About Boston
A City on a Hill
In 1630, aboard the ship Arbella, well along on its two month journey from England to Massachusetts, the Puritan governor John Winthrop preached a sermon that would shape the purpose and culture of the new Massachusetts Bay Colony. Entitled “A Model of Christian Charity,” the sermon closed with these famous words:
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.
The eyes of all people are upon us.
Echoing Jesus’ words to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, Winthrop described his vision for the colony: a new community defined by a fervent brotherly love and knit together in Christ, within which its people might wholeheartedly and freely serve the Lord and one another.
Within two months of arriving, the colonists bound themselves by covenant and formed Boston’s first church:
... to walk in all our ways according to the Rule of the Gospel,
and in all sincere conformity
To His holy Ordinances,
and in mutual love, and respect
Each to other
So near as God shall give us grace.
Over the next ten years, some 20,000 more immigrated to the colony. In 1640, due to political changes in England, immigration stopped. Together with the nearby smaller Plymouth Colony, these pioneers grew to an estimated population of 1 million by the end of the 18th century, which spread throughout all New England.
Boston in the 21st century
Fast forward nearly 400 years from the time of Winthrop’s landing. Although our feet still tread the winding cowpaths first laid out by those early settlers, today’s Boston is radically different both in its ideals and in its challenges. From its humble beginnings as a small settlement on an isolated peninsula, greater Boston is now home to over 3 million.
A world class city
Always at the forefront of forging history and influencing the world, Boston maintains its reputation today as a world leader in the areas of higher education, medicine, life sciences, research, technology and financial services. Partnered with a strong cultural vitality and a thriving tourist industry, Boston is one of our country’s most magnetic and vibrant cities.
- 260,000 university students attend 74 colleges and universities in greater Boston, including some of the country’s top institutions: Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, Tufts and dozens of liberal arts colleges, and art and music schools.
- Three Boston institutions rank high in U.S. News and World Report’s list of top hospitals: Massachusetts General, Brigham and Women’s and Children’s Hospital Boston.
- Fidelity Investments, State Street Bank, Houghton Mifflin, Liberty Mutual, Gillette, and Bain Capital are all headquartered in Boston.
Urban diversity
A home to immigrants from its founding, today people from over 100 ethnicities reside in Boston, with over 140 languages spoken in its homes. Over 25% of Bostonians are foreign-born. Greater Boston boasts one of the largest Brazilian immigrant populations in the world, a large Asian population, rapidly growing Caribbean and Latino communities and a sizable population of Cape Verdeans.
- The population of Boston proper is about 600,000, and an additional 2.4 million people live in the surrounding 100 towns and cities considered within greater Boston.
- Greater Boston’s cities of Somerville, Chelsea and Cambridge are among the country’s most densely populated. Together, 214,000 people live in their combined area of less than 13 square miles. (That’s about the same population as Winston-Salem, NC squeezed into one-tenth of the land area.)
- 150,000 Brazilian emigrants were living in the Boston area in 2000.
Deep spiritual voids
Once a center of vibrant Christianity, many churches in Boston abandoned the gospel generations ago. Religious sects have swept through time and again, leading people astray and leaving many skeptical in their wake. And recent scandals within the church have caused many Bostonians to become disenchanted with religion altogether. With one of the highest proportions of residents claiming “none” on surveys of religious affiliation, Boston has deep spiritual voids.
- Those who regard themselves as evangelical Protestants represent only about 2.5% of Boston’s population—one of the lowest in the country.
- Massachusetts ranks among the highest in the country of those who claim no religious affiliation.
- A haven for Unitarianism and the birthplace of Transcendentalism, Massachusetts has more members of the Unitarian Universalist church than any other state.
