Boston Neighborhood Boundaries represent a combination of zoning neighborhood boundaries, zip code boundaries and 2010 census tract boundaries. These boundaries are used in the broad sense for visualization purposes, research analysis and planning studies. However these boundaries are not official neighborhood boundaries for the City of Boston. The BPDA is not responsible for any districts or boundaries within the City of Boston except for the districts we use for planning purposes.

The Census Bureau does not recognize or release data for Boston neighborhoods. However, Census block groups can be aggregated to approximate Boston neighborhood boundaries to allow for reporting and visualization of Census data at the neighborhood level. Census block groups are created by the U.S. Census Bureau as statistical geographic subdivisions of a census tract defined for the tabulation and presentation of data from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. The 2020 Census block group boundary files for Boston can be found here. These block group-approximated neighborhood boundaries are used for work with Census data. Work that does not rely on Census data generally uses the Boston neighborhood boundaries found here.

The Census Bureau does not recognize or release data for Boston neighborhoods. However, Census tracts can be aggregated to approximate Boston neighborhood boundaries to allow for reporting and visualization of Census data at the neighborhood level. Census tracts are created by the U.S. Census Bureau as statistical geographic subdivisions of a county defined for the tabulation and presentation of data from the decennial census and the American Community Survey. The 2020 Census tract boundary files for Boston can be found here. These tract-approximated neighborhood boundaries are used for work with Census data. Work that does not rely on Census data generally uses the Boston neighborhood boundaries found here.

Neighborhood boundaries are created based on zip code, zoning district boundaries and census tract boundaries. This GIS data layer was produced by the BRA Office of Digital Cartography and GIS. These boundaries should not be considered official neighborhood boundaries for the City of Boston. The locations of features and boundaries shown on this map are approximate and are intended for planning and visualization purposes only. This is not intended for survey, engineering, or legal purposes.

2020 Census data for the city of Boston, Boston neighborhoods, census tracts, block groups, and voting districts. In the 2020 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau divided Boston into 207 census tracts (~4,000 residents) made up of 581 smaller block groups. The Boston Planning and Development Agency uses the 2020 tracts to approximate Boston neighborhoods. The 2020 Census Redistricting data also identify Boston’s voting districts.

For analysis of Boston’s 2020 Census data including graphs and maps by the BPDA Research Division and Office of Digital Cartography and GIS, see 2020 Census Research Publications

For a complete official data dictionary, please go to 2020 Census State Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File, Chapter 6. Data Dictionary. 2020 Census State Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File

2020 Census Tracts In Boston

2020 Census Block Groups In Boston

Boston Neighborhood Boundaries Approximated By 2020 Census Tracts

Boston Voting District Boundaries

This dataverse repository contains two datasets: 1. A one square meter resolution map of biomass for the City of Boston. Units are Mg biomass per hectare (Mg/ha). 2. A one square meter resolution map of canopy cover for the City of Boston. Units are binary: 0 = no canopy, 1 = canopy Both datasets are derived from LiDAR and high resolution remote sensing imagery. Details of the methodology are provided in the following publications: Raciti, SM, Hutyra, LR, Newell, JD, 2014. Mapping carbon storage in urban trees withmulti-source remote sensing data: Relationships between biomass, land use, and demographics in Boston neighborhoods,Science of the Total Environment, 500-501, 72-83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.08.070 Raciti, SM, Hutyra, LR, Newell, JD, 2015. Corrigendum to “Mapping carbon storage in urban trees with multi-source remote sensing data: Relationships between biomass, land use, and demographics in Boston neighborhoods”, Science of the Total Environment, 538, 1039-1041. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.07.154

