Boston has been a war horse.
Boston . The city proper covers 48 mi2 with an estimated population of 667,137 in 2015 , making it the largest city in New England and the 23rd most populous city in the United States . The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston , a Metropolitan Statistical Area ( MSA ) home to a census-estimated 4.7 million people in 2014 and ranking as the tenth-largest such area in the country . One of the oldest cities in the United States , Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from England . Households in the city claim the highest average rate of philanthropy in the United States ; businesses and institutions rank among the top in the country for environmental sustainability and investment .