Greater Boston

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Boston–Cambridge–Quincy
Map of the Greater Boston

Common name: Greater Boston
Largest city
Other cities		 Boston
 - Cambridge
 - Quincy
Population  Ranked 10th in the U.S.
 - Total 4,411,835 (2005 est.)
 - Density 947 /sq. mi. 
366 /km²
Area 4,674 sq. mi.
12,105 km²
State(s)   - Massachusetts
 - New Hampshire
Elevation   
 - Highest point 334 feet (102 m)
 - Lowest point 0 feet (0 m)

Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston, Massachusetts. While Metro Boston tends to be the "Inner Core" surrounding the City of Boston, Greater Boston overlaps the North and South Shores, as well as MetroWest and the Merrimack Valley.

Greater Boston includes America's tenth-largest metropolitan area, home to over 4.4 million people. It is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country and ranks 56th most populous in the world. Greater Boston contains more urbanized area than the other regions of Massachusetts, such as the more rural Western Massachusetts and the beach communities of Cape Cod. There are a decreasing number of working class communities within Greater Boston. The area features many universities.

Greater Boston encompasses many significant locations in American history and culture. Examples include the Paul Revere House, the Old North Church, the Old Granary Burying Ground, the site of the Boston Tea Party and that of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the USS Constitution, Lexington and Concord, Walden Pond, the site of the Salem witch trials, and the Christian Science Mother Church. Former Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born in Quincy, Massachusetts, as was John Hancock. Frederick Douglass began his career as an abolitionist in Boston. Former President John F. Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. Former President George H. W. Bush was born in Milton. Malcolm X spent a significant part of his young adulthood in Roxbury, and joined the Nation of Islam while in prison in Charlestown. The National Archives has a regional center in Waltham.

Contents

[edit] Definitions

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

[edit] Metropolitan Area Planning Council

The most restrictive definition of the Greater Boston area is the region administered by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).[1] 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 is 3,066,394 (as of 2000), in an area of 1,422 square miles,[1] of which 39% is forested and an additional 11% is water, wetland, or other open space.[2]

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

Notably excluded from the MAPC and its partner transportation-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.

[edit] New England City and Town Area

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. 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-Quincy, MA-NH Metropolitan NECTA.[3] 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).

  • Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA NECTA Division (97 towns)
  • Framingham, MA NECTA Division (13 towns)
  • Peabody, MA NECTA Division (7 towns)
  • Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, MA NECTA Division (Old Colony region) (12 towns)
  • Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, MA-NH NECTA Division (Merrimack Valley region) (25 towns)
  • Lawrence-Methuen-Salem, MA-NH NECTA Division (part of Merrimack Valley region) (3 towns)
  • Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, MA-NH NECTA Division (Northern Middlesex region) (9 towns)
  • Nashua, NH-MA NECTA Division (21 towns)
  • Taunton-Norton-Raynham, MA NECTA Division (part of Southeastern region) (6 towns)

[edit] Metropolitan statistical area

An alternative definition used by the U.S. Census Bureau, using counties as building blocks instead of towns, is the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is further subdivided into four metropolitan divisions. The metropolitan statistical area has a total population of about 4.4 million and is the eleventh-largest in the United States. The components of the metropolitan area with their 2005 populations are listed below.

[edit] Combined statistical area

A wider functional metropolitan area based on commuting patterns is also defined by the Census Bureau as the Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-RI-NH Combined Statistical Area. This area consists of the metropolitan areas of Manchester, Worcester, and Providence, in addition to Greater Boston. The total population (as of 2005) for the extended region is 7,427,336. The following areas, along with the above MSA, are included in the Combined Statistical Area:

[edit] Principal cities and towns

[edit] Boston metropolitan area

This list has been provided by the Census based on commuter populations, and is generally not what a resident of the area would consider the principal cities of the region.

These, in decreasing order, are the ten largest cities in the Boston NECTA (2006) [1]

[edit] Satellite areas

These larger cities fall within the CSA definition of Greater Boston only

[edit] Major companies

[edit] Sports

Club Sport League Stadium
Boston Bruins Ice Hockey National Hockey League TD Banknorth Garden (Boston)
Boston Cannons Lacrosse Major League Lacrosse Nickerson Field (Boston)
Boston Celtics Basketball National Basketball Association TD Banknorth Garden (Boston)
Boston Red Sox Baseball Major League Baseball (AL) Fenway Park (Boston)
New England Patriots Football National Football League (American Football Conference) Gillette Stadium (Foxboro)
New England Revolution Soccer Major League Soccer Gillette Stadium (Foxboro)

Annual sporting events include:

[edit] 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.

See also: Boston, Massachusetts#Education , List of colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston, and List of colleges and universities in Massachusetts
v • d • e
Colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston
Babson College · Bay State College · Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology · Bentley College · Berklee College of Music · The Boston Architectural College · Boston Baptist College · Boston College · Boston Conservatory · Boston University · Brandeis University · Bunker Hill Community College · Cambridge College · Curry College · Eastern Nazarene College · Emerson College · Emmanuel College · Fisher College · Harvard University · Hebrew College · Hellenic College · Labouré College · Lasell College · Lesley University · Massachusetts Bay Community College · Massachusetts College of Art and Design · Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Mount Ida College · Newbury College · New England College of Optometry · New England Conservatory of Music · New England Institute of Art · New England School of Law · Northeastern University · Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering · Pine Manor College · Quincy College · Regis College · Roxbury Community College · St. John's Seminary · School of the Museum of Fine Arts · Simmons College · Suffolk University · Tufts University · University of Massachusetts Boston · Urban College of Boston · Wellesley College · Wentworth Institute of Technology · Wheelock College

[edit] Historical figures and celebrities

[edit] Transportation

See also: Boston transportation

[edit] Highways

[edit] Bridges and tunnels

[edit] Airports

[edit] Rail transportation and Bus

The MBTA district, with Commuter Rail lines in purple
The MBTA district, with Commuter Rail lines in purple

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

[edit] Ocean transportation

[edit] Geography

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Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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[edit] References

  1. ^ a b About MAPC. Metropolitan Area Planning Council. Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
  2. ^ Boston Region MPO (April 12, 2007). Journey to 2030: Transportation Plan of the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (PDF). Retrieved on 2007-05-14.
  3. ^ U.S. Census Bureau - Components of New England City and Town Areas
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