Barnstable County Towns, By Population

We rank the town's of Barnstable County by population. We'll list a few items of note about population growth.

The census numbers we're using are a decade old. They're doing a census this year, so we will update this when information becomes available.

With old stats, the populations listed may be a bit behind. We apologize in advance. The information we have should still be interesting.

Town populations change dramatically in the summer. We are using winter numbers.

Barnstable County, 213,413 (2018 est.)

Barnstable, 45,193

Falmouth, 31,532

Yarmouth, 23,793

Sandwich, 20,675

Bourne, 19,754

Dennis, 14,207

Mashpee, 14,006

Harwich, 12,243

Brewster, 9,820

Chatham, 6,169

Orleans, 5,890

Eastham, 4,956

Provincetown, 2,972

Wellfleet, 2,750

Truro, 2,003

NOTES

- Barnstable County had steady population growth from the Revolution through the Civil War, peaking at 35,990 in 1860. They then began decades of population loss,  dropping to 26,670 in 1920. It took them 150 years to reach 40,000 people, but they got a boost from highway construction and her population peaked at 222,230 at the turn of the century. It goes up over a half million in the summer. She is 92.7% white, and 27% Irish.

- Bourne had 196% populaction growth in the 1950s, going from 4,720 people to 14,011. Bourne doubles in population during the summer.

- Sandwich lost 48% of their population in 1884, when Bourne bailed. They did not meet their pre-Bournexit population of 3,500 until the 1960s, but have since surged up to 20k, 40k in the summer.

- Falmouth has a summer population of over 100,000. It took her 150 years to get 5,000 people, but it only took her 60 more years to get 30,000.

- Mashpee's population took 150+ years of US history to reach 500 people. Since then, they are up to 14,000 in 50 years. She gets up near 35k in the summer.

- Barnstable is 11 times more populous than they were in 1920. They went from just about 20k to just about 31k in their largest decade of growth, between 1970 and 1980. Their summer population of about 120,000 makes them- temporarily- the 4th largest city in Massachusetts and the 9th largest in New England.

- Dennis saw her population fall from 3,662 in 1860 to 1,536 in 1920. She did not regain her 1860s population level until the 1960s, and is around 14 to 15k now, 65k in the summer.

- Yarmouth lost population after 1850, and took until 1950 to get back to their 1850 population. Yarmouth went from 5,500 in 1960 to 12,000 in 1970. She's good for 50k in the summer.

- Brewster didn't get to 1,000 people until 1950, but got to 10k by 2000. Her summer population is 24k.

- Harwich couldn't get back up to their 3,400 1860s population until the 1960s. She jammed in almost 10k ever since. They get 37k in the summer.

- Chatham has about 4,000 more people now than they had when Andrew Jackson was the President. By contrast, Barnstable gained about 40,000 people between 1820 and now. Chatham's population quadruples in the summer.

- Orleans almost fell below 1000 people in 1920, and has only added about 5k since. They go up to 22k in the summer. Ironically, Orleans in France had about the same population in 1429 when Joan of Arc laid siege to it that Orleans in Massachusetts has today.

- Eastham didn't get above 1000 people until the 1950s. They get all swole in the summer, doing whatever word similar to quadruple but meaning six times as much.

- Wellfleet does OK with population, considering 70% of her land is protected.They have a tenfold increase in population during the summer.

- Truro had less people in 2010 than they had in 1850... in the winter. In the summer, they have 30,000 people.

- Provincetown's summer population estimates range from 27k to 60k.

- If you include Wareham on Cape Cod, pencil them in right above Sandwich.