These 11 Places In Massachusetts Could Be Ghost Towns By 2100

Just imagine if researchers more than 75 years ago have predicted the Massachusetts we live in today?

Predicting the future is very challenging because you just never know what it will be, but one study is in fact predicting that a number of Massachusetts communities could look like ghost towns by the year 2100.

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Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, found that half of the cities in the United States will face some sort of population decline in the near future. This study was published on January 11 in Nature.

The biggest winners when it comes to population in Massachusetts are across the state including northern Boston-area communities of Watertown, Malden, Somerville and Cambridge are all set to see their populations grow by 63% apiece, according to the research.

But which communities will become ghost towns? Let's find out:

The authors of the study even talked about changes with population shifts that could be felt in many aspects of normal life, though it is hard to say exactly how population shifts will affect us in the future.

“The implications of this massive decline in population will bring unprecedented challenges, possibly leading to disruptions in basic services like transit, clean water, electricity and internet access, simultaneously, increasing population trends in resource-intensive suburban and periurban cities will probably take away access to much needed resources in depopulating areas, further exacerbating their challenges.” - Author's Study

While not everyone is ready to accept the findings, some however who spoke with Scientific American said a lot could change in the next 80 years and one called the population projects “pretty reckless,” though the methodology was solid.

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All in all, only time will tell what the future actually brings.