All Bay State cities and towns have children to educate, but the burden isn’t evenly distributed. The Kids Count Census, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, used US Census figures to rank all 351 Massachusetts towns by the percentage of households with children under 18. As the map above shows, towns with a large percentage are concentrated in the far reaches of metropolitan Boston (close to Routes 128 and 495), with a few outposts in the western end of the state. Municipalities with few children tend to be on Cape Cod, in the Berkshires, and on metropolitan Boston’s subway lines–in other words, the places that the rest of America associates with the Bay state. The western suburb of Sudbury is the most kid-happy, with minors in 52.2 percent of the town’s households; it’s followed by Norfolk (51.8 percent), and Berkley (51.3 percent). Among cities, the highest percentages were in Lawrence (46.0 percent) and Chelsea (40.7). Provincetown is the least hospitable, with children in only 9.5 percent of its households; it’s followed by two other Cape Cod towns, Orleans (16.0 percent) and Chatham (16.3 percent). Among cities, the lowest percentage was in Cambridge (18.9 percent).

The Map also shows some odd couples. The bucolic town of Lincoln, which ranks 23rd in the percentage of households with children, is right next to the more cogested Waltham, which ranks 339th. Similarly, the town of West Newbury (10th) is far more kid-oriented than the next-door city of Newburyport (314th).