[2] politics, and the American Revolution.

At its most extensive definition the region could be extended to include the coastal Maine counties of Cumberland and York as well as the entire state of Rhode Island. Connecticut and Vermont are the only states in New England that do not have any municipalities in a continuous urban or suburban expansion from Boston municipality.

Definitions

Light Blue represents the area in Massachusetts known as Greater Boston, while Dark Blue represents the Metro-Boston area and Red represents the City of Boston.

Metropolitan Area Planning Council

The most restrictive definition of the Greater Boston area is the region administered by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).[3] The MAPC is a regional planning organization created by the Massachusetts legislature to oversee transportation infrastructure and economic development concerns in the Boston area. The MAPC includes 101 cities and towns that are grouped into eight subregions. These include most of the area within the region's outer circumferential highway, I-495. The population of the MAPC district is 5,414,140 (as of 2010), which is 68% of the total population of Massachusetts.,[4] in an area of 1,422 square miles (3,680 km2),[3] of which 39% is forested and an additional 11% is water, wetland, or other open space.[5]

The eight subregions and their principal towns are: Inner Core (Boston), Minuteman (Route 2 corridor), MetroWest (Framingham), North Shore (Lynn), North Suburban (Woburn), South Shore (Route 3 corridor), SouthWest (Franklin), and Three Rivers (Norwood).

Notably excluded from the MAPC and its partner planning body, the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, are the Merrimack Valley cities of Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill, much of Plymouth County, and all of Bristol County; these areas have their own regional planning bodies. Northern Bristol County is part of Greater Boston, even though it is part of the Providence MSA.

New England City and Town Area

Cambridge and Boston; MIT and Kendall Square in the foreground, and Boston's Financial District in the background

The urbanized area surrounding Boston serves as the core of a definition used by the U.S. Census Bureau known as the New England city and town area (NECTA). The set of towns containing the core urbanized area plus surrounding towns with strong social and economic ties to the core area is defined as the Boston–Cambridge–Nashua, MA–NH Metropolitan NECTA.[6] The Boston NECTA is further subdivided into several NECTA divisions, which are listed below. The Boston, Framingham, and Peabody NECTA divisions together correspond roughly to the MAPC area. The total population of the Boston NECTA was 4,540,941 (as of 2000).

Metropolitan Statistical Area

Historical population
Census Pop.
1850650,357
1860830,99827.8%
1870978,34617.7%
18801,205,43923.2%
18901,515,68425.7%
19001,890,12224.7%
19102,260,76219.6%
19202,563,12313.4%
19302,866,56711.8%
19402,926,6502.1%
19503,186,9708.9%
19603,516,43510.3%
19703,918,09211.4%
19803,938,5850.5%
19904,133,8955.0%
20004,391,3446.2%
20104,552,4023.7%
Est. 20144,732,1613.9%
U.S. Decennial Census

An alternative definition defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, using counties as building blocks instead of towns, is the Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is further subdivided into four metropolitan divisions. The metropolitan statistical area has a total population of approximately 4,640,802 and is the tenth-largest in the United States. The components of the metropolitan area with their estimated 2012 populations are listed below.

Combined statistical area

Providence, Rhode Island

A wider functional metropolitan area based on commuting patterns is also defined by the Office of Management and Budget as the Boston–Worcester–Providence combined statistical area. This area consists of the metropolitan areas of Manchester, Worcester, Providence, as well as Cape Cod, in addition to greater Boston. The total population (as of 2013) for the extended region is 8,041,303. The following areas, along with the above MSA, are included in the combined statistical area:

Principal cities and towns

Winthrop, MA
Cities and towns

Boston metropolitan area

The Census Bureau defines the following as principal cities in the Boston NECTA[6] using criteria developed for what the Office of Management and Budget calls a Core Based Statistical Area:[7]

Largest cities and towns

Cities and towns in the Boston CSA with at least 50,000 residents:

Rank City 2000
population
2010
population
2014
population[8]
% change
(2010 to 2014)
1 Boston589,141617,594 655,884 +6.20%
2 Worcester172,648181,045 183,016 +1.09%
3 Providence173,618178,042 179,154 +0.62%
4 Manchester107,006109,565 110,448 +0.81%
5 Lowell105,167106,519 109,945 +3.22%
6 Cambridge101,355105,162 109,694 +4.31%
7 New Bedford93,76895,072 94,845 −0.24%
8 Brockton94,30493,810 94,779 +1.03%
9 Quincy88,02592,271 93,397 +1.22%
10 Lynn89,05090,329 92,137 +2.00%
11 Fall River91,93888,857 88,712 −0.16%
12 Newton83,82985,146 88,287 +3.69%
13 Nashua86,60586,494 87,259 +0.88%
14 Warwick85,80882,672 81,963 −0.86%
15 Cranston79,26980,387 81,037 +0.81%
16 Somerville77,47875,754 78,901 +4.15%
17 Lawrence72,04376,377 78,197 +2.38%
18 Pawtucket72,95871,148 71,499 +0.49%
19 Framingham66,91068,318 70,068 +2.56%
20 Waltham59,22660,632 63,014 +3.93%
21 Haverhill58,96960,879 62,488 +2.64%
22 Malden56,34059,450 60,859 +2.37%
23 Brookline57,10758,732 59,115 +0.65%
24 Plymouth51,70156,468 57,463 +1.76%
25 Medford55,76556,173 57,437 +2.25%
26 Taunton55,97655,874 56,544 +1.20%
27 Weymouth53,98853,743 55,643 +3.54%
28 Revere47,28351,755 54,157 +4.64%
29 Peabody48,12951,251 52,376 +2.20%
30 Methuen43,78947,255 52,044 +10.13%

