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 metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the US state of Massachusetts, and the most populous city in New England, as well as its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern arc of the US northeast megalopolis and as such, Greater Boston can be described as either a metropolitan statistical area (MSA), or as a broader combined statistical area (CSA). The MSA consists of most of the eastern third of Massachusetts, excluding the South Coast region and Cape Cod; while the CSA additionally includes the municipalities of Manchester (the largest city in the US state of New Hampshire), Providence (the capital and largest city of the US state of Rhode Island), Worcester, Massachusetts (the second largest city in New England), as well as the South Coast region and Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Some of Greater Boston's most well-known contributions to human civilization involve the region's higher education and medical institutions. Greater Boston has been influential upon American history and industry. The region and the state of Massachusetts are global leaders in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance, and maritime trade.[1]

Over 80% of Massachusetts' population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan region. Greater Boston is ranked tenth in population among US metropolitan statistical areas, home to 4,732,161 people as of the 2014 US Census estimate, and sixth among combined statistical areas, with a population of 8,099,575.[2] The area has hosted many people and sites significant to American culture and history, particularly American literature,[3] politics, and the American Revolution.

Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, passengers of the Mayflower. In 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of America's most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials.[4] In the late 18th century, Boston became known as the "Cradle of Liberty"[5] for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution.

The Greater Boston region has played a powerful commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, the region was a center for the abolitionist, temperance,[6] and transcendentalist[7] movements.[8] In 2004, Massachusetts became the first US state to legally recognize same-sex marriage as a result of the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Boston.[9] Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the Boston region, including the Adams and Kennedy families.

Harvard University in Cambridge is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States,[10] with the largest financial endowment of any university,[11] and whose Law School has spawned a contemporaneous majority of United States Supreme Court Justices.[12] Kendall Square in Cambridge has been called "the most innovative square mile on the planet", in reference to the high concentration of entrepreneurial start-ups and quality of innovation which have emerged in the vicinity of the square since 2010.[13][14] Both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world.[15]

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 (MAPC)

The most restrictive definition of the Greater Boston area is the region administered by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).[16] 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. In 2013, the population of the MAPC district was 3.2 million, which was 48% of the total population of Massachusetts,[17] in an area of 1,422 square miles (3,680 km2),[16] of which 39% is forested and an additional 11% is water, wetland, or other open space.[18]

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 the Greater Boston CSA, as part of the Providence MSA.

New England City and Town Area (NECTA)

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 US 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.[19] 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 (MSA)

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%
US 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 had a total population of approximately 4,732,161 as of 2014 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 (CSA)

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 2014 for the extended region was estimated at 8,099,575. The following areas, along with the above MSA, are included in the combined statistical area, with their estimated 2012 populations:

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[19] using criteria developed for what the Office of Management and Budget calls a Core Based Statistical Area:[20]

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[21]
% 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

St. Patrick's Day Parade in Scituate, Massachusetts, in Plymouth County, the municipality with the highest percentage identifying Irish ancestry in the United States, at 47.5% in 2010.[22] Irish Americans constitute the largest ethnicity in Greater Boston.
Boston's Chinatown, with its paifang gate, is home to many Chinese and also Vietnamese restaurants.
Boston gay pride march, held annually in June

Population density

The most densely populated census tracts in the Boston CSA (2010):[23]

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:[23]

The 40 census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino:[23]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Black American:[23]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Asian American:[23]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Irish American:[24]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Italian American:[25]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Portuguese American:[26]

Census tracts in the Boston CSA with French or French Canadian listed as first ancestry:[27]

Other

Greater Boston has a sizable Jewish community, estimated at between 210,000 people,[28][29] and 261,000[30] 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.[28]

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.[31]

Higher education

Harvard University and MIT are both widely regarded as in the top handful of universities worldwide for academic research in various disciplines.[15]

A long established 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. Greater Boston contains seven R1 Research Institutions as per the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. This is, by far, the highest number of such institutions in a single Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States.

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:[32][33][34][35]

(regional headquarters)

Sports

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)
5-time Super Bowl Champions
9-time AFC Champions
New England Revolution Soccer Major League Soccer Gillette Stadium (Foxboro) 1995 1 US Open Cup
1 SuperLiga

Annual sporting events include:

Transportation

Interstates

U.S. Routes

State 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, United States.

