April 2022

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.

The TIGER/Line Files are shapefiles and related database files (.dbf) that are an extract of selected geographic and cartographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). The MTDB represents a seamless national file with no overlaps or gaps between parts, however, each TIGER/Line File is designed to stand alone as an independent data set, or they can be combined to cover the entire nation. Census tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or equivalent entity, and were defined by local participants as part of the 2010 Census Participant Statistical Areas Program. The Census Bureau delineated the census tracts in situations where no local participant existed or where all the potential participants declined to participate. The primary purpose of census tracts is to provide a stable set of geographic units for the presentation of census data and comparison back to previous decennial censuses. Census tracts generally have a population size between 1,200 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000 people. When first delineated, census tracts were designed to be homogeneous with respect to population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions. The spatial size of census tracts varies widely depending on the density of settlement. Physical changes in street patterns caused by highway construction, new development, and so forth, may require boundary revisions. In addition, census tracts occasionally are split due to population growth, or combined as a result of substantial population decline. Census tract boundaries generally follow visible and identifiable features. They may follow legal boundaries such as minor civil division (MCD) or incorporated place boundaries in some States and situations to allow for census tract-to-governmental unit relationships where the governmental boundaries tend to remain unchanged between censuses. State and county boundaries always are census tract boundaries in the standard census geographic hierarchy. In a few rare instances, a census tract may consist of noncontiguous areas. These noncontiguous areas may occur where the census tracts are coextensive with all or parts of legal entities that are themselves noncontiguous. For the 2010 Census, the census tract code range of 9400 through 9499 was enforced for census tracts that include a majority American Indian population according to Census 2000 data and/or their area was primarily covered by federally recognized American Indian reservations and/or off-reservation trust lands; the code range 9800 through 9899 was enforced for those census tracts that contained little or no population and represented a relatively large special land use area such as a National Park, military installation, or a business/industrial park; and the code range 9900 through 9998 was enforced for those census tracts that contained only water area, no land area.

March 2024

Where are the most affluent communities in the USA? This map uses the percentage of households earning $200,000 or more per year as an indicator of these communities, in each neighborhood, county and state. Color is used to identify states at smaller scales and counties at larger scales. For each color, darker tones indicate higher percentages.Data is from Esri's 2011 Updated Demographics.-------------------------The Civic Analytics Network collaborates on shared projects that advance the use of data visualization and predictive analytics in solving important urban problems related to economic opportunity, poverty reduction, and addressing the root causes of social problems of equity and opportunity. For more information see About the Civil Analytics Network.

This map features recent high-resolution National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery for the United States and is optimized for display quality and performance. The map also includes a reference layer.This NAIP imagery is from the USDA Farm Services Agency. The NAIP imagery in this layer has been visually enhanced and published as a tile layer for optimal display performance.NAIP imagery collection occurs on an annual basis during the agricultural growing season in the continental United States. Approximately half of the US is collected each year and each state is typically collected every other year. The NAIP program aims to make the imagery available to governmental agencies and to the public within a year of collection.This layer will be updated each year, as the latest imagery is received and processed. Currently, it is primarily composed of NAIP imagery from 2018 and 2019.Use the NAIP Imagery Metadata layer as an overlay to access detailed information about each image in this tile layer. With the metadata layer, a user can point and click any location within the continental US to access information such as collection date and resolution for the imagery at that location.While this tile layer is intended for visualization, the Living Atlas also provides the following NAIP layers for image analysis:USA NAIP Imagery: Natural ColorUSA NAIP Imagery: Color InfraredUSA NAIP Imagery: NDVI

Find Massachusetts health data by community, county, and region, including population demographics. Build custom data reports with over 100 health and social determinants of health data indicators and explore over 28,000 current and historical data layers in the map room.

October 2025

November 2021