We rank Plymouth County towns by population, and throw in some things to note at the end. Census dates vary by town.
Our numbers regarding race are a bit fuzzy, as our census numbers for Brockton and Plymouth County regarding black residents are impossible. 31% of Brockton is greater than 4.5% of Plymouth County. Another source says 9.7% black residence in Plymouth County, and that may be closer to the truth.
Racial numbers were dodgy enough that we didn't even try them in our Bristol County article.
Plymouth County, 518,132 (2018)
Brockton, 95,777 (2019)
Plymouth, 58,271 (2010)
Bridgewater, 26,553 (2010)
Marshfield, 25,132 (2010)
Middleboro, 23,116 (2010)
Hingham, 22,157 (2010)
Wareham, 21,822 (2010)
Scituate, 18,133 (2010)
Pembroke, 17,837 (2010)
Rockland, 17,489 (2010)
Abington, 15,985 (2010)
Duxbury, 15,059 (2010)
Whitman, 14,489 (2010)
Hanover, 13,879 (2010)
East Bridgewater, 13,794 (2010)
Kingston 12,629 (2010)
Carver, 11,509 (2010)
Lakeville, 10,602 (2010)
Norwell, 10,506 (2010)
Hull, 10,293 (2010)
Hanson, 10,209 (2010)
Halifax, 7,518 (2010)
West Bridgewater, 6,916 (2010)
Mattapoisett 6,045 (2010)
Rochester, 5,232 (2010)
Marion, 4,907 (2010)
Plympton, 2,820 (2010)
NOTES
- Plymouth County has never had a decade with negative population growth, dating back to 1790. The pre-Pilgrim plague that hit the Wampanoag tribe lowered populations in some villages by 90%, and King Phillip's War may also have produced negative population growth, depending on if you count natives. She is presently 31% Irish.
- Brockton holds almost 20% of Plymouth County's population. They do so with 2% of Plymouth County's land. Brockton has about 80% of Plymouth County's black population. Her black population alone is larger than any other Plymouth County town's entire population, except Plymouth.
- Plymouth has 12% of the county's population on 13% of the county's land. She is the largest town in Massachusetts by land area. She had the same population in 1790 that Plympton does today.
- Bridgewater's population does not reflect kids living in college dorms. If all the Bridgewaters teamed up, they would not be able to pass Plymouth in the population rankings, even if we threw in the U and the nuthouse. To be fair to the hospital, I have seen more than one Bridgewater resident point at BSU and say something along the lines of "We have a nuthouse in town, as well as a mental hospital."
- Abington didn't get the giant population growth in the 1970s that other Plymouth County towns saw. They gained less than 800 people between 1970 and 1980. Duxbury, by contrast, gained 4000 people in the same span.
- Carver almost tripled in size between 1970 and 1980. Some of that total was highway development, some was busing related and some was a downturn in cranberry prices turning former farms into current neighborhoods.
- Duxbury lost 18% of her population in the decade when people began to favor metal ships over wooden ones. She only saw double digit population growth during the Baby Boom, busing and the development of Route 3.
- East Bridgewater saw her largest growth after Route 24 and 495 went in.
- Halifax is 8 times larger than it was before highways started getting built. They have the second lowest % of blacks in the county. Come to think of it, I lived there for 5 years, and the only blacks I saw were when I would take my urban students there to ice-fish. (Editor's note: There is/was a black family that fishes a lot off Route 58 into West Monponsett Lake, they might be the town's entire allotment.)
- Hanover took 60 years to grow from 2000 people to 3000. In the 60 years since, they grew to 13000+.
- Hanson was under 3000 people until the 1940s. Since then, they have surged over 10000.
- Hingham doubled in population between 1950 and 1980. They had a net loss in the 80s, slight growth in the 90s and a solid 3k boom since the century turned.
- Hull had 108% population growth in the 10 years after Route 3 went in... then growth pretty much stopped. Hull may be full.
- Kingston has had steady population growth (22-39%) since 1940, with a healthy jump for the Baby Boom, Route 3, busing, the construction of the mall and whatever else gets a Kingston girl into bed. They fell off to 7% growth once the century turned... may be mall malaise related. Also, at a milky white .1%, Kingston has the lowest % of black residents in Plymouth County. I think the Klan may have a greater % of black members (I'm sure that at least some black people try to join the KKK, just for laughs) than .1%, I wonder if that number can be found?
- Lakeville has an impressive 10k population, impressive in that 20% of the town is water and X% is forest.
- Marion is one of the three bites that Plymouth County takes out of the South Coast. She has grown from 918 people to 4900+ people in 150 years. By contrast, Marshfield- 5 square miles bigger than Marion- has added 24,000 people in that same period.
- Marshfield went from 3000 people in 1950 to 6000 people by 1960 to 15,000 people in 1970 to 20,000 people by 1980. They should have villages named Baby Boom, Route 3 and Busing.
- Mattapoisett lost some people after 1860 (perhaps a really unfortunate Civil War regiment?), and it took them 70 years to pass their 1860 population of 1483. She is also our second bite out of the South Coast.
- Other than the time during the Civil War, Middleboro has never had a decade with negative population growth. They have the second largest land area of any town in Massachusetts, trailing only Plymouth.
- Norwell doubled in population (2515 to 5207) the decade after Route 3 was built, and were close to 7500 after the mall was built.
- Pembroke took 100 years to go from 1388 people to over 2000. In the 60 years since, they have added 15,000 people. Duxbury was twice Pembroke's population in 1860, they were the same size in 1970 and Pembroke was more populous by 1980.
- Plympton is the smallest town in SE Massachusetts and quite possibly all of Eastern Massachusetts... sometimes. It is more populous than Truro and Wellfleet in the winter, smaller than them in the summer. If attendance on a particular day is high, more people go to Taunton High School than live in Plympton. It would take 28.3 Plymptons to fill Gillette Stadium.
- Again, I do wonder if Mattapoisett and Rochester men made up a very unfortunate Civil War regiment. Rochester had 3800 people in 1850, and did not move past that total until 1990.
- Rockland is one of the few towns in the County to almost lose population over the decade busing was going on. To be fair, Rockland sort of lost out when they were carving out highways. They're 20 minutes away from being 20 minutes to somewhere.
- Scituate doubled in size after Route 3 was built and white flight began in earnest. Much like Rockland, it isn't near a 55 mph highway, and- beating this local phrase into the ground- is thus 20 minutes away from being 20 minutes away from somewhere. Much unlike Rockland, Scituate has miles of gorgeous coastline, and has higher population growth. Rockland was twice as populous as Scituate in 1940. Scituate is larger now.
- Wareham has the highest % of black people in any Plymouth County town, edging out Brockton 32% to 31%. Brockton, almost 5 times more populous, beats them if you start counting heads. For every black person in Kingston, there are 583 in Wareham and 2500 in Brockton.
- West Bridgewater had 6000 people in the 1960s and has not yet reached 7000 people in 2020.
- Whitman saw her greatest % of growth back when they were a shoe town. Growth is weak here. They had 13,500 people in 1969, and they are below 14,500 in 2020.
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