Downloads
Overview
In Massachusetts, cities and towns are recognized and recorded as “county subdivisions” by the Census Bureau. County subdivisions are the primary divisions of counties and their equivalent entities for the reporting of decennial census data. A 5-character FIPS code (recorded in COUSUBFP) is used to uniquely identify each county subdivision. Census towns have linework that is often identical to the linework found in MassGIS’ municipality boundaries, but also contains many minor discrepancies, particularly along hydrologic and coastal features. The annual Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) program attempts to reconcile significant differences in linework (typically discrepancies of 30 feet or more) between Census county subdivisions and the authoritative record, especially where populations are involved. MassGIS processed and makes available Census towns to provide a city and town reference for mapping that should align better than the MassGIS municipality boundaries with other Census-derived geographies, including voting districts. Some of the attributes from the MassGIS municipality boundaries have been transcribed into the Census towns attributes.
The Census towns polygons are named CENSUS2020TOWNS_POLY
The Census towns outlines are named CENSUS2020TOWNS_ARCS
Attributes
Attributes for polygons
| Field | Length | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| STATEFP | 2 | String | 2020 Census state FIPS code |
| COUNTYFP | 3 | String | 2020 Census county FIPS code |
| COUSUBFP | 5 | String | 2020 Census county subdivision FIPS code |
| COUSUBNS | 8 | String | 2020 Census ANSI feature code for the county subdivision |
| GEOID | 10 | String | 2020 Census county subdivision identifier; a concatenation of 2020 state FIPS code, county FIPS code, and county subdivision FIPS code |
| NAMELSAD | 100 | String | Name and translated legal/statistical area description code for the 2020 Census county subdivision |
| LSAD | 2 | String | Translated legal/statistical area description code for the 2020 Census county subdivision |
| CLASSFP | 2 | String | 2020 Census FIPS class code |
| MTFCC | 5 | String | MAF/TIGER Feature Class Code (G4040) |
| CNECTAFP | 3 | String | 2020 Census combined New England city and town area code |
| NECTAFP | 5 | String | 2020 Census New England city and town area code |
| NCTADVFP | 5 | String | 2020 Census New England city and town area division code |
| FUNCSTAT | 1 | String | 2020 Census functional status |
| ALAND | Double | 2020 Census land area in square meters | |
| AWATER | Double | 2020 Census water area in square meters | |
| INTPTLAT | 11 | String | 2020 Census latitude of the internal point |
| INTPTLON | 12 | String | 2020 Census longitude of the internal point |
| TOWN | 25 | String | Official name of the city/town |
| TOWN_ID | Integer | The town ID assigned to the official town name | |
| FIPS_STCO | Integer | Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) State/County Code | |
| COUNTY | 15 | String | Name of the county the town exists within |
| TYPE | 2 | String | C = City; T = Town; TC = Town with City form of government |
| FOURCOLOR | Integer | Codes (1,2,3,4) allowing shading of all towns using 4 symbols (based on four-color theorem, where no adjacent polygons have the same symbol) | |
| AREA_ACRES | Double | Area of the town calculated in acres | |
| SQ_MILES | Double | Area of the town calculated in square miles | |
| POP1960 | Integer | US Census population for the town in 1960 | |
| POP1970 | Integer | US Census population for the town in 1970 | |
| POP1980 | Integer | US Census population for the town in 1980 | |
| POP1990 | Integer | US Census population for the town in 1990 | |
| POP2000 | Integer | US Census population for the town in 2000 | |
| POP2010 | Integer | US Census population for the town in 2010 | |
| POP2020 | Integer | 2020 Census count of population as determined by PL94-171 demographics report for redistricting, aggregated from blocks | |
| POPCH10_20 | Integer | Change in population for the town from 2010 to 2020 | |
| HOUSING20 | Integer | 2020 Census count of housing units as determined by PL94-171 demographics report for redistricting, aggregated from blocks | |
| Shape_Length | Double | Perimeter of the town in meters as calculated by ArcGIS | |
| Shape_Area | Double | Area of the town in square meters as calculated by ArcGIS |
** Town population counts from 1970 to 2010 were obtained from the “City and Town Sortable Rankings” tables provided by the UMass Amherst Donahue Institute on this Secretary of the Commonwealth’s website. Town population counts from 1960 were obtained and transcribed from this report published on this state library archives webpage by the Massachusetts Department of Commerce and Development, Bureau of Research and Statistics.
Attribute for arcs
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| OUTLINE | State = 1, Coast = 4, Towns = 17 |
Processing
MassGIS downloaded Census 2020 town geographic data from the Census Bureau’s website
(A full set of TIGER/Line shapefiles and relationship files available for download from the Census Bureau). This statewide shapefile was extracted from the zip file and projected into the standard MassGIS data library projection (Massachusetts State Plane NAD 1983 Mainland, Meters).