The population density picture of Boston is generally a story of two Bostons: the high density central and northern neighborhoods, and the low density southern neighborhoods.The highest density areas of Boston are particularly concentrated in Brighton, Allston, and the Fenway area, areas of the city with large numbers of college students and young adults. There is also high population density in areas such as the Back Bay, the South End, Charlestown, the North End, and South Boston. These are all relatively small areas geographically, but have housing stock conducive to population density (e.g. multi-family dwelling units, row housing, large apartment buildings). The southern neighborhoods, specifically Hyde Park and West Roxbury, have significant numbers of people living in them, but lots sizes tend to be much larger. These areas of the city also tend to have more single family dwelling units. In that, there are fewer people per square mile than places north in the city. Census data reveals that population density varies noticeably from area to area. Small area census data do a better job depicting where the crowded neighborhoods are. In this map, areas of highest density exceed 30,000 persons per square kilometer. Very high density areas exceed 7,000 persons per square kilometer. High density areas exceed 5,200 persons per square kilometer. The last categories break at 3,330 persons per square kilometer, and 1,500 persons per square kilometer.How to make this map for your city

The 1:100,000-scale geologic map of the South Boston 30' x 60' quadrangle, Virginia and North Carolina, provides geologic information for the Piedmont along the I-85 and U.S. Route 58 corridors and in the Roanoke River watershed, which includes the John H. Kerr Reservoir and Lake Gaston. The Raleigh terrane (located on the eastern side of the map) contains Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic(?) polydeformed, amphibolite-facies gneisses and schists. The Carolina slate belt of the Carolina terrane (located in the central part of the map) contains Neoproterozoic metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks at greenschist facies. Although locally complicated, the slate-belt structure mapped across the South Boston map area is generally a broad, complex anticlinorium of the Hyco Formation (here called the Chase City anticlinorium) and is flanked to the west and east by synclinoria, which are cored by the overlying Aaron and Virgilina Formations. The western flank of the Carolina terrane (located in the western-central part of the map) contains similar rocks at higher metamorphic grade. This terrane includes epidote-amphibolite-facies to amphibolite-facies gneisses of the Neoproterozoic Country Line complex, which extends north-northeastward across the map. The Milton terrane (located on the western side of the map) contains Ordovician amphibolite-facies metavolcanic and metasedimentary gneisses of the Cunningham complex. Crosscutting relations and fabrics in mafic to felsic plutonic rocks constrain the timing of Neoproterozoic to late Paleozoic deformations across the Piedmont. In the eastern part of the map, a 5- to 9-kilometer-wide band of tectonic elements that contains two late Paleozoic mylonite zones (Nutbush Creek and Lake Gordon) and syntectonic granite (Buggs Island pluton) separates the Raleigh and Carolina terranes. Amphibolite-facies, infrastructural metaigneous and metasedimentary rocks east of the Lake Gordon mylonite zone are generally assigned to the Raleigh terrane. In the western part of the map area, a 5- to 8-kilometer-wide band of late Paleozoic tectonic elements includes the Hyco and Clover shear zones, syntectonic granitic sheets, and amphibolite-facies gneisses along the western margin of the Carolina terrane at its boundary with the Milton terrane. This band of tectonic elements is also the locus for early Mesozoic extensional faults associated with the early Mesozoic Scottsburg, Randolph, and Roanoke Creek rift basins. The map shows fluvial terrace deposits of sand and gravel on hills and slopes near the Roanoke and Dan Rivers. The terrace deposits that are highest in altitude are the oldest. Saprolite regolith is spatially associated with geologic source units and is not shown separately on the map. Mineral resources in the area include gneiss and granite quarried for crushed stone, tungsten-bearing vein deposits of the Hamme district, and copper and gold deposits of the Virgilina district. Surface-water resources are abundant and include rivers, tributaries, the John H. Kerr Reservoir, and Lake Gaston. Groundwater flow is concentrated in saprolite regolith, along fractures in the crystalline bedrock, and along fractures and bedding-plane partings in the Mesozoic rift basins.

The Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) takes care of city owned property, including the maintanence of buildings and vacant land. This is a legacy dataset that provides information on these properties including the size, location, potential use, and more.

