Boston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Boston also serves as county seat of Suffolk County. The largest city in New England, Boston has an area of 89.6 square miles (232.1 km2)—48.4 square miles (125.4 km2) (54.0%) of land and 41.2 square miles (106.7 km2) (46.0%) of water, had an estimated population of 645,966 in 2014, making it the 24th largest city in the United States. The city is the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country.

One of the oldest cities in the United States, Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan colonists from England. It was the scene of several key events of the American Revolution, such as the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston. Upon American independence from Great Britain, the city continued to be an important port and manufacturing hub, as well as a center for education and culture. Through land reclamation and municipal annexation, Boston has expanded beyond the original peninsula. Boston’s many “firsts” include the United States’ first public school, Boston Latin School (1635), and first subway system (1897).

The area’s many colleges and universities make Boston an international center of higher education and medicine, and the city is considered to be a world leader in innovation for a variety of reasons. Boston’s economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, and government activities. Although the city has one of the highest costs of living in the United States, Boston ranks high on livability ratings, ranking 36th worldwide in quality of living in 2011 in a survey of 221 major cities. The median income for a household Boston was $51,739 in 2010, and the median income for a family was $61,035.

A global city, Boston is placed among the top 30 most economically powerful cities in the world. Encompassing $363 billion, the Greater Boston metropolitan area has the sixth-largest economy in the country and 12th-largest in the world. Boston’s colleges and universities have a significant effect on the regional economy. Greater Boston has more than 100 colleges and universities, and Boston attracts more than 350,000 college students from around the world, who contribute more than $4.8 billion annually to the city’s economy. Tourism comprises a large part of Boston’s economy, with 21.2 million domestic and international visitors spending $8.3 billion in 2011. Other important industries are financial services, especially mutual funds and insurance.

Boston shares many cultural roots with greater New England, including a dialect of the non-rhotic Eastern New England accent known as Boston English, and a regional cuisine with a large emphasis on seafood, salt, and dairy products. Boston has teams in the four major North American professional sports leagues plus Major League Soccer, and has won 34 championships in these leagues, as of 2013. Boston Common, located near the Financial District and Beacon Hill, is the oldest public park in the United States.

Please download May 2018 Boston Market Report provided by The Greater Boston Association of Realtors.