UMass Donahue Institute

Released: New Population Estimates For Towns and Cities in Massachusetts

81% of Mass. municipalities increased between 2023 and 2024

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 Sub-County Population Estimates, among all 351 individual cities and towns in Massachusetts, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 283 municipalities, or 81%, increased in population between July 1, 2023 and July 1, 2024. See full report.

Percentagewise, the fastest growers of the year were mostly small- to mid-sized towns and cities, including many in Middlesex, Norfolk, and Worcester Counties. Here we see the effects of an increasing international migration component in the county-level estimates to which the municipal estimates are controlled.

The town of Stoneham, in Middlesex County, stands out as the municipality with the largest percent change with an estimated 6.3% increase in population between July 1, 2023 and July 1, 2024.
In contrast, six of the ten slowest growing municipalities, Southampton, Goshen, Cummington, Huntington, Chesterfield, and South Hadley, are all located in Hampshire County. The other four municipalities in the bottom ten include Concord in Middlesex County, Dennis in Barnstable County, Wendell in Franklin County, and New Ashford in Berkshire County, ranging from -0.4% to -1.0% decrease.

All 26 of Massachusetts’ cities or towns with populations of 50,000 or more in 2020 increased in population from July 1, 2023 to July 1, 2024.

Boston led the group in terms of total population gained with an estimated 8,855 person increase over the year.
Revere was the fastest-growing large place in terms of percentage growth, with a 2.9% population increase.

Boston, in both 2023 and 2024, reversed its decrease in population that was estimated from Census 2020 through July 1, 2022 due to the record high international migration levels seen in Massachusetts in the latest Census estimates. In addition, net domestic out-migration has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, leading to sizeable population increases in Suffolk County and in Boston. Domestic outmigration has slowed over the last two years in the rest of the state, contributing to population increase in all of the largest places in Massachusetts. "Domestic outmigration", as tracked by the Census Bureau, refers to people moving from one US state to another.