Massachusetts’ overall year-over-year construction activity plummeted 38 percent in December, as non-building construction on road and infrastructure projects tailed off, according to New York-based data and research firm McGraw Hill Construction.

Non-building construction – including streets and highways, bridges, dams and reservoirs, river and harbor developments, sewage and water supply systems, missile and space facilities, airports, utilities and communication systems – tallied just $84.35 million in December. That represents an 87 percent drop from the $629.6 million figure for December 2010.

Statewide, non-residential construction – which McGraw Hill defines as work on commercial, manufacturing, educational, religious, administrative, recreational, hotel, dormitory and similar buildings – rose 14 percent last month compared to the same time last year, to roughly $424 million from $371.9 million.

Residential construction statewide in December fell three percent, to $318.2 million from $329.76 million during the same month in 2010.

For the year, overall construction activity as measured in dollar output was down 4 percent statewide, falling to roughly $9.32 billion from $9.72 billion in 2010. Residential and non-residential construction were both up last year compared to 2010 – by 2 percent and 11 percent, respectively – but overall figures were dragged down by a 35 percent decline in non-building construction activity, McGraw Hill said.

In the metropolitan statistical area of Boston-Cambridge-Quincy – which includes portions of Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Plymouth and Suffolk counties in Massachusetts and Rockingham and Strafford counties in New Hampshire – residential and non-residential construction activity were up 15 percent and 13 percent, respectively, in 2011 compared to 2010.