Cities in Maine: All 23, and the Towns That Beat Them

City and town mean something specific in Maine

A Maine municipality becomes a city when its voters adopt a charter that replaces the open town meeting with an elected council, usually with a manager or mayor running day-to-day business. Nothing about population is required. That is why Sanford, with about 22,000 people, is a city, while Brunswick and Scarborough — both around 22,000 as well — remain towns and still hold town meetings.

The practical consequence for a visitor is that municipal status tells you almost nothing about what a place will feel like. Eastport is a city of roughly 1,300 people on an island at the eastern edge of the country. Ogunquit is a town of about 1,600 that hosts a summer population many times that. If you are trying to work out where to sleep and eat, place counts are a far better guide than charters, and we have those further down.

Maine also has 16 counties, more than 400 towns, a few dozen plantations, and enormous unorganized territories in the north that have no local government at all — just a township grid and a state office that handles them. That last category covers a substantial share of the state's land area and almost none of its people.

All 23 cities in Maine, by population

Populations below are from the 2020 census. Read the right-hand column as what the city is actually good for, which in several cases is "living there" rather than "visiting".

City	County	2020 population	What it is for
Portland	Cumberland	68,408	Restaurants, working waterfront, islands, art
Lewiston	Androscoggin	37,121	Mill history, Franco-American culture, food
Bangor	Penobscot	31,753	Gateway to Acadia and the north; concerts
South Portland	Cumberland	26,498	Lighthouses, beaches, Portland's other half
Auburn	Androscoggin	24,061	Lake Auburn, twin city to Lewiston
Biddeford	York	22,552	Revived mill district, beaches, breweries
Sanford	York	21,982	Inland York County service center
Westbrook	Cumberland	20,400	Riverwalk, Portland-adjacent housing
Saco	York	20,381	Beaches, Saco River, Old Orchard's neighbor
Augusta	Kennebec	18,899	State capital, State House, Kennebec trails
Waterville	Kennebec	15,828	Colby's art museum, downtown revival
Brewer	Penobscot	9,672	Bangor's river twin; breweries and the waterfront
Presque Isle	Aroostook	8,797	The County's hub; Aroostook State Park
Bath	Sagadahoc	8,766	Shipbuilding, maritime museum, walkable center
Ellsworth	Hancock	8,399	The gateway everyone passes through for Acadia
Old Town	Penobscot	7,431	Penobscot Nation, canoes, university edge
Caribou	Aroostook	7,396	Northern farming and snowmobile country
Belfast	Waldo	6,938	Bookshops, harbor, the best small downtown
Rockland	Knox	6,936	Art museums, windjammers, breakwater light
Gardiner	Kennebec	5,961	Brick main street on the Kennebec
Calais	Washington	3,079	Border crossing, St. Croix River
Hallowell	Kennebec	2,570	Antiques, galleries, riverfront dining
Eastport	Washington	1,288	Easternmost city in the US; deep-water port

Why the cities sit where they do

Look at that list on a map and a pattern appears immediately: every one of Maine's 23 cities sits on tidewater or on a river with enough drop to turn a mill wheel. Portland, South Portland, Bath, Rockland, Belfast, Ellsworth, Eastport and Calais are harbors. Lewiston, Auburn, Biddeford, Saco, Westbrook, Waterville, Augusta, Gardiner, Hallowell, Brewer and Old Town are river cities, most of them built around falls that once powered textile or paper mills. Bangor is both — a river port that shipped more lumber than anywhere in the world in the nineteenth century.

Nothing was founded inland for its own sake, which is why the interior of the state has almost no urban settlement at all. It also explains the shape of a modern trip: the cities line up along the coast and up two river valleys, and driving between them means following water rather than cutting across country.

The big cities, honestly

Portland

Portland is the only city in Maine that functions as a destination in its own right, and it is genuinely good at it. Our data has 149 mapped places there — 61 restaurants, 24 museums and galleries, and a working waterfront that still lands fish. The Portland Museum of Art (4.6 from 2,232 reviews) anchors the arts end; Becky's Diner on Commercial Street (4.6 from 8,062 reviews) is the most-reviewed restaurant in the state and still opens at an hour that suits fishermen.

The honest drawbacks: parking in the Old Port is difficult and expensive, the best restaurants book out weeks ahead in summer, and the peninsula is small enough that three days is plenty unless you are using it as a base.

