By its most literal definition, the South Shore includes only cities and towns between Boston and Cape Cod that physically border the
Atlantic Ocean, thereby limiting the South Shore to the following: •
Braintree •
Cohasset •
Duxbury •
Hingham •
Hull •
Kingston •
Marshfield •
Plymouth •
Quincy •
Scituate •
Weymouth The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management limits its definition of the South Shore to the municipalities between
Boston Harbor and Cape Cod, which includes Atlantic coastal and coastal watershed areas "from the three-mile (5 km) limit of the state territorial sea to beyond the first major land transportation route encountered (a road, highway, rail line, etc.)". This definition eliminates Braintree, Quincy and Weymouth, which border Boston Harbor, but adds the towns of Hanover, Norwell and Pembroke. •
Cohasset •
Duxbury •
Hanover •
Hingham •
Hull •
Kingston •
Marshfield •
Norwell •
Pembroke •
Plymouth •
Scituate With respect to regional planning and cooperation among municipal governments, some of these coastal communities are either members of the
Boston-centered Inner Core Committee of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) or not part of the metropolitan area at all, while the South Shore Coalition of the MAPC comprises representatives from 13 coastal and inland communities and includes the following cities and towns: •
Braintree •
Cohasset •
Duxbury •
Hanover •
Hingham •
Holbrook •
Hull •
Marshfield •
Norwell •
Pembroke •
Rockland •
Scituate •
Weymouth The South Shore
Chamber of Commerce includes all of the above towns, as well as several more farther inland in Norfolk and Plymouth counties, in its definition of the region: •
Abington •
Braintree •
Canton •
Carver •
Cohasset •
Duxbury •
Halifax •
Hanson •
Hanover •
Hingham •
Holbrook •
Hull •
Marshfield •
Milton •
Norwell •
Pembroke •
Plympton •
Quincy •
Randolph •
Rockland •
Scituate •
Weymouth •
Whitman Informal definitions of South Shore—defined by the service areas of other nonprofits or businesses with "South Shore" in their names, by real estate agents, or by individuals, for example—always include at least some of the shoreline communities but can stretch considerably to the west. Readers of
Boston magazine, in 2016, identified "Anything below the city, Cape included" as one potential definition of "South Shore". Suggested western boundaries included the
Rhode Island state line, or
Massachusetts Route 24. Some individuals placed
Foxborough and
Stoughton in the region. One definition included all of Cape Cod, as far as
Provincetown; others said the South Shore ends at the
Sagamore Bridge, which would place part of
Bourne in the region. ==Education==