Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox U.S. county

Suffolk County (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell) is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> making it the fourth-most populous county in Massachusetts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The county comprises the cities of Boston, Chelsea, and Revere, and the town of Winthrop.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The traditional county seat is Boston, the state capital and the largest city in Massachusetts.<ref name="GR6">Template:Cite web</ref> The county government was abolished in 1999, resulting in Suffolk County now functioning only as an administrative subdivision of state government and a set of communities grouped together for some statistical purposes. Suffolk County is located at the core of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the greater Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area.

History

File:Boston's Second City Hall 1841-1865.png

Old Suffolk County Courthouse 1810-1841

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". Suffolk initially contained Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham and Hull.<ref>Davis, William T. Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, p. 44. The Boston History Company, 1895.</ref> The county was named after Suffolk, England, which means "southern folk."<ref>Thomas Cox, Anthony Hall, Robert Morden, Magna Britannia Antiqua & Nova: Or, A New, Exact, and Comprehensive Survey of the Ancient and Present State of Great Britain, Volume 5, (Caesar Ward and Richard Chandler: London, 1738), pg. 171 (accessed on Google Book Search, June 22, 2008)</ref>

In 1731, the extreme western portions of Suffolk County, which included Mendon and Uxbridge, were split off to become part of Worcester County. In 1793, most of the original Suffolk County split off and became Norfolk County, leaving only Boston, Chelsea, Hingham, and Hull in Suffolk. Hingham and Hull would leave Suffolk County and join Plymouth County in 1803.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Revere was set off from Chelsea and incorporated in 1846 and Winthrop was set off from Revere and incorporated in 1852. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Boston annexed several adjacent cities and towns including Hyde Park, Roxbury, West Roxbury, and Dorchester from Norfolk County and Charlestown and Brighton from Middlesex County, resulting in an enlargement of Suffolk County.

During the early 20th century, County government functions were absorbed by the City of Boston, with Boston City Council becoming the de-facto County Commission, and the City Treasurer similarly becoming the County Treasurer, albeit said government was not formally abolished until 1999.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Government and politics

Like an increasing number of Massachusetts counties, Suffolk County exists today only as a historical geographic region, and has no county government.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> All former county functions were assumed by state agencies in 1999. The sheriff, district attorney, and some other regional officials with specific duties are still elected locally to perform duties within the county region, but there is no county council, executives or commissioners. Prior to the abolition of county government, the authority of the Suffolk County Commission had for many years been exercised by the Boston City Council, even though three communities in the county are not part of the city. However, communities are now granted the right to form their own regional compacts for sharing services.<ref>See also: League of Women Voters page on counties Template:Webarchive.</ref>

Politically speaking, Suffolk County supports the Democratic Party overwhelmingly. No Republican presidential candidate has won there since Calvin Coolidge in 1924. In 2012 Barack Obama received 77.4% of the vote, compared to 20.8% for former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney. In the 2014 gubernatorial election, Martha Coakley carried the county by a 32.4% margin, while losing the election statewide by 48.4 to 46.5%. In 2020, Joe Biden won the county by the largest margin of any presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and was the first candidate since then to win more than 80% of the vote in the county.

Voter registration and party enrollment as of October 17, 2018<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Party		Number of voters	Percentage
Template:Party color cell	Democratic	235,436	49.90%
Template:Party color cell	Republican	28,033	5.94%
Template:Party color cell	Unenrolled	202,510	42.92%
Template:Party color cell	Minor Parties	5,850	1.24%
Total		471,829	100%

Sheriff's department

The Suffolk County Sheriff's Department's primary responsibility is oversight of the Nashua Street Jail and the South Bay House of Correction. These were built in the 1990s to replace the historic Charles Street Jail and Deer Island Prison, respectively. The Suffolk County Sheriff's Department was among those named in a 2020 WBUR report about the neglect of inmates with medical conditions in Massachusetts prisons leading to their deaths.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Several notable figures in Massachusetts history were once the sheriff of Suffolk County:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Div col

Joseph Hall (1818–1825)
Charles Pinckney Sumner (1825–1839)
John M. Clark (1855–1883)
John A. Keliher (1917–1938)
John F. Dowd (1938–1939)
Frederick R. Sullivan (1939–1968)
John W. Sears (1968–1969)
Thomas S. Eisenstadt (1969–1977)
Dennis J. Kearney (1977–1987)
Robert Rufo (1987–1996)
Andrea Cabral (2002–2013)
Steven W. Tompkins (2013–present)

Template:Div col end

District Attorneys

District attorneys of Suffolk County
District attorney	Term
James T. Austin	1812–1832
Samuel D. Parker	1832–1852
John C. Park	1852–1853
George P. Sanger	1853–1854
George W. Cooley	1854–1861
George P. Sanger	1861–1869
John Wilder May	1869–1875
Oliver Stevens	1875–1905
Michael J. Sughrue	1905
John B. Moran	1905–1909
Arthur D. Hill	1909
Joseph C. Pelletier	1909–1922
Thomas C. O'Brien	1922–1927
William J. Foley	1927–1952
Garrett H. Byrne	1952–1979
Newman A. Flanagan	1979–1992
Ralph C. Martin II	1992–2002
Daniel F. Conley	2002–2018
John Pappas	2018–2019
Rachael Rollins	2019–2022
Kevin Hayden	2022–present

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of Template:Convert, of which Template:Convert is land and Template:Convert (52%) is water.<ref name="GR1">Template:Cite web</ref> It is the second-smallest county in Massachusetts by land area and smallest by total area.

