The Sizes of Massachusetts’ Tiniest Town and City Are Ridiculously Super Small

If you're familiar with Massachusetts whatsoever, you know it's not exactly the biggest state in terms of land size. In fact, when compared to the rest of the states in the U.S., it is the 7th smallest state in the country. The state covers only 10,554.39 square miles. And with that being the case, approximately just 7,800 square miles of that is actual land (thanks, Atlantic Ocean). Despite that strange fact, we have some relatively decent sized towns and cities, land-wise. But there is a town and a city that have to take their respective titles of the smallest in the state to no fault of their own.

Perhaps you won't ever impress someone at your next social event with this piece of knowledge (or maybe you will), but you never know when it might come in handy that one time at Trivia Night. First, let's take a look at what the smallest town in land size is in Massachusetts.

The smallest town by land size in Massachusetts, despite its geographical size, has a population of 3,334, according to the 2020 census. Comedian and actor Jason Mantzoukas is from this town and Martin Scorsese filmed scenes from his 2008 film 'Shutter Island' there. In Essex County, at the southern tip, you will find the small town of just 1.24 square miles in Nahant, MA.

• Nahant

Of course, the people of Nahant probably don't think about their land size all that much since they are right on the water.

As for the smallest city in Massachusetts, there is a city that is a northern suburb of Boston with a population of 40,787 and has had several movie filmed there, such as 'The Equalizer', 'Ted', 'Ted 2', 'Mystic River', Gone Baby Gone', and more. In Suffolk County, at just 2.467 square miles, the smallest city in Massachusetts is Chelsea.

• Chelsea

There they are. The smallest city and town in Massachusetts, respectively. Now, when you think about where you live and how small it might be, just know that you're in a spot that is bigger than both of those. Unless, of course, you happen to reside in either Nahant or Chelsea. Neither would be bad either, based on what you have around you.