Geography

Climate

Climate data for Boston (Logan Airport), 1981−2010 normals,[lower-alpha 3] extremes 1872−present[lower-alpha 4]
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °F (°C) 72
(22)
73
(23)
89
(32)
94
(34)
97
(36)
100
(38)
104
(40)
102
(39)
102
(39)
90
(32)
83
(28)
76
(24)
104
(40)
Mean maximum °F (°C) 56.4
(13.6)
57.7
(14.3)
67.6
(19.8)
80.7
(27.1)
87.3
(30.7)
92.1
(33.4)
94.9
(34.9)
93.3
(34.1)
87.9
(31.1)
79.1
(26.2)
70.5
(21.4)
61.3
(16.3)
96.2
(35.7)
Average high °F (°C) 35.8
(2.1)
38.7
(3.7)
45.4
(7.4)
55.6
(13.1)
66.0
(18.9)
75.9
(24.4)
81.4
(27.4)
79.6
(26.4)
72.4
(22.4)
61.4
(16.3)
51.5
(10.8)
41.2
(5.1)
58.8
(14.9)
Daily mean °F (°C) 29.0
(−1.7)
31.7
(−0.2)
38.3
(3.5)
48.1
(8.9)
57.9
(14.4)
67.7
(19.8)
73.4
(23)
72.1
(22.3)
64.9
(18.3)
54.0
(12.2)
44.7
(7.1)
34.7
(1.5)
51.5
(10.8)
Average low °F (°C) 22.2
(−5.4)
24.7
(−4.1)
31.1
(−0.5)
40.6
(4.8)
49.9
(9.9)
59.5
(15.3)
65.4
(18.6)
64.6
(18.1)
57.4
(14.1)
46.5
(8.1)
38.0
(3.3)
28.2
(−2.1)
44.1
(6.7)
Mean minimum °F (°C) 4.1
(−15.5)
8.5
(−13.1)
14.7
(−9.6)
30.7
(−0.7)
40.8
(4.9)
49.6
(9.8)
57.3
(14.1)
55.4
(13)
45.8
(7.7)
34.9
(1.6)
24.2
(−4.3)
11.1
(−11.6)
2.3
(−16.5)
Record low °F (°C) −13
(−25)
−18
(−28)
−8
(−22)
11
(−12)
31
(−1)
41
(5)
50
(10)
46
(8)
34
(1)
25
(−4)
−2
(−19)
−17
(−27)
−18
(−28)
Average precipitation inches (mm) 3.36
(85.3)
3.25
(82.6)
4.32
(109.7)
3.74
(95)
3.49
(88.6)
3.68
(93.5)
3.43
(87.1)
3.35
(85.1)
3.44
(87.4)
3.94
(100.1)
3.99
(101.3)
3.78
(96)
43.77
(1,111.8)
Average snowfall inches (cm) 12.9
(32.8)
10.9
(27.7)
7.8
(19.8)
1.9
(4.8)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
0
(0)
trace 1.3
(3.3)
9.0
(22.9)
43.8
(111.3)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 11.3 9.8 11.6 11.2 12.0 10.9 9.6 9.4 8.6 9.4 10.6 11.6 126.0
Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 6.7 5.3 4.2 0.7 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 0.8 4.6 22.4
Average relative humidity (%) 62.3 62.0 63.1 63.0 66.7 68.5 68.4 70.8 71.8 68.5 67.5 65.4 66.5
Mean monthly sunshine hours 163.4 168.4 213.7 227.2 267.3 286.5 300.9 277.3 237.1 206.3 143.2 142.3 2,633.6
Percent possible sunshine 56 57 58 57 59 63 65 64 63 60 49 50 59
Source: NOAA (relative humidity and sun 1961−1990)[41][42][43]

See also

Notes

  1. Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
  2. Official records for Concord were kept at downtown from January 1903 to April 1941 and at Concord Municipal Airport since May 1941. For more information, see ThreadEx
  3. Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
  4. Official records for Boston were kept at downtown from January 1872 to December 1935, and at Logan Airport (KBOS) since January 1936.[40]
  5. Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
  6. Official records for Providence kept at downtown from November 1904 to May 1932 and at T. F. Green Airport since June 1932.[44]

