Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the north-eastern United States. Most of its population of 6.4 million lives in the Boston metropolitan area. There are 50 cities and 301 towns in Massachusetts, grouped into 14 counties.
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Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the north-eastern United States. Most of its population of 6.4 million lives in the Boston metropolitan area. There are 50 cities and 301 towns in Massachusetts, grouped into 14 counties.
Eleven communities which call themselves "towns" are, by law, cities since they have traded the town meeting form of government for a mayor-council or manager-council form. Boston is the state capital and largest city. It is the nation's 11th largest metropolitan area. Cities over 100,000 in population (2004 estimates) include Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, and Cambridge. Massachusetts shares the governmental structure known as the New England town with the five other New England states, as well as New York and New Jersey.
Massachusetts has a humid continental climate, with warm summers and cold, snowy winters. With its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, Massachusetts receives a generous amount of precipitation throughout the year, but is slightly wetter during the winter. Summers are warm with average high temperatures in July above 80 °F and overnight lows above 60 ° common throughout the state. Winters are cold, but generally less extreme on the coast with high temperatures in the winter averaging above freezing even in January, although areas further inland are much colder. The state does have extreme temperatures from time to time with 90°F in the summer and below 0°F temperatures in the winter not being unusual.
The economy of Massachusetts today is based largely on technological research and development, service industries, and tourism. This represents a major shift from the state's pre-industrial agricultural basis in the 17th and 18th centuries and the heavy manufacturing that characterized the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries.
Massachusetts has historically had a strong commitment to education. It is home to many well-known preparatory schools, colleges, and universities. There are more than 40 colleges located in the greater Boston area alone. The University of Massachusetts (nicknamed U-Mass) is the five-campus public university system of the Commonwealth. The population of metropolitan Boston and of the Five Colleges area in Western Massachusetts, in particular, surges during the school year.
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