[50] In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which, during the Industrial Revolution, catalyzed numerous important technological advances, including interchangeable parts. [333], As chief executive, the governor is responsible for signing or vetoing legislation, filling judicial and agency appointments, granting pardons, preparing an annual budget, and commanding the Massachusetts National Guard. It is the most irreligious region of the country, along with the Western United States; for comparison and contrast however, in 2020, the Public Religion Research Institute determined 67% of the population were Christian reflecting a slight increase of religiosity. [261][262], The more than 33,000 nonprofits in Massachusetts employ one-sixth of the state's workforce. Some page levels are currently hidden. It also includes any river, creek, canal, stream, or similar feature that is recorded in that database as a two-dimensional feature (rather than as a single line). This article is about the U.S. state. Founded by Thomas Weston in 1622, 2nd oldest European settlement in Massachusetts. The State of Massachusetts played a significant part in the early history of the United States. As of January 1, 2018 Brookline, MA 02445, 02446, and 02447 will inherit that title. [144], On November 8, 2016, Massachusetts voted in favor of the Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization Initiative, also known as Question 4. [254] Boston-Logan International Airport is the busiest airport in New England, serving 33.4million total passengers in 2015, and witnessing rapid growth in international air traffic since 2010. The city was historically known as the City of Sin owing to its large number of crimes and illegal activities. [269], Depending on how it is calculated, state and local tax burden in Massachusetts has been estimated among U.S. states and Washington D.C. as 21st-highest (11.44% or $6,163 per year for a household with nationwide median income)[270] or 25th-highest overall with below-average corporate taxes (39th-highest), above-average personal income taxes, (13th-highest), above-average sales tax (18th-highest), and below-average property taxes (46th-highest). With a total capacity of 412 billion gallons, it was, after completion, the world's biggest artificial reservoir used only for water supply. [52] On February 6, 1788, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution. The largest city in the United States by area is Sitka, Alaska. The water area figures include inland, coastal, Great Lakes, and territorial sea water. By area, population and population density, it is the smallest town in the county; and is the second-smallest town by population in the Commonwealth, with only Gosnold having fewer residents. [142], Two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, at around 2:49 pm EDT. Most of these boundaries followed streams or rights-of-way that were either traced atop older imagery or not modified from the 1:25,000 mapping of community boundaries. Massachusetts is a global leader in research, higher education, and finance among others. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and the DeCordova contemporary art and sculpture museum in Lincoln are all located within Massachusetts,[394] and the Maria Mitchell Association in Nantucket includes several observatories, museums, and an aquarium. [296][297] Boston's other major station, North Station, serves as the southern terminus for Amtrak's Downeaster, which connects to Portland and Brunswick in Maine. [200] During the early and mid-19th century, immigrant groups began arriving in Massachusetts in large numbers; first from Ireland in the 1840s;[201] today the Irish and part-Irish are the largest ancestry group in the state at nearly 25% of the total population. [243][244], The United States Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that the Massachusetts gross state product in 2020 was $584billion. Aquinnah-Chilmark border near Menemsha based on parcel data and surveyed plans from the towns. Seuss". Some major museums and important historical sites are also located there, and events and festivals throughout the year celebrate the state's history and heritage. FCS play includes Harvard University, which competes in the famed Ivy League, and College of the Holy Cross of the Patriot League. Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, the Shaolin Meditation Temple in Springfield, and the Insight Meditation Center in Barre are examples of non-Abrahamic religious centers in Massachusetts. The differences between the municipal boundary arcs digitized from those on the USGS quads and those created by snapping to the survey-derived coordinates are typically plus or minus 12 feet, although these differences are sometimes less and sometimes more. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance,[55] and transcendentalist[56] movements. [334], Aside from the governor and Executive Council, the executive branch also includes four independently elected constitutional officers: a secretary of the commonwealth, an attorney general, a state treasurer, and a state auditor. The accuracy of any area measurement data is limited by the accuracy inherent in 1) the location and shape of the various boundary information in the MAF/TIGER database, 2) the identification, and classification of water bodies coupled with the location and shapes of the shorelines of water bodies in that database, and 3) rounding affecting the last digit in all operations that compute and/or sum the area measurements. TIGER is an acronym for the digital (computer-readable) geographic database that automates the mapping and related geographic activities required to support the Census Bureau's census and survey programs. [240] Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both located in Cambridge, consistently rank among the world's best private universities and universities in general. Note that the 351 communities are the official municipal names, not including "villages" or other sections of towns. The Boston Globe", "Monthly Airport Traffic SummaryDecember 2015", "Venture