The downloaded Census geography files for Massachusetts included areas that extend into coastal waters. MassGIS incorporated a generalized coastline by removing areas flagged as water along the coast (using the LWFLAG attribute in the Census Faces data), interactively reviewing and editing select locations that remained visually incongruous with the 2021 aerial imagery, and re-adding a small number of modified areas identified as being entirely water but containing a non-zero population (indicative of “transient units” like house boats).
MassGIS reviewed attributes for function and utility; nearly all native attributes were retained. Additional attributes were added to the geography file as appropriate to facilitate anticipated user needs.
Use limitations
As stated in section 1.1 of the technical documentation… “No warranty, expressed or implied, is made with regard to the accuracy of the data in the TIGER/Line Shapefiles, and no liability is assumed by the United States Government in general, or the Census Bureau specifically, as to the positional or attribute accuracy of the data. The boundary information in the TIGER/Line Shapefiles is for statistical data collection and tabulation purposes only. Their depiction and designation for statistical purposes does not constitute a determination of jurisdictional authority or rights of ownership or entitlement and are not legal land descriptions. TIGER/Line® is a registered trademark of the Census Bureau. TIGER/Line cannot be used as or within the proprietary product names of any commercial product including or otherwise relevant to Census Bureau data and may only be used to refer to the nature of such a product.”
If there are any questions about these geographic layers not answered by the Census Bureau 2020 TIGER/Line shapefiles documentation, please direct them to Daniel Marrier.
Additional Limitation When Linking to Census Demographics
The Census Bureau assigns unique IDs to its various geographies in an attribute commonly named GEOID (and renamed “GEOID20” in this GIS product processed by MassGIS). GEOIDs are typically composed of a concatenation of higher-level geography IDs that a given geographic unit is nested within as well as a unique ID assigned to the geographic unit itself.
Example: The town of Abington is currently assigned a GEOID value of ‘2502300170’. The ‘25’ represents the FIPS state code for Massachusetts. ‘023’ represents the FIPS county code for Plymouth County. And ‘00170’ is the county subdivision (COUSUBFP) code specifically assigned to Abington.
The GEOID is also recorded in Census products like the American Community Survey and associates various demographics with the geography they represent.
The Census Bureau recognizes Massachusetts cities as “Incorporated Places” and towns as “Minor Civil Divisions” (MCDs). But in Massachusetts, some communities have city-style governments while referring to themselves as “towns”, and others have designations as a “city” despite not having wards as voting districts like other cities (see City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates). These distinctions have not always been immediately reflected in how the Census Bureau categorizes these communities as an MCD or an Incorporated Place. When they are acknowledged and a given community switches categories, it also receives a new GEOID, even if it occurs between decennial censuses. This can complicate any analysis involving demographic changes over time in these communities as the ID used in subsequent Census products changes, but it does not retroactively change in older reports.
MassGIS is committed to updating this 2020 U.S. Census Towns GIS data with the most current GEOID in use by the Census Bureau for towns and cities in Massachusetts when it learns of changes.
An examination of all ACS 5-year estimates reports since 2010 has revealed the following GEOID and name changes:
| OLD GEOID | OLD NAME | YEAR OF CHANGE | NEW GEOID | NEW NAME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2501724925 | Framingham town, Middlesex County, Massachusetts | 2018 | 2501724960 | Framingham city, Middlesex County, Massachusetts |
| 2502308085 | Bridgewater town, Plymouth County, Massachusetts | 2019 | 2502308130 | Bridgewater Town city, Plymouth County, Massachusetts |
| 2502155955 | Randolph town, Norfolk County, Massachusetts | 2019 | 2502156000 | Randolph Town city, Norfolk County, Massachusetts |
| 2501501325 | Amherst town, Hampshire County, Massachusetts | 2020 | 2501501370 | Amherst Town city, Hampshire County, Massachusetts |
| 2501127100 | Greenfield Town city, Franklin County, Massachusetts | 2020 | 2501127060 | Greenfield city, Franklin County, Massachusetts |
| 2500546575 | North Attleborough town, Bristol County, Massachusetts | 2020 | 2500546598 | North Attleborough Town city, Bristol County, Massachusetts |
| 2500901260 | Amesbury Town city, Essex County, Massachusetts | 2024 | 2500901185 | Amesbury city, Essex County, Massachusetts |
| 2501519370 | Easthampton Town city, Hampshire County, Massachusetts | 2024 | 2501519365 | Easthampton city, Hampshire County, Massachusetts |
| 2500940710 | Methuen Town city, Essex County, Massachusetts | 2024 | 2500940675 | Methuen city, Essex County, Massachusetts |
| 2501773440 | Watertown Town city, Middlesex County, Massachusetts | 2024 | 2501773405 | Watertown city, Middlesex County, Massachusetts |
To reflect these latest updates, in February 2026 MassGIS edited where necessary the new GEOID20 values, names in NAMELSAD20, and 5-digit values in COUSUBFP20.
** Any analysis involving these communities that attempts to use ACS or other Census product data published prior to the listed year of change will require the user to manually change the GEOID20 value to be the OLD GEOID value listed here to facilitate linkage. **
| Last updated: | March 9, 2026 |
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