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Municipalities of Massachusetts
Category	Municipality
Location	Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Found in	County
Created	1620 (Plymouth)
Number	351
Possible types	City Town
Populations	70 (Gosnold) – 675,647 (Boston)
Areas	1.0 square mile (2.6 km) (Nahant) – 96.5 square miles (250 km) (Plymouth)
Government	Council–manager Town meeting Mayor–council Select Board
Subdivisions	Village Neighborhood

Massachusetts is a state located in the Northeastern United States. Municipalities in the state are classified as either towns or cities, distinguished by their form of government under state law. Towns have an open town meeting or representative town meeting form of government; cities, on the other hand, use a mayor-council or council-manager form. Based on the form of government, as of 2023, there are 292 towns and 59 cities in Massachusetts. Over time, many towns have voted to become cities; 14 municipalities still refer to themselves as "towns" even though they have a city form of government.

The Census Bureau classifies towns in Massachusetts as a type of "minor civil division" and cities as a type of "populated place". However, from the perspective of Massachusetts law, politics, and geography, cities and towns are the same type of municipal unit, differing primarily in their form of government and some state laws which set different rules for each type.

There is no unincorporated land in Massachusetts. The land area of the state is completely divided up among the 351 municipalities.

Largest cities

v t e Largest cities or towns in Massachusetts 2020 United States census (1 April 2020)
	Rank	Name	County	Pop.	Rank	Name	County	Pop.
Boston Worcester	1	Boston	Suffolk	675,647	11	Lawrence	Essex	89,143	Springfield Cambridge
	2	Worcester	Worcester	206,518	12	Newton	Middlesex	88,923
	3	Springfield	Hampden	155,929	13	Somerville	Middlesex	81,045
	4	Cambridge	Middlesex	118,403	14	Framingham	Middlesex	72,362
	5	Lowell	Middlesex	115,554	15	Haverhill	Essex	67,787
	6	Brockton	Plymouth	105,643	16	Malden	Middlesex	66,263
	7	Quincy	Norfolk	101,636	17	Waltham	Middlesex	65,218
	8	Lynn	Essex	101,253	18	Brookline	Norfolk	63,191
	9	New Bedford	Bristol	101,079	19	Revere	Suffolk	62,186
	10	Fall River	Bristol	94,000	20	Plymouth	Plymouth	61,217

List of municipalities

Geography of towns at formation

Many municipalities have at some point been divided into two or more smaller municipalities. For example, Dorchester was incorporated in 1630 and originally included all of the current Dorchester, now the largest neighborhood of Boston, plus the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan, and all of present-day Quincy, Milton, Braintree, Randolph, Holbrook, Canton, Sharon, Stoughton, Avon and the northeast portion of Foxboro. Nearly all of Massachusetts territory had been incorporated by 1815, with the final three areas of Erving (1838), Gay Head (now Aquinnah) and Mashpee (both 1870) being incorporated from previously Native American land.

Former municipalities

Some towns and cities were annexed to others; disincorporated; or ceded to another state in their entirety. This list does not include territory changes affecting only part of a municipality; see History of Massachusetts.

Annexations

The following formerly independent municipalities have been annexed to Boston:

• Brighton (1873)
• Charlestown (1873)
• Dorchester (1869)
• Hyde Park (1912)
• Roxbury (1867)
• West Roxbury (1873)

The town of Bradford was annexed to Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1897.

Disincorporations

The following towns were disincorporated in 1938 due to the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir; all their territory was absorbed into surrounding towns:

• Dana
• Enfield
• Greenwich
• Prescott

Cessions

Ceded to New Hampshire

Due to general lack of colonial government there, all four towns in colonial New Hampshire chose to become part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1641. They were ceded to the re-formed Province of New Hampshire in 1680, under a newly issued royal charter:

• Dover
• Exeter
• Hampton
• Portsmouth

Numerous towns were ceded to New Hampshire after the Northern boundary of Massachusetts was defined by royal decree in 1741:

• Dunstable North
• Naticook
• Nottingham

Those towns were later disincorporated and reincorporated under New Hampshire laws on the same day in 1746.

Ceded to Rhode Island

The following towns were ceded to the Rhode Island colony in 1747 as part of a border dispute:

• Barrington
• Bristol
• Little Compton
• Sowams (Warren)
• Tiverton

Ceded to Connecticut

Due to a 1642 surveying error and long-running political disputes, the following Massachusetts towns joined the Connecticut Colony in late 1749:

• Enfield
• Somers
• Suffield
• Woodstock

Ceded to Maine

All settlements in the District of Maine were ceded when the State of Maine gained its independence from Massachusetts in 1820 as part of the Missouri Compromise:

