With an estimated population in 2023 of 8,258,035[5] distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2),[4] the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city.[19] New York is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area. With more than 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area[20] and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York City is one of the world's most populous megacities.[21] The city and its metropolitan area are the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City,[22] making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. In 2021, the city was home to nearly 3.1 million residents born outside the U.S.,[19] the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world.[23]
The first documented visit into New York Harbor by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, an explorer from Florence in the service of the French crown.[37] He claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême (New Angoulême).[38] A Spanish expedition, led by the Portuguese captain Estêvão Gomes sailing for Emperor Charles V, arrived in New York Harbor in January 1525 and charted the mouth of the Hudson River, which he named Río de San Antonio ('Saint Anthony's River').[39]
Hudson claimed the region for the Dutch East India Company. In 1614, the area between Cape Cod and Delaware Bay was claimed by the Netherlands and called Nieuw-Nederland ('New Netherland'). The first non–Native American inhabitant of what became New York City was Juan Rodriguez, a merchant from Santo Domingo who arrived in Manhattan during the winter of 1613–14, trapping for pelts and trading with the local population as a representative of the Dutch colonists.[42][43]
The colony of New Amsterdam was centered on what became Lower Manhattan. Its area extended from the southern tip of Manhattan to modern-day Wall Street, where a 12-foot (3.7 m) wooden stockade was built in 1653 to protect against Native American and English raids.[46] In 1626, the Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit, acting as charged by the Dutch West India Company, purchased the island of Manhattan from the Canarsie, a small Lenape band,[47] for "the value of 60 guilders"[48] (about $900 in 2018).[49] A frequently told but disproved legend claims that Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of glass beads.[50][51]
Following the purchase, New Amsterdam grew slowly.[24] To attract settlers, the Dutch instituted the patroon system in 1628, whereby wealthy Dutchmen (patroons, or patrons) who brought 50 colonists to New Netherland would be awarded swaths of land, along with local political autonomy and rights to participate in the lucrative fur trade. This program had little success.[52]
Since 1621, the Dutch West India Company had operated as a monopoly in New Netherland, on authority granted by the Dutch States General. In 1639–1640, in an effort to bolster economic growth, the Dutch West India Company relinquished its monopoly over the fur trade, leading to growth in the production and trade of food, timber, tobacco, and slaves (particularly with the Dutch West Indies).[24][53]
In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant began his tenure as the last Director-General of New Netherland. During his tenure, the population of New Netherland grew from 2,000 to 8,000.[54][55] Stuyvesant has been credited with improving law and order in the colony; however, he earned a reputation as a despotic leader. He instituted regulations on liquor sales, attempted to assert control over the Dutch Reformed Church, and blocked other religious groups (including Quakers, Jews, and Lutherans) from establishing houses of worship.[56] The Dutch West India Company attempted to ease tensions between Stuyvesant and residents of New Amsterdam.[57]
In 1664, unable to summon any significant resistance, Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to English troops, led by Colonel Richard Nicolls, without bloodshed.[56][57] The terms of the surrender permitted Dutch residents to remain in the colony and allowed for religious freedom.[58]
In 1667, during negotiations leading to the Treaty of Breda after the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the victorious Dutch decided to keep the nascent plantation colony of what is now Suriname on the northern South American coast, which they had gained from the English,[59] and in return the English kept New Amsterdam. The fledgling settlement was promptly renamed "New York" after the Duke of York (the future King James II and VII).[60] After the founding, the duke gave part of the colony to proprietors George Carteret and John Berkeley. Fort Orange, 150 miles (240 km) north on the Hudson River, was renamed Albany after James's Scottish title.[61]
Several intertribal wars among the Native Americans and some epidemics brought on by contact with the Europeans caused sizeable population losses for the Lenape between the years 1660 and 1670.[65] By 1700, the Lenape population had diminished to 200.[66] New York experienced several yellow fever epidemics in the 18th century, losing ten percent of its population in 1702 alone.[67][68]
In the early 18th century, New York grew in importance as a trading port while as a part of the colony of New York.[69] It became a center of slavery, with 42% of households enslaving Africans by 1730.[70] Most cases were that of domestic slavery; others were hired out to work at labor. Slavery became integrally tied to New York's economy through the labor of slaves throughout the port, and the banking and shipping industries trading with the American South. During construction in Foley Square in the 1990s, the African Burying Ground was discovered; the cemetery included 10,000 to 20,000 of graves of colonial-era Africans, some enslaved and some free.[71]
The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October 1765, as the Sons of Liberty organization emerged in the city and skirmished over the next ten years with British troops stationed there.[74] The Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the American Revolutionary War, was fought in August 1776 within the modern-day borough of Brooklyn.[75] A British rout of the Continental Army at the Battle of Fort Washington in November 1776 eliminated the last American stronghold in Manhattan, causing George Washington and his forces to retreat across the Hudson River to New Jersey, pursued by British forces.[76][77]
