Key Facts
- Per Capita Real GDP
- $47,351 Rank: 5/50 (2007)
- Population
- 6,497,970 Rank: 15/50 (2008)
- Per Capita Personal Income
- $45,877 Rank: 3/50 (2006)
- Unemployment Rate
- 4.50% Rank: 24/50 (2008)
- Business Tax Climate Index
- Rank: 34/50 (2008)
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Massachusetts: Introduction
Massachusetts is located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is one of the original thirteen colonies and is home to Plymouth, the second permanent English settlement in North America. Many also consider Massachusetts to be the heart of the American independence movement from Great Britain, which earned it the nickname, the “Cradle of Liberty.” The capital city of Boston was at the forefront of the fight for independence as the sit of the Boston Tea Party and the Boston Massacre. In 1780 the state legislature ratified the Massachusetts Constitution, the world’s oldest written Constitution still in use.
As with many states early on in their history, agriculture was the prominent industry in the state economy. The focus on agriculture quickly shifted to manufacturing however, as Massachusetts became a national and world leader producing textiles and machine tools during the Industrial Revolution. The last few decades have seen a shift in workers from manufacturing jobs to service jobs. One major reason for this growth in service jobs has been the increased importance of tourism.
Today services produce four-fifths of the gross state product, while manufacturing only provides one-sixth of the total. Prominent present day industries include higher education, health care, and high technology. These industries are bolstered by a particularly high proportion of professionally trained workers, which includes engineers, scientists, doctors, educators, and technicians.
