The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census,[2] making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable.

The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferries to Martha's Vineyard is located in the village of Woods Hole in Falmouth.

Bartholomew Gosnold named the settlement for Falmouth, Cornwall, England,[3] his home port.

However, the soil in the southwestern part of the town, consisting of moraine deposits, is more rocky and dense, like the rest of New England, and many glacial erratics are scattered about, having been dropped by the retreating glaciers.

It is bordered by Bourne and Sandwich to the north, Mashpee to the east, Vineyard Sound to the south, and Buzzards Bay to the west.

Falmouth's southern shore is notable for a series of ponds and rivers spaced very closely together, all of which travel some distance into the town.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the plant hardiness zone is 7a, with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 1.3 °F (−17.1 °C).

[9] Falmouth's main road is Massachusetts Route 28, which runs south from Bourne as a divided highway, then becomes a surface road and heads east through downtown as Main Street, then turns northeast through East Falmouth before crossing into Mashpee.

Route 151 runs east–west through the northern section of the town, connecting North Falmouth and Hatchville with Mashpee.

[citation needed] Falmouth is home to The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority.

Daily ferry service brings tourists, residents and supplies from Woods Hole to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.

A seasonal ferry, the Island Queen, runs from Falmouth Harbor to Martha's Vineyard.

[10] The Massachusetts Coastal Railroad provides rail freight service to North Falmouth, where a spur runs into Otis Air Base to serve a trash transfer station.

Also, as of a June 25, 2009, capecodonline.com article, the company plans to re-extend passenger railroad service to the town, complete with dinner and tourist trains, though this will also be only to North Falmouth, due to the fact that the other 8 miles (13 km) of railroad track had been replaced with the current Shining Sea Bikeway.

The Middleborough/Lakeville and Kingston/Route 3 stations of the MBTA's commuter rail system provide the closest service to Boston.

[citation needed] There is a private air park in East Falmouth,[11] and the nearest national and international air service is at Logan International Airport in Boston and T. F. Green Airport near Providence, both being about equidistant from Falmouth.

[12] Falmouth is also served by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority bus routes.

[27] On the national level, Falmouth is a part of Massachusetts's 9th congressional district, and is currently represented by Bill Keating.

[28] Since 1937, Falmouth has been governed by a representative town meeting and led by a five-member Select Board serving rotating three-year terms.

Resident students can also attend Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis also free of charge, pending acceptance through a lottery.

The team plays at Arnie Allen Diamond at Guv Fuller Field, and has featured dozens of players who went on to careers in Major League Baseball, such as Tino Martinez,[34] Darin Erstad,[35] and Jacoby Ellsbury.

It is the largest part of Joint Base Cape Cod, formerly named Massachusetts Military Reservation.

In 1996, the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence (now known as the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment) assumed responsibility for the cleanup, treating soils at several sites and installing pumping wells in an effort to contain the plumes of groundwater contamination.

[40] In 2010, the Silent Spring Institute tested about 20 public water supplies, 40 percent of which had detectable levels of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs).

[41] In 2015, the Air Force started testing private wells in the Currier Road area after water treatment plant samples showed elevated levels of 1,4-dioxane.