Demographics

Population density

The most densely populated census tracts in the Boston CSA (2010):[9]

Rank City or neighborhood Census tract Population Population density
/sq mi /km2
1 Fenway–Kenmore 10404 5,817 110,108 285,180
2 Fenway–Kenmore 10403 3,003 87,828 227,470
3 Fenway–Kenmore 10408 1,426 85,137 220,500
4 Beacon Hill 202 3,649 80,851 209,400
5 North End 301 1,954 66,288 171,690
6 North End 302 1,665 64,642 167,420
7 North End 304 2,451 58,435 151,350
8 Cambridge 3539 7,090 56,819 147,160
9 Back Bay 10801 2,783 56,534 146,420
10 East Boston 502 5,231 55,692 144,240

Race and ethnicity

The 40 most diverse Census tracts in the Boston CSA:[9]

The 40 census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino:[9]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Black American:[9]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Asian American:[9]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Irish American:[10]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Italian American:[11]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Portuguese American:[12]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with French or French Canadian listed as first ancestry:[13]

Other

Greater Boston has a sizable Jewish community, estimated at between 210,000 people,[14][15] and 261,000[16] or 5–6% of the Greater Boston metro population, compared with about 2% for the nation as a whole. Contrary to national trends, the number of Jews in Greater Boston has been growing, fueled by the fact that 60% of children in Jewish mixed-faith families are raised Jewish, compared with roughly one in three nationally.[14]

The City of Boston also has one of the largest LGBT populations per capita. It ranks fifth of all major cities in the country (behind San Francisco, and slightly behind Seattle, Atlanta, and Minneapolis respectively), with 12.3% of the city identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual.[17]

Selected statistics

Changes in house prices for the Greater Boston area are publicly tracked on a regular basis using the Case–Shiller index; the statistic is published by Standard & Poor's and is also a component of S&P's 10-city composite index of the value of the residential real estate market.

Major companies

References:[18][19][20][21]

(regional headquarters)

(headquarters)

Sports

Main article: Sports in Boston
Club Sport League Stadium Established League titles
Boston Breakers Soccer National Women's Soccer League Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium (Boston) 2008
Boston Bruins Ice hockey National Hockey League TD Garden (Boston) 1924 6 Stanley Cups
7 Eastern Conference Titles
Boston Cannons Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse Harvard Stadium (Boston) 2001 1 MLL Championship
Boston Celtics Basketball National Basketball Association TD Garden (Boston) 1946 17 NBA Championships
21 Eastern Conference Titles
Boston Lobsters Team tennis World TeamTennis Manchester Athletic Club (Manchester-by-the-Sea) 2005 (1974)
Boston Pride Ice hockey National Women's Hockey League Bright Hockey Center (Boston) 2015 1 Isobel Cup
Boston Red Sox Baseball Major League Baseball (American League) Fenway Park (Boston) 1901 8-time MLB World Series Champions
13 American League Pennants
New England Patriots Football National Football League (American Football Conference) Gillette Stadium (Foxboro) 1960
(as Boston Patriots)
4-time Super Bowl Champions
8-time AFC Champions
New England Revolution Soccer Major League Soccer Gillette Stadium (Foxboro) 1995 1 US Open Cup
1 SuperLiga

Annual sporting events include:

Higher education

A long time center of higher education, the area includes many community colleges, two-year schools, and internationally prominent undergraduate and graduate institutions. The graduate schools include highly regarded schools of law, medicine, business, technology, international relations, public health, education, and religion.

Transportation

Highways

Bridges and tunnels

Airports

Rail and bus

The MBTA district, with Commuter Rail lines in purple

The first railway line in the United States was in Quincy. See Neponset River.

The following Regional Transit Authorities have bus service that connects with MBTA commuter rail stations:

Ocean transportation

The Salem Ferry, 92 ft. Catamaran is photographed approaching its dock off Blaney Street at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site in Salem, Massachusetts, USA.

Geography

See also

References

  1. "2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  2. Will Joyner (9 April 1999). "Where Literary Legends Took Shape Around Boston". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 "About MAPC". Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Archived from the original on 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
  4. "MetroBoston DataCommon Population 05 - 14 years with Projections, analysis of data related to towns within the planning area". Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Retrieved 2016-04-20.
  5. "Transportation Plan – Overview". Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization. 2009. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
  6. 1 2 "Principal cities of New England city and town areas (NECTAs)" (XLS spreadsheet). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  7. "Standards for Defining Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas" (PDF). Office of Management and Budget. December 27, 2000. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  8. "City and Town Population for 2013". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Mapping the 2010 U.S. Census". U.S. Census Bureau.
  10. "Irish as First Ancestry Population Percentage Rank of Census Tract within 100 miles of Zip Code 02176". Usa.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  11. "Italian as First Ancestry Population Percentage Rank of Census Tract within 100 miles of Zip Code 02176". Usa.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  12. "French as First Ancestry Population Percentage Rank of Census Tract within 100 miles of Zip Code 02176". Usa.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  13. 1 2 Michael Paulson (2006-11-10). "Jewish population in region rises". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  14. "Cities with the Largest Jewish Population in the Diaspora". adherents.com. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  15. "Metro Area Membership Report". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  16. "12.9% in Seattle are gay or bisexual, second only to S.F., study says". The Seattle Times (The Seattle Times Company). 2006. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
  17. "2009 Globe 100 – Top Massachusetts-based employers". The Boston Globe. 2010-01-19. Archived from the original on May 22, 2009.
  18. Archived March 10, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  19. "Top Companies in Massachusetts on the Inc. 5000 - Inc.com". Inc.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  20. Archived October 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  21. "Who We Are & About Us - Vistaprint". News.vistaprint.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.

Further reading

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Greater Boston.
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