Cambridge
Cambridge ( KAYM-brij) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is a major suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the most populous city in the county, the 4th most populous city in the Commonwealth, behind Boston, Worcester, and Springfield, and ninth most populous city in New England. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, which was an important center of the Puritan theology that was embraced by the town's founders.: 18 Cambridge is known globally as home to two of the world's most prestigious universities. Harvard University, an Ivy League university founded in Cambridge in 1636, is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and has routinely been ranked as one of the best universities in the world. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), founded in 1861, is also located in Cambridge and has been similarly ranked highly among the world's best universities.