Lewiston and Auburn

The twin cities on the Androscoggin are Maine's second population center and its least touristed. This is textile-mill country with a deep Franco-American history — the Franco Center in Lewiston (4.6 from 263 reviews) exists to keep that alive, and Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary (4.7 from 563) is a genuinely large urban preserve. You would not plan a trip around Lewiston, but if you are driving between Portland and the mountains it is a more interesting lunch stop than the interstate service plaza.

Bangor

Bangor is the practical capital of everything north and east. Our data has 84 places there, and it functions as the last real city before Acadia, Baxter and the North Woods. The Cole Land Transportation Museum (4.8 from 654 reviews) and Maine Discovery Museum (4.5 from 683) cover a rainy afternoon; the Penobscot Theatre Company (4.8 from 442) runs a proper season; the waterfront amphitheatre draws touring acts all summer. Across the river in Brewer, Mason's Brewing (4.6 from 2,252) has the deck. And the Paul Bunyan statue (4.5 from 957) is exactly as odd as it sounds.

South Portland, Biddeford and Saco

South Portland is where Greater Portland keeps its lighthouses and its swimming. Bug Light Park (4.7 from 2,518 reviews), Willard Beach (4.5 from 445) and Fort Preble (4.6 from 519) are all within a few minutes of each other, and none of them are in Portland proper.

Biddeford is the state's clearest example of a mill city turning around: the brick complex on the Saco River now holds restaurants, a brewery and studios, and the city's beaches are a few miles east. Saco next door has the river, the beaches and Rapid Ray's (4.6 from 1,035), a counter that has been feeding the town for generations.

Augusta

Maine's capital is one of the smallest in the country at 18,899, and it surprises people who expect a capital to feel like one. The State House and the Kennebec trails are the reasons to stop; the food is better than the town's reputation, with The Red Barn (4.7 from 3,943 reviews) and Cushnoc Brewing (4.6 from 1,993) both drawing serious numbers. Two miles downriver, Hallowell does the evening better.

Small cities worth building a day around

The best cities to visit in Maine are the small ones, and the difference between them is sharper than the population figures suggest.

Rockland (6,936) is the strongest cultural pound-for-pound. Our data has 95 places in a city that would fit inside a Portland neighborhood, including the Farnsworth Art Museum (4.6 from 189 reviews), the Owls Head Transportation Museum just outside town (4.8 from 1,000), the mile-long Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse walk (4.8 from 1,318) and a working harbor (4.6 from 861) that is home port for much of the windjammer fleet.

Belfast (6,938) has the most intact small downtown in the state — brick blocks, an independent bookshop culture, a harbor walk, and none of the summer crush of the Bar Harbor corridor. It is the answer for people who found Camden too polished.

Bath (8,766) is a shipbuilding city where the yard is still working. The Maine Maritime Museum (4.7 from 1,489 reviews) sits downriver from Bath Iron Works and runs boat trips that pass the ships under construction.

Hallowell (2,570) is two miles from the State House and completely unlike it: a single street of antique shops, galleries and restaurants on the Kennebec. The Forbidden Fruit Gallery (4.9 from 311 reviews) is the highest-rated gallery in our entire data set.

Ellsworth (8,399) is where every Acadia-bound car funnels onto Route 3. The harbor park (4.5 from 389) is pleasant, but be realistic: this is a place you pass through, and on a July afternoon you will pass through it slowly.

Eastport (1,288) is the smallest city in Maine and the easternmost in the country, on an island reached by causeway, with tides among the largest on the East Coast. Five hours from Portland, and the least crowded place in this article.

Waterville (15,828) has been rebuilt around Colby College's investment downtown; the Colby College Museum of Art (4.8 from 378 reviews) is free and much better than a town this size has any right to.

Presque Isle (8,797) is the only city in this list that gives you a reason to be in Aroostook County, with Aroostook State Park (4.8 from 300) at its edge.

The towns that outrank the cities

This is where the legal definition breaks down completely. Sorted by how many visitor-facing places we have mapped in each, the ranking looks nothing like the population table.