After the battle, in which the Americans were defeated, the British made the city their military and political base of operations in North America.[78] The city was a haven for Loyalist refugees and escaped slaves who joined the British lines for freedom newly promised by the Crown, with as many as 10,000 escaped slaves crowded into the city during the British occupation, which had become the largest such community on the continent.[79][80] When the British forces evacuated New York at the close of the war in 1783, they transported thousands of freedmen for resettlement in Nova Scotia, England, and the Caribbean.[81]
The attempt at a peaceful solution to the war took place at the Conference House on Staten Island between American delegates, including Benjamin Franklin, and British general Lord Howe on September 11, 1776.[82] Shortly after the British occupation began, the Great Fire of New York occurred, a large conflagration on the West Side of Lower Manhattan, which destroyed nearly 500 buildings, about a quarter of the structures in the city, including Trinity Church.[83][84]
In 1790, for the first time, New York City surpassed Philadelphia as the nation's largest city. At the end of 1790, the national capital was moved to Philadelphia.[87][88]
During the 19th century, New York City's population grew from 60,000 to 3.43 million.[89] Under New York State's gradual emancipation act of 1799, children of slave mothers were to be eventually liberated but to be held in indentured servitude until their mid-to-late twenties.[90][91] Together with slaves freed by their masters after the Revolutionary War and escaped slaves, a significant free-Black population gradually developed in Manhattan. Under such influential United States founders as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the New York Manumission Society worked for abolition and established the African Free School to educate Black children.[92] It was not until 1827 that slavery was completely abolished in the state.[93] Free Blacks struggled afterward with discrimination and interracial abolitionist activism continued. New York City's population jumped from 123,706 in 1820 (10,886 of whom were Black and of which 518 were enslaved) to 312,710 by 1840 (16,358 of whom were Black).[94]
The Great Irish Famine brought a large influx of Irish immigrants, of whom more than 200,000 were living in New York by 1860, representing upward of one-quarter of the city's population.[101] There was also extensive immigration from the German provinces, where revolutions had disrupted societies, and Germans comprised another 25% of New York's population by 1860.[102][103]
Democratic Party candidates were consistently elected to local office, increasing the city's ties to the South and its dominant party. In 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood called on the aldermen to declare independence from Albany and the United States after the South seceded, but his proposal was not acted on.[92] Anger at new military conscription laws during the American Civil War (1861–1865), which spared wealthier men who could afford to hire a substitute, led to the Draft Riots of 1863, whose most visible participants were ethnic Irish working class.[92]
The draft riots deteriorated into attacks on New York's elite, followed by attacks on Black New Yorkers and their property after fierce competition for a decade between Irish immigrants and Black people for work. Rioters burned the Colored Orphan Asylum to the ground, with more than 200 children escaping harm due to efforts of the New York Police Department, which was mainly made up of Irish immigrants.[102]
At least 120 people were killed.[104] Eleven Black men were lynched over five days, and the riots forced hundreds of Blacks to flee. The Black population in Manhattan fell below 10,000 by 1865. The White working class had established dominance.[102][104] Violence by longshoremen against Black men was especially fierce in the docks area.[102] It was one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history.[105]
In 1886, the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France, was dedicated in New York Harbor. The statue welcomed 14 million immigrants as they came to the U.S. via Ellis Island by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is a symbol of the United States and American ideals of liberty and peace.[106][107]
In 1898, the City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then a separate city), the County of New York (which then included parts of the Bronx), the County of Richmond, and the western portion of the County of Queens.[108] The opening of the New York City Subway in 1904, first built as separate private systems, helped bind the new city together.[109] Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication.[110]
New York's non-White population was 36,620 in 1890.[113] New York City was a prime destination in the early 20th century for African Americans during the Great Migration from the American South, and by 1916, New York City had become home to the largest urban African diaspora in North America.[114] The Harlem Renaissance of literary and cultural life flourished during the era of Prohibition.[115] The larger economic boom generated construction of skyscrapers competing in height.[116]
New York City became the most populous urbanized area in the world in the early 1920s, overtaking London. The metropolitan area surpassed the 10 million mark in the early 1930s, becoming the first megacity in human history.[117] The Great Depression saw the election of reformer Fiorello La Guardia as mayor and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance.[118]
