Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Barnstable County is a county in Massachusetts, United States, coextensive with Cape Cod, about
70 miles southeast of Boston. It had a population of 228,996 at the 2020 census, an estimated
233,539 by 2025, and covers 394 square miles (1,020 km2) of land within a total area of 1,306
square miles centred near 41°43′N 70°15′W.

Barnstable is the county seat; its postal code is 02630. The county holds 15 towns and no
incorporated cities — Massachusetts law makes the town the basic unit of local government
here, so there is no unincorporated territory anywhere in the county. It runs on Eastern Time.
Its FIPS code is 25001.

Towns & Villages in Barnstable County

Barnstable County has 15 towns, and each one is further divided into named villages that carry
their own ZIP codes and identities but no separate local government. The table below lists all 15
towns first, then 25 of the county’s best-known villages and census-designated places (CDPs) —
population figures come from the 2020 census where a place was separately tabulated; a dash means
no distinct figure exists because the village shares its parent town’s count.

Major villages and CDPs, grouped under their parent town:

Roughly 25 more named villages and hamlets round out the county, including Harwich Port, West
Harwich, South Harwich, West Chatham, South Chatham, North Chatham, West Falmouth, Teaticket,
Woods Hole, Cataumet, North Truro, South Wellfleet and East Orleans — most share a ZIP code
with a larger neighbor. Several place names repeat closely enough to confuse a search: Dennis,
Dennis Port, East Dennis, South Dennis and West Dennis are five distinct villages inside one
town, and Sagamore in Bourne is a different place from the Sagamore Bridge that carries traffic
over the Cape Cod Canal a few miles away.

ZIP Codes

• 02601 — Hyannis, the county’s commercial and government hub
• 02630 — Barnstable village (the county seat’s own center)
• 02632 — Centerville
• 02655 — Osterville
• 02635 — Cotuit
• 02648 — Marstons Mills
• 02668 — West Barnstable
• 02647 — Hyannis Port (also serves the Kennedy Compound area)
• 02637 — Cummaquid
• 02540 — Falmouth (also serves 02541, a Falmouth PO box ZIP)
• 02536 — East Falmouth (also serves Teaticket)
• 02556 — North Falmouth
• 02574 — West Falmouth
• 02543 — Woods Hole
• 02664 — South Yarmouth (also the town’s own main ZIP)
• 02673 — West Yarmouth
• 02675 — Yarmouth Port
• 02532 — Bourne and Buzzards Bay (also 02542, a Buzzards Bay PO box ZIP)
• 02561 — Sagamore (PO box only; 02562 covers nearby Sagamore Beach)
• 02559 — Pocasset
• 02553 — Monument Beach
• 02534 — Cataumet
• 02563 — Sandwich (also serves 02537, East Sandwich, and 02644, Forestdale)
• 02649 — Mashpee
• 02645 — Harwich, East Harwich and Northwest Harwich
• 02646 — Harwich Port
• 02671 — West Harwich
• 02661 — South Harwich
• 02638 — Dennis
• 02639 — Dennis Port
• 02641 — East Dennis (PO box only)
• 02660 — South Dennis
• 02670 — West Dennis
• 02633 — Chatham
• 02650 — North Chatham
• 02659 — South Chatham
• 02669 — West Chatham (PO box only)
• 02653 — Orleans
• 02643 — East Orleans (PO box only)
• 02642 — Eastham
• 02651 — North Eastham (PO box only)
• 02631 — Brewster
• 02657 — Provincetown
• 02666 — Truro (PO box only)
• 02652 — North Truro (PO box only)
• 02667 — Wellfleet
• 02663 — South Wellfleet (PO box only)

A handful of ZIPs on this list — East Dennis, West Chatham, East Orleans, North Eastham,
Truro, North Truro and South Wellfleet — are PO-box-only codes; residents there receive
street delivery under a neighboring town’s ZIP instead.

Geography

Barnstable County is Cape Cod: a hooked sand peninsula built from glacial moraine and outwash
plains left by the retreat of the Laurentide ice sheet roughly 18,000 years ago. Of its 1,306
square miles of total area, only 394 are land — close to 70 percent of the county is water,
by far the highest share of any county in Massachusetts. Nantucket Sound and Vineyard Sound
border the Cape’s south side, Cape Cod Bay wraps its inner curve to the north, and Buzzards Bay
lies along its western shoulder near the Bourne town line. The Cape Cod Canal, opened in 1914 and
widened by 1916, cuts across the peninsula’s base and physically separates the county from the
Massachusetts mainland; the Sagamore and Bourne highway bridges are the only road links across
it. The county’s highest point, Pine Hill in Bourne, tops out at 306 feet.