InvestmentRegional Aggregate Data", "Where do Massachusetts tourists come from? Other major cities found on the Maryland map include Baltimore, Columbia, Silver Spring, Dundalk, Wheaton-Glenmont, Ellicott City, Germantown, Bethesda and Frederick. [365], In 2020, the state legislature overrode Governor Charlie Baker's veto of the ROE Act, a controversial law that codified existing abortion laws in case the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, dropped the age of parental consent for those seeking an abortion from 18 to 16, and legalized abortion after 24 weeks, if a fetus had fatal anomalies, or "to preserve the patient's physical or mental health. Massachusetts is one of four states that are legally described as a commonwealth. Du Bois, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, John Updike, Anne Sexton, H.P. There are 298 towns with functioning, but not necessarily active, governments. Modified the Lynnfield-Wakefield boundary to match a stream channel as seen on a scanned plan submitted by Wakefield. [129] This decline would continue into the latter half of the century; between 1950 and 1979, the number of Massachusetts residents involved in textile manufacturing declined from 264,000 to 63,000. The warm to hot summers render the oceanic climate rare in this transition, only applying to exposed coastal areas such as on the peninsula of Barnstable County. Massachusetts has 20 urban areas; 9 urbanized areas and 11 urban clusters. What are the largest towns in Massachusetts by area? Although the documentation is incomplete, about 1,700 letters of marque, issued on a per-voyage basis, were granted during the American Revolution. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic communities have been in decline since the late 20th century, due to the rise of irreligion in New England. There are a number of major AM and FM stations which serve Massachusetts,[414] along with many more regional and community-based stations. The population of the legal area of Massachusetts including the area of Maine for those censuses was 700,745 . Quabbin Reservoir is the largest artificial lake in Massachusetts. To the west lies the hilly, rural region of Central Massachusetts, and beyond that, the Connecticut River Valley. 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. MassGIS first published these survey-based boundaries in June 2004. Cities are governed by a board of selectmen. What is the largest town by area? Roman Catholics made up 34% and now predominate because of massive immigration from primarily Catholic countries and regionschiefly Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Quebec, and Latin America. [272], As of January 1, 2020, Massachusetts has a flat-rate personal income tax of 5.00%,[273] after a 2002 voter referendum to eventually lower the rate to 5.0%[274] as amended by the legislature. [118] Members of the transcendentalist movement emphasized the importance of the natural world and emotion to humanity. In 2005, the population of Massachusetts was estimated at 6,433,367, which is about 816.2 people per square mile. With a population of 95,777, it narrowly edges out New Bedford as the sixth-most populous city in the state. 5Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, recomputation from archived national block group data resulting in a possible error of up to 1,000 feet. ", "1980 Presidential General Election ResultsMassachusetts", Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, "1984 Presidential General Election ResultsMassachusetts", "Massachusetts Presidential Election Voting History - 270toWin", "Members of the House of Representatives", "Mass. Suggestions are presented as an open option list only when they are available. It is sortable by clicking on the headers. Joins to the table on town number should be based on TOWN_ID. Can You Metal Detect On Beaches In Massachusetts? Worcester is home to several leading higher educational institutions including the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Worcester State University, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Clark University. See the Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas page for a list of metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas and related statistical areas. [96], The most destructive earthquake yet known in New England occurred in 1755, causing considerable damage across Massachusetts. [206], The largest ancestry group in Massachusetts are the Irish (22.5% of the population), who live in significant numbers throughout the state but form more than 40% of the population along the South Shore in Norfolk and Plymouth counties (in both counties overall, Irish-Americans comprise more than 30% of the population). [380][381][382] Famous painters from Massachusetts include Winslow Homer and Norman Rockwell;[382] many of the latter's works are on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. [306], Other ferry connections in the state include a line between Fall River and Block Island via Newport,[307] seasonal ferry service connecting Plymouth to Provincetown,[308] and a service between New Bedford and Cuttyhunk. ", "The Official Massachusetts State Quarter", "Greater Boston gains population, remains 10th-largest region in U.S", "Staying Power: The Future of Manufacturing in Massachusetts", "Housing and Economic Development:Key Industries", "Springfield Armory: Technology in Transition", "The First Great AwakeningJonathan Edwards", "The Temperance Issue in the Election of 1840: Massachusetts", "Images of the Antislavery Movement in Massachusetts", "Springfield College: The Birthplace of Basketball", "The International Volleyball Hall of Fame", "Massachusetts court strikes down ban on same-sex marriage", "Harvard's Endowment Remains Biggest of All", "Meet Merrick Garland, Obama's Supreme Court nominee", "When a neighborhood is crowned the most innovative square mile in the world, how do you keep it that way? As of January 1, 2018 Brookline, MA 02445, 02446 largest towns in massachusetts by land area and finance among others rural of! 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