Please see the current visualization of this data, provided by the Department of Neighborhood Development, for the most up to date information. Available @ http://property.boston.gov

Demographic Data for Boston’s Neighborhoods, 1950-2019

Boston is a city defined by the unique character of its many neighborhoods. The historical tables created by the BPDA Research Division from U.S. Census Decennial data describe demographic changes in Boston’s neighborhoods from 1950 through 2010 using consistent tract-based geographies. For more analysis of these data, please see Historical Trends in Boston's Neighborhoods. The most recent available neighborhood demographic data come from the 5-year American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS tables also present demographic data for Census-tract approximations of Boston’s neighborhoods. For pdf versions of the data presented here plus earlier versions of the analysis, please see Boston in Context.

This file contains the 65 cities and towns in Massachusetts for which MBTA bus or rapid transit service is provided. This data is based off of the 2010 census. The legislative intent for some boundaries could not be mapped. Boundaries where that is true are identified in the attribute information. Name Description Data Type Example town_name Full name for the MA town or city identification. String Boston town_id MassGIS Town-ID Code (alphabetical, 1-351) Numeric 34 sum_acres Area covered by the town or city in acres. Double 31304.22 sum_square Area covered by the town or city in square miles. Double 48.91 Use constraints: This data set, like all other cartographic products may contain inherent aberrations in geography or thematical errors. The boundaries included in this data set were developed using accepted GIS methodology. Cartographic products can never truly represent real-world conditions due to several factors. These factors can include, but are not limited to: human error upon digitizing, computational tolerance of the computer, or the distortion of map symbology. Because of these factors MassGIS cannot be held legally responsible for personal or property damages resulting from any type of use of the data set. These boundaries are suitable for map display and planning purposes. They cannot be used as a substitute for the work of a professional land surveyor.MassDOT/MBTA shall not be held liable for any errors in this data. This includes errors of omission, commission, errors concerning the content of the data, and relative and positional accuracy of the data. This data cannot be construed to be a legal document. Primary sources from which this data was compiled must be consulted for verification of information contained in this data.

This data contains the scores from the Residential Displacement Risk Map, created by the Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH) and released in March of 2025. The Residential Displacement Risk Map is Boston’s first interactive map measuring current displacement pressures and levels of residential displacement risk across Boston. The map aims to increase understanding of this challenge, and will be updated every couple of years to keep track of changing patterns.

This map is part of Boston’s first ever Anti-Displacement Action Plan. The Action Plan responds to residential, small business, and cultural displacement with new tools to fill gaps in Boston’s existing anti-displacement toolkit. It will also better position the City to target resources to people, places, and spaces at greatest risk of displacement, and it includes recommendations for how to use this map in planning, policy, and development decision making.

The Residential Displacement Risk Map can also be used to raise awareness of displacement and housing instability challenges and provide a data-driven understanding of displacement risk. It is meant to be used by the City, residents, community organizations, academics, housing advocates, and more.

The Residential Displacement Risk Map measures community-level displacement, meaning how likely it is for high numbers of households to be displaced from an area, changing its fundamental demographic makeup. The Residential Displacement Risk Map does not measure household- or individual-level displacement risk, or how likely it is for any one household or individual to be displaced. Those who live in a high-risk area will not necessarily be displaced. The map only paints a general picture of an area’s sensitivity to displacement pressures. A higher score indicates a higher risk of displacement.

The Residential Displacement Risk Map measures direct displacement (when residents are forced to move from their homes, such as in an eviction or a foreclosure) and estimates economic displacement (when current residents of an area can no longer afford to live there). The map uses direct displacement as a guidepost for predicting where economic displacement is likely to occur, based on a variety of characteristics that are associated with direct displacement. If an area has high direct displacement (evictions and foreclosures), then it is likely to also have high economic displacement. More detail on how the Residential Displacement Risk Map measures risk can be found in the technical documentation linked below.

