What is the ratio of the population of Boston, Massachusetts to the
population of Somerville, Massachusetts based on square footage?

Hi angiemoore:

The best place for U.S. population and city facts, such as land area,
is the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov/

They have quick and autoritative facts on most cities in the U.S. here:

QuickFacts
URL: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html

Using this facility, I was able to find the necessary data for the two
cities you are interested in:

Boston
URL: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25/2507000.html
Population (2000): 589,141
Land area, 2000 (square miles): 48
Persons per square mile, 2000: 12,165.8

Somerville 
URL: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25/2562535.html
Population (2000): 77,478
Land area, 2000 (square miles): 4
Persons per square mile, 2000: 18,868.1

To convert persons per square mile to persons per square foot, you
need to divide by 27,878,400.

So, Boston's persons per square foot is:

12,165.8/27,878,400 = 0.000436388

And for Somerville we have:

18,868.1/27,878,400 = 0.000676800

Therfore the ratio of population per square foot of Boston to Somerville is:

0.000436388:0.000676800

or approximately:

2:3

Search Strategy (on Google):
* convert "square miles" "square feet"

I hope this helps

websearcher