Place	Status	Mapped places	Restaurants	Why it ranks
Portland	City	149	61	The only place that is both
Ogunquit	Town, about 1,600 residents	134	63	Beach, playhouse, cliff walk, walkable village
Bar Harbor	Town	131	54	Acadia's front door
Boothbay Harbor	Town, about 2,000 residents	125	39	Harbor, boats, botanical gardens
Rockland	City	95	37	Museums and windjammers
Kennebunkport	Town	92	33	Beaches, inns, Cape Porpoise
Camden	Town	81	26	Harbor under a mountain
Bethel	Town	72	28	Ski country and Grafton Notch

Ogunquit is the clearest case: a town of roughly 1,600 permanent residents supporting more mapped restaurants than Portland, because in July its daytime population is a different number entirely. Boothbay Harbor does the same with about 2,000 residents and the most-reviewed garden on the coast, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (4.8 from 7,005 reviews), a few minutes away.

This has a real consequence for planning. Seasonal towns run on a seasonal staff and a seasonal calendar: in Ogunquit, Boothbay Harbor and Bar Harbor a large share of the restaurants in our data close between late fall and spring, and the ones that stay open cut their hours. The cities do not do this. Portland, Bangor, Rockland and Belfast keep a year-round trade because they have year-round residents to serve, which is exactly why a November trip to Maine should be built around cities and a July trip can safely ignore them.

It also means the two lists answer different questions. If you want to know where people live and work, read the population table. If you want to know where you will find dinner at eight o'clock on a Tuesday in April, read the place-count table and pick a city.

Three more that are worth knowing about even if they will not shape your itinerary. Old Town (7,431) sits beside Indian Island, home of the Penobscot Nation, and gave its name to the canoes. Gardiner (5,961) has a brick main street on the Kennebec that has aged better than most. Calais (3,079) is a border city on the St. Croix, three hours past Bangor, and the practical crossing point into New Brunswick.

Getting between them

Maine's inter-city transport is thinner than the map suggests, and this catches visitors out.

• Flying means Portland or Bangor. Portland's jetport has the most connections; Bangor is the better arrival if Acadia or Baxter is the point of the trip.
• Rail is one line. The Downeaster runs from Boston up through Wells, Saco, Old Orchard Beach, Portland, Freeport and Brunswick, and that is the entire passenger network. North or east of Brunswick there is no train.
• Buses connect Portland with Boston frequently and with Bangor and the Midcoast less so. Schedules thin out sharply outside summer.
• Everything else is a car. There is no practical way to reach Bar Harbor, Camden, Millinocket or Eastport without one, though seasonal shuttles operate within Acadia and Bar Harbor once you are there.

Where to actually base yourself

If your trip is about	Base in	Rather than
Food, art and city walking	Portland	Anywhere else — nothing is close
Acadia	Bar Harbor or Southwest Harbor	Ellsworth, unless you want cheaper rooms
Midcoast harbors and museums	Rockland or Camden	Belfast if you want it quieter
Beaches with a village attached	Ogunquit or York	Old Orchard Beach if you want a boardwalk
Mountains and skiing	Bethel	Rangeley for more remoteness
Baxter and the North Woods	Millinocket or Greenville	Bangor if you want a real supermarket

One rule that holds across the state: sleep in a town where you can walk to dinner. Maine's rural roads are dark, unlit and full of deer after nine at night, and the difference between a walkable harbor village and a motel on a bypass is the difference between an evening and a car park. The coastal towns guide and small towns guide both work through that choice in more detail, and the destinations index lists every town we cover.

FAQ

How many cities are in Maine?

Twenty-three. From largest to smallest they run Portland, Lewiston, Bangor, South Portland, Auburn, Biddeford, Sanford, Westbrook, Saco, Augusta, Waterville, Brewer, Presque Isle, Bath, Ellsworth, Old Town, Caribou, Belfast, Rockland, Gardiner, Calais, Hallowell and Eastport. Everything else is a town, a plantation, or unorganized territory.

What is the largest city in Maine?

Portland, at 68,408 in the 2020 census — roughly twice the size of Bangor and the only Maine city large enough to support a year-round restaurant scene, a major art museum and daily ferry service to inhabited islands.

What is the difference between a city and a town in Maine?

Governance, not size. A city has adopted a charter with an elected council and a manager or mayor; a town still governs by town meeting. Sanford is a city at about 22,000 people while Brunswick and Scarborough are towns at roughly the same size.

Which Maine city is best to visit?

Portland if you want depth — 149 mapped places, including 61 restaurants. Rockland if you want the best small city, with 95 places in a city of under 7,000 people, two serious museums and the windjammer fleet. Bangor if your trip is really about Acadia or Baxter and you need a base with services.