Located in Berkshire County, the town is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts metropolitan statistical area.

Prior to this time, its position along the Mohawk Trail made it ideal Mohican hunting grounds.

The town was incorporated in 1765 as Williamstown according to the will of Col. Ephraim Williams, who was killed in the French and Indian War.

The primary industry was agriculture, particularly dairy farming, sheep herding and wool production.

[4] In the late 1930s and 1940s, E. Parmelee Prentice and his wife Alta, the daughter of John D. Rockefeller, created Mount Hope Farm.

With a mansion designed by James Gamble Rogers, it was one of the outstanding experimental farms in the country.

The highest point in town is at 3,320 feet (1,010 m) above sea level, just 0.2 miles (0.32 km) west of the summit of Greylock.

The racial makeup of the town in 2017 was 81.6% white (77.8% non-Hispanic white), 5.1% black, 0.9% Native American, 6.3% Asian (1.8% Chinese, 0.9% Korean, 0.9% Japanese, 0.5% Cambodian, 0.4% Nepalese, 0.3% Indonesian, 0.3% Indian, 0.3% Vietnamese, 0.2% Filipino, 0.2% Sri Lankan, 0.1% Thai), 0.00% Pacific Islander, 1.7% from other races, and 4.3% from two or more races.

The ten largest ancestry groups in the town were Irish (15.0%), English (12.5%), German (10.9%), Italian (9.7%), French (6.8%), Polish (6.7%), Scottish (3.9%), French-Canadian (3.1%), American (2.7%), and Russian (2.1%).

The ten most common countries of origin for immigrants in the town were China, South Korea, Cambodia, Canada, Nepal, Ireland, Japan, Colombia, Indonesia, and Kenya.

The nearest hospital, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, is located in Bennington, to the north.

[18] Williamstown is located in the Eighth Massachusetts Governor's Council district and is represented by Tara Jacobs.

Town bus service is provided by Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA) to and from North Adams and Pittsfield.

The Green Mountain Express' Purple Line provides a weekday commuter bus route northward to Bennington.

The nearest Amtrak train station, on the Boston-Chicago Lake Shore Limited line is in Pittsfield.

Until 1958 there had been passenger Boston & Maine service from nearby North Adams to Troy, New York.