Middlesex County Massachusetts

Arlington | Bedford | Concord | Lexington

Middlesex County is a large geographical area (2,195 square kilometers, 848 square miles) covering the route 128 belt up to the city limits of Boston (Suffolk County) to the East. It includes the cities and towns of Cambridge, Everett, Newton, Somerville, Lexington, Arlington, Bedford, Concord, Carlisle, Woburn, Burlington, Waltham, and many of the Northwest suburbs up to the New Hampshire border.

In the early days of the 13 colonies, before the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts was organized into 14 counties, governed regionally. Today, many of the governments of these counties, including that of Middlesex, have been abolished, and their affairs are managed instead by the state. However, the counties persist as legal, historical, geographical and political entities, while their government is administered by the state of Massachusetts. The Middlesex county seats are the cities of Cambridge and Lowell.

Middlesex County was ranked the largest in the state by population, with the highest population growth in the 1990s. The population of Middlesex County as of the 2000 census was 1, 465, 396, and population density was 1,780 residents per square mile. The median income for a household in the county was approximately $60,000, and of the 561,220 households, approximately 30% have school-age children living with them. The bulk of the Middlesex County population is clustered under 18 years old, or between the ages of 25 to 64. The county includes 54 school districts, 21 colleges and universities, 21 museums, and 79 libraries. The county contains the following rivers: Merrimack, Charles, Mystic, Concord, Sudbury and Nashua. The median commute time to work for Middlesex residents is 27 minutes.