Massachusetts city and town boundaries, drawn with yellow lines, and labeled with yellow municipal names, ideal for display atop aerial photography.Please see https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massgis-data-municipalities for full metadata.

The political boundary datalayer is a polygon representation of town boundaries created from arcs developed from survey coordinates extracted from the 68-volume Harbor and Lands Commission Town Boundary Atlas for the 351 communities (cities and towns) in Massachusetts. The Atlas was published in the early 1900's and is maintained by the Survey Section of Massachusetts Highway Department. For communities with a coastal boundary, MassGIS has collaborated with Massachusetts Water Resources Authority and the Department of Environmental Protection to complete a 1:12000 scale coastline. The boundary for the coastline was defined as being the upland side of tidal flats and rocky inter-tidal zones. Note that the 351 communities are the official municipal names, not including "villages" or other sections of towns.This datalayer was created for the purposes of providing an up-to-date polygon version of the town boundaries for the 351 cities and towns of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The legislative intent for some boundaries could not be mapped. Boundaries where that is true are identified in the attribute information. This layer contains multi-part polygons, one for each municipality. The coastline on this layer has been generalized for small-scale cartography and faster display in web map services.See the layer metadata for details.

The Healthy Neighborhoods Study (HNS) aimed to better understand the relationship between urban development, neighborhood conditions, and population health in Boston. More specifically, the research completed was the planning and baseline phase for a longer 9 year longitudinal study with two overarching aims: to determine how to measure and evaluate the mid- to long-term impacts of transit-oriented development on neighborhood conditions and population health, and to better understand the drivers and mechanisms that mediate the relationship between neighborhoods and health. The study tracks measures in health, development, neighborhood conditions and resident experiences in nine urban centers in the Boston-metro area.

These data and/or computer programs are part of ICPSR's Publication-Related Archive and are distributed exactly as they arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the INVESTIGATOR(S) if further information is desired.

Information compiled by the Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP).

Throughout history, government and industries have neglected investments in some neighborhoods, especially communities of color, who are more likely to have fewer resources.

Thematic map of Massachusetts cities and towns 1999: education, poverty, and income. Thematic map of Massachusetts cities and towns by percent of the 25 and older population with a high school graduate degree or higher. Thematic map of the percent of families below the poverty level in 1999. Thematic map of 1999 median household income

The 2020 cartographic boundary KMLs are simplified representations of selected geographic areas from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). These boundary files are specifically designed for small-scale thematic mapping. When possible, generalization is performed with the intent to maintain the hierarchical relationships among geographies and to maintain the alignment of geographies within a file set for a given year. Geographic areas may not align with the same areas from another year. Some geographies are available as nation-based files while others are available only as state-based files. In New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has defined an alternative county subdivision (generally cities and towns) based definition of Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) known as New England City and Town Areas (NECTAs). NECTAs are defined using the same criteria as Metropolitan Statistical Areas and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and are identified as either metropolitan or micropolitan, based, respectively, on the presence of either an urban area of 50,000 or more population or an urban cluster of at least 10,000 and less than 50,000 population. A NECTA containing a single core urban area with a population of at least 2.5 million may be subdivided to form smaller groupings of cities and towns referred to as NECTA Divisions. The generalized boundaries in this file are based on those defined by OMB based on the 2010 Census, published in 2013, and updated in 2018.

ESRI polygon feature class representing City of Somerville, Massachusetts neighborhood boundaries.

Background and Data Limitations The Massachusetts 1830 map series represents a unique data source that depicts land cover and cultural features during the historical period of widespread land clearing for agricultural. To our knowledge, Massachusetts is the only state in the US where detailed land cover information was comprehensively mapped at such an early date. As a result, these maps provide unusual insight into land cover and cultural patterns in 19th century New England. However, as with any historical data, the limitations and appropriate uses of these data must be recognized: (1) These maps were originally developed by many different surveyors across the state, with varying levels of effort and accuracy. (2) It is apparent that original mapping did not follow consistent surveying or drafting protocols; for instance, no consistent minimum mapping unit was identified or used by different surveyors; as a result, whereas some maps depict only large forest blocks, others also depict small wooded areas, suggesting that numerous smaller woodlands may have gone unmapped in many towns. Surveyors also were apparently not consistent in what they mapped as ‘woodlands’: comparison with independently collected tax valuation data from the same time period indicates substantial lack of consistency among towns in the relative amounts of ‘woodlands’, ‘unimproved’ lands, and ‘unimproveable’ lands that were mapped as ‘woodlands’ on the 1830 maps. In some instances, the lack of consistent mapping protocols resulted in substantially different patterns of forest cover being depicted on maps from adjoining towns that may in fact have had relatively similar forest patterns or in woodlands that ‘end’ at a town boundary. (3) The degree to which these maps represent approximations of ‘primary’ woodlands (i.e., areas that were never cleared for agriculture during the historical period, but were generally logged for wood products) varies considerably from town to town, depending on whether agricultural land clearing peaked prior to, during, or substantially after 1830. (4) Despite our efforts to accurately geo-reference and digitize these maps, a variety of additional sources of error were introduced in converting the mapped information to electronic data files (see detailed methods below). Thus, we urge considerable caution in interpreting these maps. Despite these limitations, the 1830 maps present an incredible wealth of information about land cover patterns and cultural features during the early 19th century, a period that continues to exert strong influence on the natural and cultural landscapes of the region.

