Map of the United States with Massachusetts highlighted

Distribution of the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts

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; the Census Bureau classifies towns as "minor civil divisions". Cities, on the other hand, use a mayor-council or council-manager form, and are classified by the Census as "populated places". Based on the form of government, there are 295 towns and 56 cities in Massachusetts. Some municipalities, however, still refer to themselves as "towns" even though they have a city form of government.

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

List of municipalities[edit]

• Largest municipalities in Massachusetts by population


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  Skyline of Boston, largest city by population in Massachusetts
  

  
  

  
  


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  Downtown Worcester, Massachusetts's second largest municipality by population
  

  
  

  
  


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  Skyline of Springfield, third largest municipality by population in Massachusetts
  

  
  

  
  


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  Skyline of Lowell, fourth largest municipality by population in Massachusetts
  

  
  

  
  


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  Skyline of Cambridge, Massachusetts's fifth largest municipality by population
  

  
  

  
  


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  Downtown New Bedford, the sixth largest municipality by population in Massachusetts
  

  
  

  
  


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  City Hall in Brockton, Massachusetts seventh largest municipality by population
  

  
  

  
  


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  Downtown Quincy, eighth largest municipality by population in Massachusetts
  

  
  

  
  


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  Skyline of Lynn, ninth largest municipality by population in Massachusetts
  

  
  

  
  

List of cities by official name[edit]

The following tabular list shows the 56 government divisions of the Commonwealth which have been officially granted the right to use the city form of government along with the official name in use by each municipality.^{[Note 1]}

Geography of towns at formation[edit]

Formation of Massachusetts cities and towns, 1620–1870

This map shows towns colored by the date they were incorporated in Massachusetts since the founding of Plimoth Plantation in 1620. Many of the towns and future cities shown covering the area of their original incorporation have since been divided into two, three or in some cases several 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[edit]

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[edit]

The following formerly independent municipalities have been annexed to Boston:

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  Brighton (1873)


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  Charlestown (1873)


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  Dorchester (1869)


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  Hyde Park (1912)


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  Roxbury (1867)


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  West Roxbury (1873)

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

Disincorporations[edit]

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[edit]

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

• Barrington


• Bristol


• Little Compton


• Tiverton


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  Warren (Sowams) [possibly part of Swansea, Massachusetts in 1747?]

The following towns joined the Connecticut Colony in late 1749 after separating from Springfield or just joining Connecticut.^{[citation needed]}

• Enfield


• Somers


• Suffield


• Woodstock

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^[which?] were ceded to New Hampshire after the Northern boundary of Massachusetts was defined by royal decree in 1740.

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.

Archaic names[edit]

Many municipalities have changed names.^[8]