Welcome to DataTown, Massachusetts

A place to explore and learn about your community

There is a lot of great information out there, but have you ever tried to collect data about your city or town, only to find that you need to go to multiple sites and navigate a multitude of data types that don't quite make sense for Massachusetts? Even if you can find the data you need, do you find yourself spending too much time organizing and visualizing that data?

Us too.

That's why we created DataTown. We wanted a site that not only compiles community-level information from the various available data sources, but also visualizes that data so it's easy to digest. Hopefully this helps you spend less time collecting data so you can spend more time addressing the housing needs of your community.

Great conversations about housing and community needs begin with a baseline understanding of facts. We want you to use this site to gather information about your community, and leverage that knowledge to talk about changing housing needs.

Who lives in your community? Who doesn't? What is the composition of your housing stock? How does your community compare to the rest of the state? How has your community changed over time? We created graphics to help you answer these and other questions. So go on, jump in. Use the menu on the left to select your community, and explore the various topics listed. We think you'll start to see your community in a new light.

DataTown is always free to use, and it is always changing, just like your community. We'd love to hear from you about how you use data, what you're struggling to understand, and what you'd like to see from us as the site grows. We're here to help. Thank you for visiting DataTown!