Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. 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 U.S. state of New Hampshire), Providence (the capital and largest city of the U.S. 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.
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. The area has hosted many people and sites significant to American culture and history, particularly American literature, 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. In the late 18th century, Boston became known as the "Cradle of Liberty" 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, and transcendentalist movements. In 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legally recognize same-sex marriage as a result of the decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Boston. 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, with the largest financial endowment of any university, and whose Law School has spawned a contemporaneous majority of United States Supreme Court Justices. 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. 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.
Definitions
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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). 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, in an area of 1,422 square miles (3,680Â km2), of which 39% is forested and an additional 11% is water, wetland, or other open space.
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. Bristol County is part of the Greater Boston CSA, as part of the Providence MSA.
New England City and Town Area (NECTA)
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 Bostonâ€"Cambridgeâ€"Nashua, MAâ€"NH Metropolitan NECTA. 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).
- Bostonâ€"Cambridgeâ€"Newton, MA NECTA Division (92 towns)
- Framingham, MA NECTA Division (12 towns)
- Peabodyâ€"Salemâ€"Beverly, MA NECTA Division (4 towns)
- Brocktonâ€"Bridgewaterâ€"Easton, MA NECTA Division (Old Colony region) (8 towns)
- Haverhillâ€"Newburyportâ€"Amesbury, MAâ€"NH NECTA Division (Merrimack Valley region) (21 towns)
- Lawrenceâ€"Methuenâ€"Salem, MAâ€"NH NECTA Division (part of Merrimack Valley region) (4 towns)
- Lowellâ€"Billericaâ€"Chelmsford, MAâ€"NH NECTA Division (Northern Middlesex region) (15 towns)
- Nashua, NHâ€"MA NECTA Division (21 towns)
- Tauntonâ€"Middleboroughâ€"Norton, MA NECTA Division (part of Southeastern region) (9 towns)
- Lynnâ€"Saugusâ€"Marblehead, MA NECTA Division (5 towns)
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
An alternative definition defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, using counties as building blocks instead of towns, is the Bostonâ€"Cambridgeâ€"Newton, MAâ€"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.
- Bostonâ€"Cambridgeâ€"Newton, MAâ€"NH Metropolitan Statistical Area (4,640,802)
- Boston, MA Metropolitan Division (1,926,030)
- Norfolk County, Massachusetts (681,845)
- Plymouth County, Massachusetts (499,759)
- Suffolk County, Massachusetts (744,426)
- Cambridgeâ€"Newtonâ€"Framingham, MA Metropolitan Division (2,292,833)
- Middlesex County, Massachusetts (1,537,215)
- Essex County, Massachusetts (755,618)
- Rockingham Countyâ€"Strafford County, NH Metropolitan Division (421,939)
- Rockingham County, New Hampshire (297,820)
- Strafford County, New Hampshire (124,119)
- Boston, MA Metropolitan Division (1,926,030)
Combined Statistical Area (CSA)
A wider functional metropolitan area based on commuting patterns is also defined by the Office of Management and Budget as the Bostonâ€"Worcesterâ€"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:
- Worcester, MAâ€"CT, metropolitan statistical area (923,762)
- Worcester County, Massachusetts (806,163)
- Windham County, Connecticut (117,599)
- Providenceâ€"Warwick, RIâ€"MA, metropolitan statistical area (1,601,374)
- Bristol County, Massachusetts (551,082)
- Bristol County, Rhode Island (49,144)
- Kent County, Rhode Island (164,843)
- Newport County, Rhode Island (82,036)
- Providence County, Rhode Island (628,323)
- Washington County, Rhode Island (125,946)
- Concord, NH, micropolitan statistical area (146,761)
- Merrimack County, New Hampshire (146,761)
- Laconia, NH, micropolitan statistical area (60,327)
- Belknap County, New Hampshire (60,327)
- Manchesterâ€"Nashua, NH, metropolitan statistical area (402,922)
- Hillsborough County, New Hampshire (402,922)
- Barnstable Town, MA, metropolitan statistical area (215,423)
- Barnstable County, Massachusetts (215,423)
Principal cities and towns
- Cities and towns
Boston metropolitan area
The Census Bureau defines the following as principal cities in the Boston NECTA using criteria developed for what the Office of Management and Budget calls a Core Based Statistical Area:
- Boston
- Cambridge
- Lowell
- Providence
- Quincy
- Worcester
Largest cities and towns
Cities and towns in the Boston CSA with at least 50,000 residents:
Demographics
Population density
The most densely populated census tracts in the Boston CSA (2010):
Race and ethnicity
The 40 most diverse Census tracts in the Boston CSA:
The 40 census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Black American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Asian American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Irish American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Italian American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with the highest percentage of residents who identify as Portuguese American:
Census tracts in the Boston CSA with French or French Canadian listed as first ancestry:
Other
Greater Boston has a sizable Jewish community, estimated at between 210,000 people, and 261,000 or 5â€"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.
