Boston’s Income Breakdown: Findings from the 2020 ACS 5-Year Estimates

The chart visualizes median household income by census tract within Boston, Massachusetts, using data from the 2020 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates. Conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACS surveys approximately 3.5 million households, around 3 percent of the U.S. population, and provides rolling estimates of demographic and economic characteristics. The 5-year estimates aggregate data collected over a five-year period, offering statistically reliable figures for small geographic units such as census tracts.

Income data for Suffolk County were retrieved using the tidycensus package and spatially filtered to include only those tracts that fall within Boston’s municipal boundaries. The resulting map uses a continuous color scale: lighter shades denote higher median household incomes, while darker hues reflect lower-income areas. Several tracts appear in gray, indicating that income data for those areas were unavailable.

Because the ACS is based on a sample rather than a full count, all income estimates are subject to sampling variability and associated margins of error. Despite these limitations, the chart offers valuable insights into spatial patterns of economic inequality across Boston, revealing clear geographic divides in household income that have important implications for housing, education, and public investment.

Understanding Boston’s Racial Landscape: 2020 Census Findings

The bar chart illustrates Boston’s racial composition using data from the 2020 Decennial Census. White residents form the largest group, numbering just over 318,000 and accounting for 47.1 % of the city’s population. They are followed by nearly 139,000 Black residents (20.6%). Asian residents (11.3%), individuals identifying as Two or More Races (10.5%), and those classified as “Other” (10.1%) each contribute between 68,000 to 76,000 people. In contrast, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) residents total fewer than 3,000 (0.4%), while Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) residents number under 400 (0.1 %).

These figures highlight Boston’s racial diversity, with significant populations across multiple racial groups and no group comprising an absolute majority. While White residents remain the largest racial group at 47.1%, more than half of the city’s population identifies as Black, Asian, multiracial, or another race. This diversity has important implications for public policy, resource allocation, electoral representation, and the provision of culturally responsive services, reinforcing the need for inclusive planning that reflects the city’s complex and evolving demographic makeup.

Where Bostonians Reported Most: Top 5 Neighborhoods for 311 Calls in 2020

This chart presents an analysis of 311 service requests in Boston’s top five reporting neighborhoods during the 2020 calendar year. The dataset comes from the City of Boston’s open data portal (Analyze Boston) and includes all service requests initiated through the city’s 311 system. Prior to analysis, the neighborhood field was standardized by extracting only the primary neighborhood name from entries that contained multiple areas (e.g., retaining “Fenway” from “Fenway / Kenmore”). The five neighborhoods with the highest total request volumes were identified, and daily counts of requests were computed for each. To emphasize broader trends and mitigate daily variability, a LOESS smoothing function with a span of 0.2 was applied to each time series. This approach preserves the underlying shape of the data while reducing the visual noise associated with fluctuations in individual daily counts.

The resulting visualization reveals distinct temporal trends in 311 service request activity across Boston’s top five neighborhoods in 2020. Dorchester consistently recorded the highest volume of requests, with its smoothed line peaking around 125 daily requests in late summer and early fall. South Boston and East Boston followed closely, both showing clear seasonal increases during the summer months. Allston exhibited a pronounced late summer spike likely corresponding to the annual student move-in period. Roxbury displayed a more modest and steady trajectory throughout the year. All neighborhoods experienced a significant dip in activity during April, coinciding with the onset of COVID-19 lockdown measures, followed by a steady increase through the summer. Request volumes declined again beginning in October, suggesting seasonal variation and the impact of renewed pandemic-related restrictions. Overall, the smoothed curves help reveal both neighborhood-specific dynamics and broader citywide trends in service request behavior over the course of the year.

Most Common Reporting Channels for 311 Requests in Boston, 2020

This table presents a summary of 311 service requests submitted in Boston during 2020, categorized by the source through which each request was reported by a resident. The data was accessed from the City of Boston’s Open Data Portal and reflects service tickets logged via the city’s official 311 system. Each row represents a different submission source—ranging from mobile apps and phone calls to employee-generated entries—and displays the number of requests marked as “Closed,” “Open,” and the total volume for that channel.

The analysis reveals that the Citizens Connect App was the most commonly used method for submitting 311 requests, with over 110,000 total tickets logged—more than any other source by a significant margin. Constituent calls were the second most prevalent, accounting for approximately 95,000 requests. Other digital sources like the City Worker App and Self Service portals contributed smaller volumes, while Twitter and Maximo Integration were rarely used. These figures highlight the importance of mobile platforms and direct phone contact in facilitating civic engagement and underscore the city’s reliance on multiple input channels for fielding resident concerns.