References

  1. "Housing and Economic Development:Key Industries". mass.gov. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  2. "2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  3. Will Joyner (9 April 1999). "Where Literary Legends Took Shape Around Boston". The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  4. "The 1692 Salem Witch Trials". SalemWitchTrialsMuseum.com. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  5. "Faneuil Hall". Celebrateboston.com. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  6. "The Temperance Issue in the Election of 1840: Massachusetts". Teachushistory.org. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  7. Packer, Barbara. The Transcendentalists. University of Georgia Press; First edition (April 25, 2007). ISBN 978-0820329581.
  8. "Images of the Antislavery Movement in Massachusetts". Masshist.org. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  9. "Massachusetts court strikes down ban on same-sex marriage". Reuters. November 18, 2003. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  10. "History of Harvard University". Harvard University. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
  11. Tamar Lewin (January 28, 2015). "Harvard’s Endowment Remains Biggest of All". The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  12. Richard Wolf (March 16, 2016). "Meet Merrick Garland, Obama's Supreme Court nominee". USA Today. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
  13. "Kendall Square Initiative". MIT. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  14. Lelund Cheung. "When a neighborhood is crowned the most innovative square mile in the world, how do you keep it that way?". Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  15. 1 2 Accessed May 9, 2016.
  16. 1 2 "About MAPC". Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Archived from the original on 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2007-05-14.
  17. "Metropolitan Area Planning Council Strategic Plan 2015–2020" (PDF). Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  18. "Transportation Plan – Overview". Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization. 2009. Archived from the original on August 29, 2008. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
  19. 1 2 "Principal cities of New England city and town areas (NECTAs)" (XLS spreadsheet). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  20. "Standards for Defining Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas" (PDF). Office of Management and Budget. December 27, 2000. Retrieved September 14, 2009.
  21. "City and Town Population for 2013". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  22. Jane Walsh (November 25, 2015). "The most Irish town in America is named using US census data". Irish Central. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 "Mapping the 2010 U.S. Census". U.S. Census Bureau.
  24. "Irish as First Ancestry Population Percentage Rank of Census Tract within 100 miles of Zip Code 02176". Usa.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  25. "Italian as First Ancestry Population Percentage Rank of Census Tract within 100 miles of Zip Code 02176". Usa.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  26. "French as First Ancestry Population Percentage Rank of Census Tract within 100 miles of Zip Code 02176". Usa.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  27. 1 2 Michael Paulson (2006-11-10). "Jewish population in region rises". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  28. "Cities with the Largest Jewish Population in the Diaspora". adherents.com. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  29. "Metro Area Membership Report". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
  30. "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.
  31. "2009 Globe 100 – Top Massachusetts-based employers". The Boston Globe. 2010-01-19. Archived from the original on May 22, 2009.
  32. Archived March 10, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  33. "Top Companies in Massachusetts on the Inc. 5000 - Inc.com". Inc.com. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  34. Archived October 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  35. "Who We Are & About Us - Vistaprint". News.vistaprint.com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
  36. "NowData - NOAA Online Weather Data". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2014-05-23.
  37. "Station Name: NH CONCORD MUNI AP". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  38. "WMO Climate Normals for CONCORD MUNICIPAL AP, NH 1961–1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  39. ThreadEx
  40. "Station Name: MA BOSTON LOGAN INTL AP". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
  41. "NowData - NOAA Online Weather Data". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2017-02-25.
  42. "WMO Climate Normals for BOSTON/LOGAN INT'L AIRPORT, MA 1961–1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  43. ThreadEx
  44. "NowData – NOAA Online Weather Data". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2016-04-17.
  45. "Station Name: RI PROVIDENCE T F GREEN AP". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
  46. "WMO Climate Normals for PROVIDENCE/GREEN STATE, RI 1961–1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 2014-03-11.
  47. "Monthly average temperatures and precipitation". The Weather Channel. Retrieved 2009-08-30.

Further reading

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