• Addison
• Alfred
• Alna
• Anson
• Arundel (Kennebunkport)
• Athens
• Augusta
• Avon
• Baldwin
• Bath
• Belfast
• Belgrade
• Belmont
• Berwick
• Bethel
• Biddeford
• Bingham
• Blue Hill
• Boothbay
• Bowdoin
• Bowdoinham
• Bradford
• Brewer
• Bridgton
• Bristol
• Brooks
• Brooksville
• Brownfield
• Brunswick
• Buckfield
• Bucksport
• Buxton
• Calais
• Camden
• Canaan
• Cape Elizabeth
• Carmel
• Castine
• Cherryfield
• Chesterville
• China
• Clinton
• Columbia
• Corinna
• Corinth
• Cornish
• Cornville
• Cushing
• Deer Isle
• Denmark
• Dennysville
• Dexter
• Dixfield
• Dixmont
• Dresden
• Durham
• East Andover (Andover)
• Eastport
• Eddington
• Eden (Bar Harbor)
• Edgecomb
• Eliot
• Ellsworth
• Embden
• Etna
• Exeter
• Fairfax (Albion)
• Fairfield
• Falmouth
• Farmington
• Fayette
• Frankfort
• Freedom
• Freeport
• Friendship
• Fryeburg
• Gardiner
• Garland
• Georgetown
• Gilead
• Gorham
• Gouldsboro
• Gray
• Greene
• Greenwood
• Guilford
• Hallowell
• Hampden
• Harmony
• Harpswell
• Harrington
• Harrison
• Hartford
• Hartland
• Hebron
• Hermon
• Hiram
• Hollis
• Hope
• Industry
• Islesboro
• Jackson
• Jay
• Jefferson
• Jonesboro
• Kenduskeag Plantation (Bangor)
• Kingfield
• Kittery
• Knox
• Lebanon
• Leeds
• Levant
• Lewistown (Lewiston)
• Limerick
• Limington
• Lincolnville
• Lisbon
• Litchfield
• Livermore
• Lovell
• Lubec
• Lyman
• Machias
• Madison
• Malta (Windsor)
• Mercer
• Mexico
• Minot
• Monmouth
• Monroe
• Montville
• Moscow
• Mount Desert
• Mount Vernon
• New Charleston (Charleston)
• New Gloucester
• New Portland
• New Sharon
• New Vineyard
• Newburgh
• Newcastle
• Newfield
• Newport
• Newry
• Nobleboro
• Norridgewock
• North Hill (Brighton Plantation)
• North Yarmouth
• Northport
• Norway
• Orland
• Orono
• Orrington
• Otisfield
• Palermo
• Palmyra
• Paris
• Parsonsfield
• Penobscot
• Perry
• Phillips
• Phippsburg
• Pittston
• Poland
• Porter
• Portland
• Pownal
• Prospect
• Raymond
• Readfield
• Ripley
• Robbinston
• Rome
• Rumford
• Saco
• Sanford
• Sangerville
• Scarborough
• Searsmont
• Sebec
• Sedgwick
• Shapleigh
• Sidney
• Solon
• South Berwick
• St. Albans
• St. George
• Standish
• Starks
• Steuben
• Strong
• Sullivan
• Sumner
• Surry
• Swanville
• Sweden
• Temple
• Thomaston
• Thorndike
• Topsham
• Trenton
• Troy
• Turner
• Union
• Unity
• Vassalboro
• Vienna
• Vinalhaven
• Waldoboro
• Wales
• Warren
• Warsaw (Pittsfield)
• Washington
• Waterboro
• Waterford
• Waterville
• Wayne
• Weld
• Wells
• Westbrook
• Whitefield
• Wilton
• Windham
• Winslow
• Winthrop
• Wiscasset
• Woodstock
• Woolwich
• York

Archaic names

Many municipalities have changed names.

See also

• Administrative divisions of Massachusetts
• Equivalent Lands
• Lists of cities in the United States
• List of villages in Massachusetts
• Massachusetts gateway cities

Notes

References

1. ^ John Ouellette (September 19, 2023). "Local Government 101". Massachusetts Municipal Association. Cite error: The named reference "MMA" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
2. ^ "Population and Housing Occupancy Status: 2010 - State -- County Subdivision, 2010 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved March 23, 2011.
3. "Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
4. "Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates". William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
5. Hanson, Robert Brand (1976). Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635-1890. Dedham Historical Society. pp. 74–76.
6. Hanson 1976, p. 68.
7. Lockridge 1985, p. 114.
8. ^ Lockridge 1985, p. 115.
9. *Lockridge, Kenneth (1985). A New England Town. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-393-95459-3.
10. Knight, D.D.S., Jos. King; Davis, Esq., Edmund; Humphrey, Henry B. "Memorial Sketch of Hyde Park, Mass., for the first twenty years of its corporate existence (1868 – 1888)". Hyde Park Historical Society. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
11. Lockridge 1985, p. 99.
12. Archaic Community, District, Neighborhood, Section and Village, Names in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Secretary of State Citizen Information Service. Retrieved April 13, 2008.
13. "DIOTD, Mar. 10, 2009 Dorchester Territory". Dorchester Atheneum. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved August 11, 2009.

External links

• Massachusetts City and Town Directory, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Elections Division

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