Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire "New England" region. The city proper had a 2009 estimated population of 645,169, making it the twentieth largest in the country. It is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called "Greater Boston", home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region includes six Massachusetts counties: "Essex", "Middlesex","Norfolk", "Suffolk", "Plymouth", "Worcester", northern "Bristol" County, all of "Rhode Island" and parts of "New Hampshire"; it is home to 7.6 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.