Plymouth County borders Barnstable County to the northwest, across the canal.
Plymouth County is the
only county Barnstable shares a land border with. Offshore to the south lie
Dukes County, across Vineyard Sound, and
Nantucket County, across Nantucket
Sound.

Demographics

Barnstable County had a population of 228,996 at the 2020 census, up from 222,230 in 2000 and
nearly five times the 1950 count of 46,805, and the latest estimate puts the county near 233,539
residents. Barnstable town and Falmouth are the two largest communities, together holding more
than a third of the county’s population. Median household income runs $95,241 (2024 estimate),
below Massachusetts’s 2023 ACS figure of $99,858 statewide. Population density works out to
roughly 581 people per square mile of land. The county’s median age, about 55, is among the
oldest of any county in the country, and residents 65 and older make up 32.2 percent of the
population — both a legacy of retirement migration and of the summer-only crowds that swell
the Cape’s true population many times over each July and August.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, with about 18,125
workers, followed by retail trade at 13,194 and professional, scientific and technical services
at 11,103. Cape Cod Hospital, in Hyannis, is the region’s main acute-care hospital and one of its
largest employers. Cape Air, a regional airline serving the Cape and the islands, is headquartered
at Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis. Tourism drives much of the rest of the county’s
economy — the Cape has more than 60 public beaches, 27 public golf courses and a whale
watching fleet based in Provincetown — alongside longstanding shellfish harvesting (oysters
and clams) and cranberry cultivation. Hyannis Port is home to the Kennedy Compound, the family
retreat associated with President John F. Kennedy, still a regular summer draw for visitors.

History

Barnstable County was formed within the Plymouth Colony on 2 June 1685 and named for
Barnstaple, a port town in Devon, England. The Pilgrims made their first landfall in the New
World near Provincetown Harbor on 11 November 1620, before sailing on to settle Plymouth; the
Mayflower Compact was signed while the ship lay at anchor there. President John F. Kennedy
established Cape Cod National Seashore in 1961, protecting 40 miles of Atlantic-facing beach in
Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown from private development, including the historic
Marconi Site in Wellfleet, where the first two-way transoceanic radio transmission from the
United States originated in 1903.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Barnstable County. Route 6 runs the length of the Cape from the
Sagamore Bridge to Provincetown, and Route 28 serves the county’s southern towns; the Sagamore
and Bourne bridges, both built in the 1930s, are the only road crossings of the Cape Cod Canal.

• Boston — about 70 miles northwest
• Plymouth — about 20 miles northwest of the canal
• New Bedford — about 30 miles west
• Providence, Rhode Island — about 60 miles west

Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis offers year-round flights to Boston and seasonal
service to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Boston Logan International Airport, roughly 70 miles
northwest, is the nearest major national and international gateway. The seasonal CapeFLYER train
runs from Boston’s South Station to the Hyannis Transportation Center on summer weekends; there is
no year-round passenger rail service to the county.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Barnstable County located?
It occupies all of Cape Cod in southeastern Massachusetts, bordered by Plymouth County across
the canal to the northwest and by Dukes and Nantucket counties offshore to the south.

What is the population of Barnstable County?
228,996 at the 2020 census, with an estimate near 233,539 by 2025.

How big is Barnstable County?
394 square miles of land (1,020 km2), inside a total area of 1,306 square miles that is roughly
70 percent water.

What is the county seat of Barnstable County?
Barnstable is the county seat, and its village center holds the county courthouse and
government offices; postal code 02630.

How many towns are in Barnstable County?
15 — Barnstable, Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth, Harwich, Mashpee,
Orleans, Provincetown, Sandwich, Truro, Wellfleet and Yarmouth — plus roughly 50 named
villages and CDPs inside them. There are no incorporated cities and no unincorporated land.

What ZIP codes does Barnstable County use?
More than 40, from 02532 in Bourne to 02675 in Yarmouth Port; Hyannis (02601) handles the most
mail volume as the county’s commercial hub.

What is Barnstable County known for?
Cape Cod’s beaches and National Seashore, the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, and its
shellfish and cranberry industries.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Massachusetts.