Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Middlesex County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, one of fourteen in the state. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,632,002, making it the most populous county in both Massachusetts and New England and the 20th most populous county in the United States. This makes the county the most populous county on the East Coast outside of New York or Florida. Middlesex County is one of two U.S. counties to be amongst the top 25 counties with the highest household income and the 25 most populated counties. It is included in the Census Bureau's Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area. As part of the 2020 United States census, the Commonwealth's mean center of population for that year was geo-centered in Middlesex County, in the town of Natick.
On July 11, 1997, Massachusetts abolished the executive government of Middlesex County primarily due to the county's insolvency. Middlesex County continues to exist as a geographic boundary and is used primarily as district jurisdictions within the court system and for other administrative purposes; for example, as an election district. The National Weather Service weather alerts continue to localize based on Massachusetts's counties.
History
The county was created by the Massachusetts General Court on May 10, 1643, when it was ordered that "the whole plantation within this jurisdiction be divided into four shires." Middlesex initially contained Charlestown, Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, Concord, Woburn, Medford, and Reading. In 1649 the first Middlesex County Registry of Deeds was created in Cambridge.On April 19, 1775, Middlesex was the site of the first armed conflict of the American Revolutionary War.
In 1855, the Massachusetts State Legislature created a minor Registry of Deeds for the Northern District of Middlesex County in Lowell.
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Boston annexed several of its adjacent cities and towns including Charlestown and Brighton from Middlesex County, resulting in an enlargement and accretion toward Suffolk County.
Beginning prior to the dissolution of the executive county government, the county comprised two regions with separate county seats for administrative purposes:
- The Middlesex-North District with its county seat in Lowell under the Registry of Deeds consisted of the city of Lowell, and its adjacent towns of Billerica, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Dracut, Dunstable, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford and Wilmington.
- The Middlesex-South District with the county seat in Cambridge consisted of the remaining 44 cities and towns of Middlesex County.
Government and politics
Of the fourteen counties of Massachusetts, Middlesex is one of eight which have had no county government or county commissioners since July 1, 1998, when county functions were assumed by state agencies at local option following a change in state law. Immediately prior to its dissolution, the executive branch consisted of three County Commissioners elected at-large to staggered four-year terms. There was a County Treasurer elected to a six-year term. The county derived its revenue primarily from document filing fees at the Registries of Deeds and from a Deeds Excise Tax; also a transfer tax was assessed on the sale price of real estate and collected by the Registries of Deeds.Budgets as proposed by the County Commissioners were approved by a County Advisory Board that consisted of a single representative of each of the 54 cities and towns in Middlesex County. The votes of the individual members of the advisory board were weighted based on the overall valuation of property in their respective communities.
The County Sheriff and two Registers of Deeds are each elected to serve six-year terms. Besides the employees of the Sheriff's Office and the two Registries of Deeds, the county had a Maintenance Department, a Security Department, some administrative staff in the Treasurer's and Commissioners' Offices, and the employees of the hospital.
The county government also owned and operated the Superior Courthouse, one of which was formerly in Cambridge and one in Lowell; and the defunct Middlesex County Hospital in the city of Waltham.
The legislation abolishing the Middlesex County executive retained the Sheriff and Registers of Deeds as independently elected officials, and transferred the Sheriff's Office under the state Department of Public Safety and the two Registry of Deeds offices to the Massachusetts Secretary of State's Office. Additionally, all county maintenance and security employees were absorbed into the corresponding staffs of the Massachusetts Trial Court. The legislation also transferred ownership of the two Superior Courthouses to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The hospital was closed. Finally, the office of County Commissioner was immediately abolished and the office of County Treasurer was abolished as of December 31, 2002. Any county roads transferred to the Commonwealth as part of the dissolution. The other administrative duties and all supporting staff were transferred under the Commonwealth as well.
Administrative structure today
Records of land ownership in Middlesex County continue to be maintained at the two Registries of Deeds. Besides the Sheriff and the two Registers of Deeds, the Middlesex District Attorney, the Middlesex Register of Probate and the Middlesex Clerk of Courts are all elected countywide to six-year terms.In Middlesex County, the governmental functions such as property tax assessment and collection, public education, road repair and maintenance, and elections were all conducted at the municipal city and town level and not by the county government.
