Boston, MA
What a day in Boston actually feels like
Homicide and firearm deaths from CDC vital statistics, plus heat, cars and commute. These are metro-wide death rates, not a neighborhood safety score — the FBI warns against ranking cities by crime.
- Homicide deaths
- 2.1 per 100,000
- US average 6.5. CDC NVSS via County Health Rankings (CDC NVSS 2017–2023 (CHR 2025 release)).
- Firearm deaths
- 3.5 per 100,000
- US average 13.4. Includes homicide, suicide and accidents.
- July
- 82°F typical high
- Summer is not the story here.
- January nights
- 23°F typical low
- Mild by US standards.
- Sun
- 200 sunny days a year
- NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals.
- Getting around
- One car for the household is workable.
- Editorial car-dependence score, not a transit map.
- Average commute
- 31 minutes each way
- Mean one-way. Your job may be nothing like the mean.
- Size
- Boston metro
- 4,900k people in the CBSA.
- Poverty
- 8.9% of people
- ACS 2023 5-year. Not a crime rate.
- Without health insurance
- 2.8%
- ACS 2023. 97.2% have coverage.
Death rates are CDC National Vital Statistics, compiled by County Health Rankings, population-weighted across counties in this metro. They are not FBI Uniform Crime Reports and they are not a verdict on a particular block. Climate is NOAA. Commute and car-dependence are modelled metro traits.