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.
Higher education
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 Caseâ€"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:
- Companies along, inside or outside I-495:
- Abbott Laboratories, in Worcester (pharmaceutical laboratory)
- Advanced Cell Technology, in Worcester (research laboratory)
- AMD, in Boxborough
- Analog Devices, in Norwood
- Atlantic Broadband, in Quincy
- Atlantic Tele-Network, in Beverly
- Avid Technology, Inc, in Burlington (headquarters)
- Azimuth Systems, in Acton
- Bain & Company, in Boston (headquarters)
- Bain Capital, in Boston (headquarters)
- Bertucci's Corporation, in Northborough (headquarters)
- BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc., in Westborough (headquarters)
- Bose Corporation, in Framingham (headquarters)
- Boston Properties, Inc., in Boston (headquarters)
- Boston Scientific Corporation, in Marlborough
- Boston Scientific Corporation, in Natick (headquarters)
- Charles River Laboratories, in Wilmington (headquarters)
- Cisco Systems, in Boxborough
- CommunityRoot, in Boston (headquarters)
- David Clark Company, in Worcester (manufacturer of space suits)
- Diebold, in Marlborough (regional headquarters)
- EMC Corporation, in Hopkinton (headquarters)
- Evergreen Solar, in Marlborough (headquarters)
- Genzyme Corporation, in Framingham
- Hewlett-Packard, in Marlborough (regional headquarters)
- Schneider Electric, in Andover, Massachusetts
- HourlyNerd, in Boston
- Innerscope Research, in Boston (headquarters)
- Intel Corporation, in Hudson
- Kronos Incorporated, in Chelmsford, Massachusetts (headquarters)
- Marshalls, Inc, in Framingham (headquarters)
- The MathWorks, in Natick
- MITRE Corporation, in Bedford (headquarters)
- Morgan Construction Company, in Worcester (rolling steel mill technology)
- National Amusements, in Norwood (headquarters)
- Novartis, headquartered in Cambridge, with locations worldwide (a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel)
- Philips Electronics North America, in Andover (regional headquarters)
- Philips Healthcare, in Andover (global headquarters) and Framingham
- Puma, in Westford (North American headquarters)
- Red Hat, in Westford (engineering headquarters)
- Reed & Barton in Taunton (factory and headquarters)
- Saint-Gobain, in Worcester
- Sepracor, Inc., in Marlborough (headquarters)
- Staples, Inc., in Framingham (headquarters)
- Stop & Shop, in Quincy (headquarters)
- TJX Corporation, in Framingham (headquarters)
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., in Boston (headquarters)
- UniFirst, in Wilmington (headquarters)
- WB Mason, in Brockton (headquarters)
- Wyman-Gordon, in Grafton (complex metal components and products)
- Companies along or inside I-95 (Route 128), not including Boston:
- Akamai Technologies, in Cambridge (headquarters)
- AstraZeneca, in Waltham (R&D)
- BBN Technologies, in Cambridge (headquarters)
- Biocell Center, in Medford (North American headquarters)