Adjacent counties

Suffolk County has no land border with Plymouth County to its southeast, but the two counties share a water boundary in the middle of Massachusetts Bay.

National protected areas

Major highways

Demographics

Template:US Census population

Of the 292,767 households, 24.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.1% were married couples living together, 16.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 52.0% were non-families, and 36.3% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.11. The median age was 31.5 years.<ref name="census-dp1">Template:Cite web</ref>

The median income for a household in the county was $50,597 and the median income for a family was $58,127. Males had a median income of $48,887 versus $43,658 for females. The per capita income for the county was $30,720. About 15.7% of families and 20.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.1% of those under age 18 and 19.1% of those age 65 or over.<ref name="census-dp3">Template:Cite web</ref>

**Suffolk County Racial Breakdown of Population (2017)**<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Race	Percentage of Suffolk County population	Percentage of Massachusetts population	Percentage of United States population	County-to-State Difference	County-to-USA Difference
White	61.7%	81.3%	76.6%	–19.6%	–14.9%
White (Non-Hispanic)	45.4%	72.1%	60.7%	–26.7%	–15.3%
Black	24.9%	8.8%	13.4%	+16.1%	+11.5%
Hispanic	22.9%	11.9%	18.1%	+11.0%	+4.8%
Asian	9.1%	6.9%	5.8%	+2.2%	+3.3%
Native Americans/Hawaiians	0.9%	0.6%	1.5%	+0.3%	–0.6%
Two or more races	3.4%	2.4%	2.7%	+1.0%	+0.7%

Ancestry

According to the 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the largest ancestry groups in Suffolk County, Massachusetts are:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ancestry	Percentage of Suffolk County population	Percentage of Massachusetts population	Percentage of United States population	County-to-State Difference	County-to-USA Difference
Irish	13.73%	21.16%	10.39%	–7.42%	+3.35%
Italian	9.50%	13.19%	5.39%	–3.69%	+7.80%
West Indian	6.05%	1.96%	0.90%	+4.09%	+1.05%
Puerto Rican	5.32%	4.52%	1.66%	+0.80%	+3.66%
English	4.32%	9.77%	7.67%	–5.45%	–3.35%
German	4.21%	6.00%	14.40%	–1.79%	–10.19%
Chinese	4.02%	2.28%	1.24%	+1.74%	+2.78%
American	3.96%	4.26%	6.89%	–0.30%	–2.93%
Sub-Saharan African	3.78%	2.00%	1.01%	+1.78%	+2.76%
Haitian	3.13%	1.15%	0.31%	+1.98%	+2.82%
Polish	2.41%	4.67%	2.93%	–2.26%	–0.53%
French	2.01%	6.82%	2.56%	–4.81%	–0.55%
Cape Verdean	1.99%	0.97%	0.03%	+1.02%	+1.96%
Vietnamese	1.61%	0.69%	0.54%	+0.92%	+1.07%
Russian	1.56%	1.65%	0.88%	–0.08%	+0.69%
Arab	1.54%	1.10%	0.59%	+0.44%	+0.95%
Jamaican	1.47%	0.44%	0.34%	+1.03%	+1.12%
Scottish	1.27%	2.28%	1.71%	–1.02%	–0.45%
Asian Indian	1.22%	1.39%	1.09%	–0.17%	+0.13%
Mexican	1.18%	0.67%	11.96%	+0.51%	–10.78%
French Canadian	1.19%	3.91%	0.65%	–2.72%	+0.53%

Demographic breakdown by town

Income

Template:See also Data is from the 2007-2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rank	Town		Area (land)	Per capita income	Median household income	Median family income	Population	Number of households
1	Winthrop	City	Template:Convert	$36,624	$61,744	$81,647	17,430	7,356
	Massachusetts	State		$35,051	$65,981	$83,371	6,512,227	2,522,409
2	Boston	City	Template:Convert	$33,158	$51,739	$61,035	609,942	247,621
	Suffolk County	County		$32,034	$51,638	$60,342	713,089	286,437
	United States	Country		$27,915	$52,762	$64,293	306,603,772	114,761,359
3	Revere	City	Template:Convert	$25,085	$50,592	$58,345	50,845	19,425
4	Chelsea	City	Template:Convert	$20,214	$43,155	$46,967	34,872	12,035