Boston, Massachusetts

Boston population, 2020 to 2024

Boston lost 2,064 residents from July 2020 to July 2024, a change of -0.3%. In the latest year it moved by +8,855. Among 58 Massachusetts places of 5,000 or more, that growth ranks 50th; the median place changed by +1.2%. The median place of 5,000+ in Massachusetts has 44,052 people, so Boston is 15.3 times that size.

Boston covers 48.34 square miles of land and 41.27 of water, for 13,932 people per square mile of land. The median Massachusetts place of 5,000+ has 2,852, so Boston is denser than the typical town.

What county Boston is in

All of Boston's residents live in Suffolk County, which had 793,144 residents in 2024. Boston holds 84.9% of the county's population. The shaded shape is on the map above; dots mark the eight nearest places.

ZIP codes in Boston

33 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) overlap Boston by at least 10% of the ZCTA's or the city's land: 02108, 02109, 02110, 02111, 02113, 02114, 02115, 02116, 02118, 02119, 02120, 02121, 02122, 02124, 02125, 02126, 02127, 02128, 02129, 02130, 02131, 02132, 02133, 02134, 02135, 02136, 02163, 02199, 02203, 02205, 02210, 02215, 02467. ZCTAs are Census approximations of USPS ZIP code delivery areas. The list comes from the 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file, so a city that annexed land after 2020 may reach into ZIP codes not listed here.

Where Boston is

The Census internal point of Boston is at 42.338600, -71.018300. Boston, the capital, is 2.7 miles WNW in a straight line. The nearest larger place is New York, NY (8,478,072 people), 190.4 miles away. The nearest city of 100,000 or more is Quincy, MA, 5.4 miles away. The ground at the internal point is about 4 m (13 ft) above sea level.

Daylight in Boston

At 42.34° N, Boston gets about 15 h 17 min of daylight around the June solstice and 9 h 05 min around the December solstice, a swing of 6 h 12 min. Figures are sunrise to sunset from the SunCalc model for June 21 and December 21, 2026. Month-by-month sunrise and sunset times are on the Boston daylight page.

Places near Boston

The eight nearest incorporated places of 1,000+ in Massachusetts, measured between internal points. The closest is Winthrop Town, 3.5 miles away, with 18,739 people.