- Biogen Idec, in Weston (North American headquarters)
- Carl Zeiss SMT, in Peabody (North American headquarters)
- Constant Contact, in Walthem
- Dunkin' Brands, in Canton (headquarters)
- Facebook, in Cambridge
- General Electric Aviation, in Lynn
- Genzyme Corporation, in Cambridge (headquarters)
- Genzyme Corporation, in Waltham (R&D)
- Google Inc., in Cambridge
- Haemonetics, in Braintree
- IBM, in Waltham, Cambridge and Littleton
- InterSystems Corporation, in Cambridge (headquarters)
- iRobot Corporation, in Burlington (headquarters)
- Keurig, in Reading (headquarters)
- Meditech, in Westwood (headquarters)
- Microsoft Corporation, in Cambridge
- Millennium Pharmaceuticals, in Cambridge
- National Amusements (Parent company of CBS and Viacom), in Dedham (headquarters)
- National Grid, in Waltham (US headquarters)
- NetApp Inc, in Waltham
- NetBlazr, in Watertown
- Nokia, in Burlington
- Novartis AG, Inc, in Cambridge (research headquarters)
- Novell, Inc., in Waltham
- Nuance Communications, in Burlington
- Oracle Corporation in Burlington
- Osram Sylvania in Danvers (headquarters)
- Parametric Technology Corporation in Needham (headquarters)
- Philips Lighting in Burlington
- Progress Software in Bedford (headquarters)
- Raytheon, in Waltham (headquarters)
- Reebok, in Canton (US headquarters)
- SunSetter Products, LP, in Malden (headquarters)
- Teradyne, in North Reading (headquarters)
- Thermo Fisher Scientific, in Waltham (headquarters)
- TripAdvisor, LLC, in Needham (headquarters)
- Twitter, in Cambridge
- Vistaprint, in Lexington (North American headquarters)
- Major companies inside Boston proper:
- American Tower (headquarters)
- Au Bon Pain (headquarters)
- Bain & Company (headquarters)
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (headquarters)
- Boston Consulting Group (headquarters)
- Converse(headquarters)
- Fidelity Investments (headquarters)
- General Electric (headquarters)
- The Gillette Company, now owned by Procter & Gamble (headquarters)
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (headquarters)
- John Hancock Financial Services, Inc, now the United States division of Canada's Manulife Financial
- Liberty Mutual (headquarters)
- LogMeIn (headquarters)
- LPL Financial (headquarters)
- New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc. (headquarters)
- Putnam Investments (headquarters)
- Sapient Corporation (headquarters)
- Sonesta International Hotels Corp. (headquarters)
- State Street Corporation (headquarters)
- Steward Health Care System (headquarters)
- Toast, Inc. (headquarters)
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals (headquarters)
- Wayfair (headquarters)
- Wellington Management Company (headquarters)
- Zipcar (headquarters)
Sports
Annual sporting events include:
- The Boston Marathon, which follows a course from Hopkinton to Boston
- The Head of the Charles Regatta
- The Lenox Industrial Tools 301, Sylvania 300 and New Hampshire Indy 225 auto races at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway oval track.
