The One Minute Geographer: Massachusetts (10): Worcester and Springfield
Continuing our posts on Massachusetts, there’s more to Massachusetts than Boston! We’ll look at Worcester and Springfield, the second and third largest cities of the state. These two cities due west of Boston are at the center of large metropolitan areas in their own right. Worcester is about 1:15 west of Boston on Interstate 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike, a toll road) and Springfield is an hour west of Worcester. Worcester, but not Springfield, is considered part of the Boston Combined Metropolitan Area. The Worcester metro is larger than Springfield — 945,000 compared to 695,000, and it core legal city is larger too — 185,000 compared to 155,000 in Springfield.
By all the usual measures, both Worcester’s metro area and the core city is “better off” than Springfield — higher income, less poverty and higher housing values. Worcester has the usual mix of foreign-born population while the Springfield area has a lower percentage of foreign-born but a higher percentage of non-English speakers at home. This is because of Springfield’s large Puerto Rican population, about 88,000, or 13% of all residents. Puerto Ricans are not foreign born because they are American citizens.
Springfield is among the top ten of US metro areas in both numbers and percentage of Puerto Ricans. Holyoke, an old industrial…
