Woods Hole Research Center

Land Cover and Population Changes on Cape Cod

The driving force for recent land cover change on the Cape is a rapid increase in population. Essentially, there has been a doubling of the Cape's population since the late 1960s.

Barnstable County Population by Town 1900-2003 Town 1900 1940 1960 1980 1990 2000 2003 Barnstable 4,364 8,333 13,465 30,898 40,949 47,821 48,907 Bourne 1,657 3,315 14,011 13,874 16,064 18,721 19,523 Brewster 829 827 1,236 5,226 8,415 10,094 10,401 Chatham 1,749 2,136 3,273 6,071 6,579 6,625 6,849 Dennis 2,333 2,015 3,727 12,360 13,858 15,973 16,226 Eastham 502 582 1,200 3,472 4,462 5,453 5,632 Falmouth 3,500 6,878 13,037 23,640 27,960 32,660 33,823 Harwich 2,334 2,535 3,740 8,971 10,275 12,386 12,859 Mashpee 303 434 867 3,700 7,884 12,946 14,200 Orleans 1,123 1,451 2,342 5,306 5,838 6,341 6,491 Provincetown 4,247 3,668 3,389 3,536 3,617 3,431 3,472 Sandwich 1,448 1,360 2,082 8,727 15,489 20,136 20,960 Truro 767 585 1,002 1,486 1,572 2,087 2,169 Wellfleet 988 890 1,404 2,209 2,438 2,749 2,841 Yarmouth 1,682 2,286 5,504 18,449 21,196 24,807 25,192   27,826 37,295 70,279 147,925 186,605 222,230 229,545

Sources: 1) Cape Cod Commission. (1997). Cape Trends: Cape Cod demographic and economic trends 1997 [online]. 2 ) Wilkie, Richard W. and Jack Tager, [eds.]. 1991. Historical Atlas of Massachusetts. University of Massachusetts Press. Amherst, MA.152 pp., US Census

The population on Cape Cod has been growing faster than the rest of the State.  The most intense population growth took place in the 1950's, 60's and 70's.  However, even today it continues to climb as development continues and more and more summer homes are converted to year round residences.

Percent population increase

The following graph illustrates the primary types of land cover on the Cape that have experienced change between 1951 and 1990. Various types of residential and commercial construction account for the largest increases among land cover categories, occupying an additional 79 sq. miles of land previously dedicated to other use.

Of course this conversion has been made at the expense of some other types of land cover, and it can be seen that forest, cropland and open land were the biggest losers, seeing a decrease among them of 95 sq. miles during this period - nearly a quarter of the total area of the Cape.

Sources: Resource Mapping Project, UMass-Amherst, 1995 and Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA), MassGIS, 1996.