Boston, MA Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Boston, Massachusetts, shaded from sea level level on Boston Harbor to 330 ft on Bellevue Hill
Elevation
330 ft 100 m250 ft 75 m210 ft 65 m120 ft 40 m41 ft 13 m0 ft 0 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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How to use this mapviews, tools and data
Elevation
Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
Satellite
A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
3D
Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
Click or tap anywhere
The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
Measure
Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
City area
Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Boston sits at about 43 ft (13 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
43 ft 13 m
most residents: 9–130 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on Boston Harbor
Highest
330 ft 100 m
on Bellevue Hill
Average
64 ft 20 m
all land inside city limits

Boston spans about 330 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
43 ft13 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on Bellevue Hill
330 ft100 m
Lowest point
Where the land meets Boston Harbor
0 ft0 m
Town center
USGS map point for Boston
43 ft13 m
Airport (BOS)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways
19 ft6 m
Average of all land64 ft20 m

Elevation profile, south to north

8.2 mi south to north through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Boston, Massachusetts, shaded from sea level level on Boston Harbor to 330 ft on Bellevue Hill
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 40 ft (12 m).
Location
City in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States
Population
673,458 2024 est.
Land area
48.3 sq mi + 41.3 sq mi water
Density
13,931 per sq mi
Coordinates
42.3584° N, 71.0598° W
Time zone
Eastern UTC−5 / −4
Landform region
New England
Drains to
Atlantic Ocean
Airport
General Edward Lawrence Logan International (BOS) 19 ft
ZIP codes 33
33 ZIP codes02108 02109 02110 02111 02113 02114 02115 02116 02118 02119 02120 02121 02122 02124 02125 02126 02127 02128 02129 02130 02131 02132 02133 02134 02135 02136 02163 02199 02203 02205 02210 02215 02467
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

  1. Arlington100 ft
  2. Brookline57 ft
  3. Everett53 ft
  4. Boston43 ft
  5. Malden39 ft
  6. Somerville38 ft
  7. Chelsea28 ft
  8. Revere25 ft
  9. Medford22 ft
  10. Winthrop Town19 ft
  11. Cambridge14 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Monadnock Mountain3,170 ft
  • North Pack Monadnock Mountain2,260 ft
  • Crotched Mountain2,063 ft
  • Bald Knob130 ft
  • Beacon Hill, Suffolk County100 ft
How we measure
  • Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
  • Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
  • Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −250 ft at 42.2685° N, 71.1579° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
  • Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
  • Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
  • Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
  • Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.