Boston, MA vs Cambridge, MA
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
Cambridge spends 44.7% more per capita than Boston ($58,438/person difference). Both cities share the same Fiscal Health Score.
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $78 | $1,121 |
| Intergovernmental | $5,357 | $7,117 |
| Charges & Fees | $2,784 | $1,585 |
| Other | $4,557 | $6,370 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Fire Protection | $1,107 | $672 |
| Highways & Roads | $594 | $467 |
| Education | $30,742 | $25,601 |
| Public Welfare | $1,110 | $737 |
| Health | $725 | $998 |
| Hospitals | $2,584 | $508 |
| Parks & Recreation | $711 | $2,179 |
| Housing | $6,614 | $4,715 |
| Sewerage | $355 | $1,718 |
| Utilities | $3,402 | $2,291 |
| General Admin | $5,401 | $76,486 |
| Other | $18,955 | $14,364 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.