The Displacement Risk Map can be directly accessed here: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/177e64a85f4041d2b4655d7cd1991c56/

Learn more about the City’s Anti-Displacement Action Plan here: https://www.boston.gov/departments/planning-advisory-council/anti-displacement-action-plan#:~:text=It%20lays%20out%20priority%20policies,and%20preserving%20existing%20affordable%20housing

Technical documentation for the map can be accessed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ctv0S67Rx5GA46GbY_Glo_y-JYoQRCMS336yPDw_18o/edit?usp=sharing

This file contains the 176 cities and towns in Massachusetts for which MBTA bus, rapid transit, or commuter rail service is provided. This data is based off of the 2010 census. The legislative intent for some boundaries could not be mapped. Boundaries where that is true are identified in the attribute information. Name Description Data Type Example town Full name for the MA town or city identification. String Boston town_id MassGIS Town-ID Code (alphabetical, 1-351) Numeric 34 sum_acres Area covered by the town or city in acres. Double 31304.22 sum_square Area covered by the town or city in square miles. Double 48.91 MassDOT/MBTA shall not be held liable for any errors in this data. This includes errors of omission, commission, errors concerning the content of the data, and relative and positional accuracy of the data. This data cannot be construed to be a legal document. Primary sources from which this data was compiled must be consulted for verification of information contained in this data.

TO VIEW A GLOSSARY OF TERMS FOR THE DIRECTORY - CLICK HERE

WHAT IS THIS TRACKER FOR?

The City of Boston is committed to increasing transparency in the processes around the Zoning Board of Appeal (ZBA). The Inspectional Services Department (ISD) at the City is tasked with ensuring compliance with the zoning code. If an application for a permit is refused because of a zoning violation, applicants are able to appeal the decision to the ZBA and ask for an exception, sometimes known as a “variance.” If the ZBA grants relief, then the appellant is able to continue with the process of obtaining a permit.

In order to provide greater transparency in the ZBA process, the City of Boston Zoning Board of Appeal tracker is now available on Analyze Boston. Each record in this tracker represents an appeal of a denied permit application; the original permit application is known as the “parent application.” To find out more information about the original permit application, visit our Permit Finder tool. To view a map of this data, visit our ZBA Tracker Map Tool.

To learn more about the ZBA process and how to file an appeal, visit our website.

WHAT DOES EACH STATUS MEAN?

Appeal Submitted - indicates that an appeal of a zoning refusal was successfully submitted into ISD’s tracking system, either in-person at ISD (1010 Massachusetts Ave.) or through the online application portal.

More Information:

• For detailed information on how to file an appeal, see this page on the ISD website.

Next steps:

• The appeal will undergo an initial review by City staff to ensure that all necessary information and documentation has been included.
• The appellant must pay a fee.

Community Process - indicates that City staff have completed their review and signed off for the appeal process to move onto getting community feedback.

Contact Information:

• Use the link below to find the Neighborhood Liaison from the Office of Neighborhood Services for the application’s location.

Next steps:

• The appellant will work with the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services to engage with people who own adjacent properties, members of the local community, and other relevant stakeholders.

• Depending on the type of project, the Boston Planning and Development Agency may also conduct a review.

Hearing Scheduled - indicates that the appeal has been scheduled for a committee or subcommittee meeting of the ZBA. For this to take place, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services has notified ISD that the appellant has adequately engaged with the community that would be affected, should the zoning relief be granted.

Attendance Information:

• View a schedule of hearings at the ZBA webpage. Select an Upcoming Hearing to find the list of topics and how to attend.

Next steps:

• The appellant will attend the hearing in person (or through the virtual meeting). The appellant will provide the ZBA with reasons why an exception or variance to the zoning code should be granted and answer any questions from the ZBA.

• At the hearing, members of the public will be able to testify in support or against the appeal.

• The ZBA will discuss the appeal and vote to approve or deny.

Alternatively:

• The appellant can request a deferral; if allowed by the ZBA, during the hearing the appeal will receive a new hearing date.

• The appellant can withdraw the application; if allowed by the ZBA, it can be withdrawn without prejudice.

Hearing Rescheduled - indicates that the appeal’s scheduled committee meeting has been changed. This can happen for several reasons. For example, the appellant can request a deferral if they need more time to complete or update plans, or the board can defer an appeal if a quorum isn’t present (perhaps due to a recusal). A request for deferral is approved by the board, which also selects a new hearing date.

