Massachusetts
The title of this article is ambiguous. For other meanings, see Massachusetts (disambiguation).
Bay State is a redirect to this article. For the former U.S. automobile brands and automobile manufacturers of the same name, see: Bay State Automobile Company (1906-1908), R. H. Long Company (1922-1926), and Bay State Motive Power Company (1896).
Massachusetts 
(officially Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state of the United States of America and part of New England.
The name Massachusetts is derived from the Massachusett language word [mass-adschu-s-et] meaning "by the big little hill" or "by the little big hill", mutatis mutandis roughly "by the big hills". It most likely refers to Great Blue Hill, a hill in the Blue Hills Reservation state park, about 10 miles southwest of Boston. The name first appears in Captain John Smith's book A Description of New England (1616). The nickname of Massachusetts is Bay State.
Geography
Massachusetts is located in Massachusetts Bay, bordered by New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, New York to the west, Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean. The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket lie on the southeastern coast. The largest city is Boston. Other major cities include Cambridge, New Bedford, Worcester, Lowell, Springfield, and Pittsfield. The highest point in Massachusetts is Mount Greylock in Berkshire County (1,063 m). The peninsula in southeastern Massachusetts is called Cape Cod and is a popular summer vacation spot. The Cape Cod National Seashore is located there.
The state has a total area of 27,336 km², water bodies occupy 7,031 km² of it.
Structure
- List of counties in Massachusetts
Valley of the Pioneers south of Mount Sugarloaf near South Deerfield with the Connecticut River.
Population
The population in 2010 was 6,547,629, of which 80.4% were white, 6.6% African American, 5.3% Asian, 0.3% Native American, and 9.6% Hispanic or Latino, which can be counted as any ethnicity.
Religions
The religious communities with the largest number of members in 2000 were the Catholic Church with 3,092,296, the United Church of Christ with 121,826 and the Anglican Episcopal Church with 98,963 adherents. The Jewish communities counted about 275,000 members.
Largest cities
- List of cities in Massachusetts
- List of cities in Massachusetts by population
Population density