In 2012 the 22-story Superior Court Building in Cambridge which was transferred from the abolished Executive County government was sold by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Due to its transfer from state control, many local residents had tried to force the private developers to reduce the overall height of the structure.
Even following the abolition of the executive branch for county government in Middlesex, communities are still granted a right by the Massachusetts state legislature to form their own regional compacts for sharing of services and costs thereof.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and is water. It is the third-largest county in Massachusetts by land area.It is bounded southeast by the Charles River and drained by the Merrimack, Nashua, and Concord rivers, and other streams.
The MetroWest region comprises much of the southern portion of the county.
Adjacent counties
- Hillsborough County, New Hampshire
- Essex County
- Suffolk County
- Norfolk County
- Worcester County
Transportation
- , From Hopkinton to Newton
- , From Somerville to Tewksbury
- , From Newton to Wakefield
- , In Marlboro
- , From Hopkinton to Tewksbury
- , From Cambridge to Malden
- /Route 3, From Cambridge to Tyngsborough
- , From Marlborough to Watertown
- , From Littleton to Cambridge
- , From Shirley to Cambridge
- , From Burlington to Tyngsborough
- , From Lexington-Arlington line to Chelmsford
- , From Framingham to Newton
- , In Townsend
- , From Holliston to Everett
- , From Sherborn to Chelmsford
- , From Cambridge to North Reading
- , From Framingham to Newton
- , In Ashby
- , From Somerville to Dracut
- , From Groton to Chelmsford
- , From Waltham to Malden
- , From Hudson to North Reading
- , From Hopkinton to Hudson
- , From Everett to Melrose
- , From Ayer to Dracut
- , From Concord to Pepperell
- , From Pepperell to Dracut
- , In Sherborn
- , From Stow to Waltham
- , From Concord to Ashby
- , From Wilmington to North Reading
- , From Holliston to Concord
- , From Newton to Wakefield
- , From Chelmsford to Wakefield
- , From Lowell to Tewksbury
- , From Hopkinton to Natick
- , From Shirley to Lexington
National protected areas
- Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge
- Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
- Longfellow House–Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site
- Lowell National Historical Park
- Minute Man National Historical Park
- Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 1,632,002. Of the residents, 19.5% were under the age of 18 and 16.1% were 65 years of age or older; the median age was 38.6 years.For every 100 females there were 95.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 93.5 males. 96.5% of residents lived in urban areas and 3.5% lived in rural areas.
The racial makeup of the county was 68.2% White, 5.2% Black or African American, 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 12.9% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 5.2% from some other race, and 8.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 8.8% of the population.
There were 625,916 households in the county, of which 29.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 26.8% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 26.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 658,283 housing units, of which 4.9% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 59.6% were owner-occupied and 40.4% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.7% and the rental vacancy rate was 4.9%.
In 2006, Middlesex County contained the tenth most millionaires of any county in the United States.
| Race / Ethnicity | Pop 2000 | Pop 2010 | % 2000 | % 2010 | ||
| White alone | 1,224,771 | 1,150,251 | 1,085,919 | 83.57% | 76.52% | 66.53% |
| Black or African American alone | 46,598 | 65,733 | 80,996 | 3.17% | 4.37% | 4.96% |
| Native American or Alaska Native alone | 1,692 | 1,578 | 1,414 | 0.11% | 0.10% | 0.08% |
| Asian alone | 91,368 | 139,325 | 209,632 | 6.23% | 9.26% | 12.84% |
| Pacific Islander alone | 389 | 331 | 353 | 0.02% | 0.02% | 0.02% |
| Other race alone | 6,821 | 16,762 | 28,194 | 0.46% | 1.11% | 1.72% |
| Mixed race or Multiracial | 27,050 | 30,755 | 82,249 | 1.84% | 2.04% | 5.03% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 66,707 | 98,350 | 143,245 | 4.55% | 6.54% | 8.77% |
| Total | 1,465,396 | 1,503,085 | 1,632,002 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% |