Next steps:

• Same as Hearing Scheduled above.

Hearing Concluded - indicates that the hearing has taken place. The appeal could have been approved, denied, deferred, or withdrawn, with or without additional requirements.

Additional Information:

• Meeting minutes from each committee meeting are available to download from the ZBA webpage.

Next steps:

• The ZBA Executive Secretary finalizes the Board’s decision in writing or the appellant’s attorney submits a finalized decision for ISD Legal Team review.

ZBA Decision Finalized - indicates the date on the ZBA’s written decision letter. The decision is listed under the ‘result’ field.

Next steps:

• Neighboring property owners are notified of the decision shortly after this date

• Beginning on the Final Decision Date, neighboring property owners and other involved parties who disagree with the ZBA’s decision have twenty days to file an appeal in Suffolk County Superior Court or Boston Housing Court. (For detailed information on the Zoning Commission and appeal process, please refer to Chapter 665 of the Acts of 1956, available here)

Appeal Closed - indicates the appeal’s outcome has been finalized and the twenty day Appeal period has ended.

Next steps:

• Depending on the ZBA decision, the appellant may or may not be able to continue the process for seeking the permit for which zoning relief was requested.

• If the ZBA approved or sustained with proviso, the appellant must take additional steps before continuing the permitting process.

WHAT DOES EACH RESULT MEAN?

Approved - means the zoning relief requested has been granted.

Approved with Proviso - means the zoning relief requested has been granted, with some conditions that must be fulfilled before the permitting process can continue. These conditions will be detailed in the written decision of the ZBA. Examples of such conditions could include: having the Boston Planning and Development Agency review updated plans; submitting more detailed plans; or obtaining additional engineer reports.

Denied - means the zoning relief requested was not granted. The appellant must wait a year before submitting a new appeal on a project for the same site.

Denied without Prejudice - means the zoning relief requested was not granted. However, the appellant only has to wait thirty days before submitting an appeal on a new project at the same site.

Withdrawn - means the appellant has chosen to remove the appeal from the ZBA’s consideration. The appellant does not have to wait a year to appeal the same zoning violations.

Note: If there is no result listed, it means that the ZBA has not issued its final written decision on the appeal. This may be the case even for appeals that have been heard by the ZBA.

HOW DO I USE THIS TRACKER?

This tracker is designed for members of the public and City of Boston employees to be able to quickly search for a specific appeal that has been submitted to the ZBA, or to search for appeals based on criteria such as location or primary contact, in order to identify the status of the appeal.

Below, under the "Data and Resources" header, you will see the "Zoning Board of Appeal Tracker" dataset:

• To look at the directory - click the "Preview" button and you will be taken to a spreadsheet-like view of the directory data.

• To expand the number of applications available to scroll through, click the "Show _ Entries" drop down at the top left of the data table and select your desired number. Alternatively, you can scroll to the bottom right of the dataset and select your desired page number.

• To search the tracker - use the search box to the top right of the data table to search for any keyword in the dataset. For example, if you are looking for a certain contact, type the name into the search box and see what comes back.

• To filter the data, click the blue "Add Filter" link at the top left of the data table, select the field you would like to filter on, and select the corresponding value of that field that you would like to display. For example - if you wanted to show applications for properties in Charlestown, you would click "Add Filter", select the "city" field, and select "Charlestown". You can add multiple filters.

• To sort the data based on a specific field, click the arrows next to the field name to sort in either ascending or descending order.

• To hide columns that aren't relevant to you, click the blue "Hide/Unhide Columns" button at the top right of the data table, and click on the desired column names. Hidden column names will be highlighted in white. To unhide a column, simply click it again.

• The Data Dictionary - which explains what each field means and what the values of each field mean - is available as a table below the directory, and is also

This is a legacy dataset which contains detailed information on the timing and location of street sweeping service throughout the City. Daily street cleaning takes place April 1 to November 30 in most Boston neighborhoods (weather permitting), and over 400 curb miles of streets are maintained under the Daytime Street Sweeping Program.