MA · Suffolk County · 675,647 (2020) · 24th-largest US city · state capital
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston sits at the head of Massachusetts Bay where the Charles and Mystic rivers meet the Atlantic. It is the capital of Massachusetts, the largest city in New England and the twenty-fourth in the United States.
- State
- Massachusetts
- County
- Suffolk County
- Population (2020)
- 675,647
- Rank
- 24th in the US
- Coordinates
- 42.36°N, 71.06°W
- Time zone
- Eastern
- Metro area
- about 4.9 million
- State capital
- Yes – capital of Massachusetts
Where Boston is
Boston is at 42.36°N, 71.06°W in Suffolk County, of which it is the county seat, on the coast of eastern Massachusetts. The city is small for its rank — 48 square miles of land — and much of that is fill: the Back Bay, South End and the waterfront were tidal flats until the 19th century, and the original Shawmut Peninsula was less than two square miles. Elevation is near sea level; the highest point, Bellevue Hill in West Roxbury, is 330 feet. Cambridge is across the Charles River to the north. New Hampshire is 40 miles north, Rhode Island 45 miles southwest, and New York 215 miles southwest.
Population and rank
The 2020 Census counted 675,647 residents, ranking Boston 24th in the US and first in Massachusetts and New England; Worcester, the region's second city, has about 206,000. Boston's population peaked at 801,000 in 1950 and has recovered steadily since a low of 563,000 in 1980. The Boston–Cambridge–Newton metropolitan area, which crosses into New Hampshire, has about 4.9 million people, the 11th-largest metro in the country; the city proper holds under 14 percent of it, because the surrounding towns are old, dense and independent.
Geography
- Boston Harbor — a sheltered inner harbor and 34 outer islands, now a national recreation area; the harbor was heavily polluted until a 1990s clean-up.
- Charles River — flows 80 miles from Hopkinton to the harbor; the dam at its mouth keeps the Charles River Basin as a freshwater lake between Boston and Cambridge.
- Mystic and Neponset rivers — the northern and southern boundaries of the city's watershed; the Neponset separates Boston from Quincy and Milton.
- Glacial landscape — drumlins such as Bunker Hill and Beacon Hill, the Blue Hills (635 ft) 10 miles south, and the rocky New England coast to the north.
Nearest large cities
Boston is the northern end of the Northeast Corridor; Providence is under an hour away and New York about four. Distances are approximate road miles from the State House.
| City | State | Road distance (mi) | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | NY | 215 | SW |
| Philadelphia | PA | 310 | SW |
| Baltimore | MD | 405 | SW |
| Washington | DC | 440 | SW |
| Pittsburgh | PA | 575 | W |
Boston as state capital
Boston has been the capital of Massachusetts since the colony's founding in 1630, making it the oldest continuously serving capital in the country. The State House on Beacon Hill, designed by Charles Bulfinch and finished in 1798, stands on land that was John Hancock's cow pasture. Boston is both the capital and the largest city, and, with Providence, one of only two New England capitals that are also their state's largest city. See the Boston capital page for the State House and the city's role in the Revolution.
Related maps
- Massachusetts map — the state with its 14 counties.
- Boston, state capital — capital facts and history.
- US cities map.
- US coastlines and Appalachian Mountains maps.
- Nearby: New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island.
- New England · Eastern Time Zone.