Essex County, Massachusetts

42°38′N 70°52′W / 42.64°N 70.87°W / 42.64; -70.87

Essex County
County
Images, from top down, left to right: The Crane Estate in Ipswich; Heron in the Great Salt Marsh; The John Hale House in Beverly; Eaglehead in Manchester-by-the-Sea
Seal
Location within the U.S. state of Massachusetts
Massachusetts's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 42°38′08″N 70°58′15″W / 42.635475°N 70.970825°W / 42.635475; -70.970825
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
Founded	1643
Named for	Essex, England
Seat	Salem and Lawrence
Largest city	Lynn
Area
• Total	828 sq mi (2,140 km2)
• Land	493 sq mi (1,280 km2)
• Water	336 sq mi (870 km2)  41%
Population  (2020)
• Total	809,829
• Density	1,643/sq mi (634/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional districts	3rd, 6th

Essex County is a county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the total population was 809,829,^[1] making it the third-most populous county in the state, and the seventy-eighth-most populous in the country. It is part of the Greater Boston area (the Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA–NH Metropolitan Statistical Area). The largest city in Essex County is Lynn. The county was named after the English county of Essex. It has two traditional county seats: Salem and Lawrence. Prior to the dissolution of the county government in 1999, Salem had jurisdiction over the Southern Essex District, and Lawrence had jurisdiction over the Northern Essex District, but currently these cities do not function as seats of government. However, the county and the districts remain as administrative regions recognized by various governmental agencies, which gathered vital statistics or disposed of judicial case loads under these geographic subdivisions, and are required to keep the records based on them. The county has been designated the Essex National Heritage Area by the National Park Service.