Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region within the Northeastern United States. It has an area of 48.4 sq mi and a population of 675,647 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Northeastern United States after New York City and Philadelphia. The larger Greater Boston metropolitan statistical area has a population of 4.9 million as of 2023, making it the largest in the New England division and the eleventh-largest in the country.