    Acknowledgements
    Financial support for this project was provided by the BioMap Project of the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, the National Science Foundation, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. This project is a contribution of the Harvard Forest Long Term Ecological Research Program.

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 datalayer is part of a group of layers used for research in the Ipswich River Watershed. This layer was created in July 2006 for Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole. This layer shows the boundaries for the towns in the Ipswich River Watershed and the Parker River Watershed. This data layer was created so that the town boundaries would correspond to the boundaries of the corresponding land use maps. This datalayer has complete information. Display town boundaries for the study area.

The dynamics of forest cover and the ecosystem services they provide are shaped by the land use and management decisions of thousands of individual landowners and the land use planning and conservation actions of towns and environmental organizations. Through an interdisciplinary investigation of the land use and forest conservation practices across two urban-to-rural transects between Boston and Central Massachusetts, we investigated the complex and coupled socio-ecological processes that shape the structure, function, and transformation of forested landscapes and how examine these processes may vary along urban-to-rural gradients. The survey data archived here is one element of this larger coupled natural-human systems project. The Community and Conservation Survey collected data regarding landowners’ attitudes and management practices on a variety of issues linked to conservation and the use of their own land. The objectives were to collect data that (a) increase our understanding of how landowners’ attitudes and behaviors vary across urban-to-rural gradients and (b) can be coupled with biogeochemical measurements across the study region to model variation in management behaviors.

Petition subject: Support for individuals Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:13906031 Date of creation: 1751-05-29 Petition location: Brunswick Selected signatures:John MinotRobert FinneyIsaac Snow Actions taken on dates: 1751-06-07 Legislative action: Received on June 7, 1751 Total signatures: 3 Legislative action summary: Received Legal voter signatures (males not identified as non-legal): 3 Female only signatures: No Identifications of signatories: inhabitants, selectmen Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Manuscript Additional archivist notes: York, John Martin, Indians, Canada, Joseph Cadiit, William Ross, John Ross, Sheepsgutt, Sheepsgut, captivity, France Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: Massachusetts Archives volume 116, pages 101-102 Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.

This polygon data layer contains the six Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Highway Districts in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The districts supervise all construction within its jurisdiction; performs on-site engineering; implements maintenance and preventative maintenance programs; generates proposals for maintenance and construction work; and provides engineering support to cities and towns.ProductionThe bounds of the MassDOT Highway Districts were digitized from the MassGIS survey-level town boundaries. In addition to the polygon layer, there is an arc layer following the same line work as the polygon included in the downloadable shape file.MetadataStatusThis data is current as of September 2013.

Petition: Property Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:13906030 Date of creation: 1749-03-22 Petition location: Salem Top signatures:Benjamin LyndeRichard DerbyJoshua WardFrancis CabotEpes SargentWarwick Palfray Actions taken on dates: 1750-04-07,1750-04-07,1750-04-12,1750-04-12 Legislative action: Received in the House on April 7, 1750 and read and ordered and sent for concurrence and received in the Council on April 7, 1750 and read and concurred and received in the Council on April 12, 1750 and read again with answer and ordered and sent for concurrence and received in the House on April 12, 1750 and read and concurred Total signatures: 42 Legislative action summary: Received, read, ordered, sent, received, read, concurred, received, read, ordered, sent, received, read, concurred, Legal voter signatures (males not identified as non-legal): 42 Identifications of signatories: some of the inhabitants Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Manuscript Additiona l archivist notes: assessment, taxes, rates, vessels, trading stock, King George I, valuations Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.

How racially diverse are residents in Massachusetts? This topic shows the demographic breakdown of residents by race/ethnicity and the increases in the Non-white population since 2010.

Petition subject: Property Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:13909069 Date of creation: 1750-04-09 Petition location: Salem Selected signatures:Ichabod PlaistedSamuel FlintBenjamin RichmanDaniel Epes Jr. Total signatures: 6 Legal voter signatures (males not identified as non-legal): 6 Female only signatures: No Identifications of signatories: assesors of Salem 1749 Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Manuscript Additional archivist notes: assessment, taxes, rates, vessels, trading stock, King George I, valuations Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: Massachusetts Archives volume 115, pages 585-586 Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.

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

Petition subject: Property Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:26855765 Date of creation: 1681-05-11 Petition location: Natick, Ponkapoag, and Wamesit Selected signatures:WabanPyambowTom TrayJohn AwassamugAnthony TraySam AwassamugEliazer PegunZachary AbrahamTom AwassamugAndrew PittomeJames RumnymarshPeter EphraimTom DublitSasonitJohn Awassamug Jr.JethroBenjamSosawannoJohn MagosNathanielWattertown William Total signatures: 22 Males of color signatures: 22 Female only signatures: No Identifications of signatories: us, whose names are under written & others inhabitants of the towns of Natick, Punkapoge & Wamasitt, diverse others, [males of color] Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Manuscript Native American tribe: Nipmuc, Massachusett Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library. Additional archivist notes: request for compensation for loss of lands in Nipmuck country, Nipmuc, Nipmug, Boston, Natick, Oxford, Stoughton, Sutton, Ponkapoag, Wamesit, John Awassamaug, Sam Awassamaug, Eleazar Peagon, Pegan, Zachry Abraham, Tom Awassamaug, Andrew Pityme, Andrew Pittimee, James Rumneymarsh, Sasomit, John Awassamaug Jr., Benjamin, Thomas Tray Location of the petition at the Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth: Massachusetts Archives volume 30, pages 257-257a