Transportation
Interstates
- Iâ€'90
- Iâ€'93
- Iâ€'95
- Iâ€'190
- Iâ€'195
- Iâ€'290
- Iâ€'293
- Iâ€'295
- I-395
- Iâ€'495
U.S. Routes
- USÂ 1
- USÂ 3
- USÂ 6
- USÂ 20
- USÂ 44
State Highways
- Route 1A
- Route 2
- Route 2A
- Route 3
- Route 3A
- Route 4
- Route 9
- Route 16
- Route 18
- Route 24
- Route 25
- Route 27
- Route 28
- Route 30
- Route 38
- Route 53
- Route 58
- Route 60
- Route 62
- Route 97
- Route 106
- Route 109
- Route 110
- Route 113
- Route 114
- Route 115
- Route 117
- Route 122
- Route 123
- Route 125
- Route 126
- Route 128
- Route 129
- Route 133
- Route 135
- Route 138
- Route 139
- Route 140
- Route 146
- Route 213
- Route 225
Bridges and tunnels
- Callahan Tunnel, carrying Route 1A Northbound
- Charles M. Braga Jr. Memorial Bridge, carrying Interstate 195
- Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, carrying Route 138
- Fore River Bridge, carrying Massachusetts Route 3A
- Sumner Tunnel, carrying Route 1A Southbound
- Ted Williams Tunnel, carrying I-90
- Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Tunnel, carrying I-93 and Routes 1 and 3 concurrently
- Tobin Bridge, carrying Route 1
- Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge, carrying Interstate 93, Route 1 and Route 3 concurrently
Airports
- Logan International Airport in Boston, 3 miles (4.8Â km) northeast of downtown Boston, New England's largest transportation center
- Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Manchester, New Hampshire
- T. F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island
- Hanscom Field in Bedford
- Norwood Memorial Airport
- Worcester Regional Airport
- Beverly Regional Airport
- Lawrence Municipal Airport
Rail and bus
- Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA, generally known as the "T") rapid transit lines:
- Red Line heavy rail: Cambridgeâ€"Braintree and Boston (Mattapan)
- Orange Line heavy rail: Boston (Jamaica Plain)â€"Malden
- Blue Line heavy rail: Bostonâ€"Revere
- Green Line light rail/streetcar: Cambridgeâ€"Brookline and Newton
- Ashmontâ€"Mattapan High Speed Line streetcar: Ashmont-Milton-Mattapan
- Silver Line Bus Rapid Transit South Stationâ€"Logan Airport and Downtownâ€"Dudley Square
- MBTA Commuter Rail
- Old Colony Lines serving Plymouth County
- Providence/Stoughton Line serving northern Bristol County, western Norfolk County, Kent County, and Washington County, connecting to Providence, Rhode Island
- Fairmount Line shuttle service from South Station
- Franklin Line serving western Norfolk County
- Greenbush Line serving Boston's South Shore
- Needham Line serving Boston suburbs and Needham
- Framingham/Worcester Line serving southwestern Middlesex County, connecting to Worcester
- Fitchburg Line serving northwestern Middlesex County, connecting to Fitchburg
- Lowell Line serving northern Middlesex County
- Haverhill/Reading Line and Newburyport/Rockport Line serving Essex County & Boston's North Shore
- Amtrak service to New York City and Washington, D.C.
- Amtrak Downeaster service to Maine from North Station
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:
- Brockton Area Transit Authority
- Cape Ann Transportation Authority
- Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority
- Lowell Regional Transit Authority
- Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority
- MetroWest Regional Transit Authority
- Montachusett Regional Transit Authority
- Rhode Island Public Transit Authority
- Worcester Regional Transit Authority
Ocean transportation
- Port of Boston (Massport)
- Cape Cod Canal
Geography
- Rivers
- Charles River
- Concord River
- Ipswich River
- Merrimack River
- Mystic River
- Neponset River
- Sudbury River
- Taunton River
- Weymouth Fore River
- Hills
- Bellevue Hill
- Great Blue Hill
Climate
See also
- Greater Boston League, a high school athletic conference in Massachusetts
Notes
References
Further reading
- Wilson, Susan (2005). The Literary Trail of Greater Boston: A Tour of Sites in Boston, Cambridge, and Concord, Revised Edition. Commonwealth Editions. ISBN 1-889833-67-3. An informative guidebook, with facts and data about literary figures, publishers, bookstores, libraries, and other historic sites on the newly designated Literary Trail of Greater Boston.
- Warner, Sam, Jr. (2001). Greater Boston: Adapting Regional Traditions to the Present. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBNÂ 0-8122-1769-1.Â