Returning World War II veterans created a post-war economic boom and the development of large housing tracts in eastern Queens and Nassau County. New York emerged from the war unscathed as the leading city of the world, with Wall Street leading America's place as the world's dominant economic power. The United Nations headquarters was completed in 1952, solidifying New York's global geopolitical influence, and the rise of abstract expressionism in the city precipitated New York's displacement of Paris as the center of the art world.[119]
October 1975 New York Daily News front page on President Ford's refusal to help the city avert bankruptcy
In the 1970s, job losses due to industrial restructuring caused New York City to suffer from economic problems and rising crime rates.[130] Growing fiscal deficits in 1975 led the city to appeal to the federal government for financial aid; President Gerald Ford gave a speech denying the request, which was paraphrased on the front page of the next day's issue of the New York Daily News as "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD."[131] The Municipal Assistance Corporation was formed and granted oversight authority over the city's finances.[132] While a resurgence in the financial industry greatly improved the city's economic health in the 1980s, New York's crime rate continued to increase through that decade and into the beginning of the 1990s.[133]
By the mid-1990s, crime rates started to drop dramatically due to revised police strategies, improving economic opportunities, gentrification, and new residents, both American transplants and new immigrants from Asia and Latin America.[citation needed] New York City's population exceeded 8 million for the first time in the 2000 United States census, breaking the previous peak census population set in the 1970 census;[134] further records were set in 2010, and 2020 U.S. censuses.[135] Important new sectors, such as Silicon Alley, emerged in the city's economy.[136]
The advent of Y2K was celebrated with fanfare in Times Square.[137] New York City suffered the bulk of the economic damage and largest loss of human life in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.[138] Two of the four airliners hijacked that day were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, resulting in the collapse of both buildings and the deaths of 2,753 people, including 343 first responders from the New York City Fire Department and 71 law enforcement officers.[139]
New York City was heavily affected by Hurricane Sandy in late October 2012. Sandy's impacts included flooding that led to the days-long shutdown of the subway system[147] and flooding of all East River subway tunnels and of all road tunnels entering Manhattan except the Lincoln Tunnel.[148] The New York Stock Exchange closed for two consecutive days due to weather for the first time since the Great Blizzard of 1888.[149] At least 43 people died in New York City as a result of Sandy, and the economic losses in New York City were estimated to be roughly $19 billion.[150] The disaster spawned long-term efforts towards infrastructural projects to counter climate change and rising seas, with $15 billion in federal funding received through 2022 towards those resiliency efforts.[151][152]
In March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in the city was confirmed in Manhattan.[153] With its population density and its extensive exposure to global travelers, the city rapidly replaced Wuhan, China as the global epicenter of the pandemic during the early phase, straining the city's healthcare infrastructure.[154][155] Through March 2023, New York City had recorded more than 80,000 deaths from COVID-19-related complications.[156]
New York City is situated in the northeastern United States, in southeastern New York State, approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston. Its location at the mouth of the Hudson River, which feeds into a naturally sheltered harbor and then into the Atlantic Ocean, has helped the city grow in significance as a trading port. Most of the city is built on the three islands of Long Island, Manhattan, and Staten Island.
During the Wisconsin glaciation, 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, the New York City area was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet.[157] The erosive forward movement of the ice (and its subsequent retreat) contributed to the separation of what is now Long Island and Staten Island. That action left bedrock at a relatively shallow depth, providing a solid foundation for most of Manhattan's skyscrapers.[158]
The Hudson River flows through the Hudson Valley into New York Bay. Between New York City and Troy, New York, the river is an estuary.[159] The Hudson River separates the city from New Jersey. The East River—a tidal strait—flows from Long Island Sound and separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson rivers, separates most of Manhattan from the Bronx. The Bronx River, which flows through the Bronx and Westchester County, is the only entirely freshwater river in the city.[160][importance?]
The city's land has been altered substantially by human intervention, with considerable land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times; reclamation is most prominent in Lower Manhattan, with developments such as Battery Park City in the 1970s and 1980s.[161] Some of the natural relief in topography has been evened out, especially in Manhattan.[162]
The city's total area is 468.484 square miles (1,213.37 km2). 302.643 sq mi (783.84 km2) of the city is land and 165.841 sq mi (429.53 km2) of it is water.[163][164] The highest point in the city is Todt Hill on Staten Island, which, at 409.8 feet (124.9 m) above sea level, is the highest point on the eastern seaboard south of Maine.[165] The summit of the ridge is mostly covered in woodlands as part of the Staten Island Greenbelt.[166]
New York City is sometimes referred to collectively as the Five Boroughs.[167] Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of New York State, making New York City one of the U.S. municipalities in multiple counties.
Brooklyn (Kings County), on the western tip of Long Island, is the city's most populous borough. Brooklyn is known for its cultural, social, and ethnic diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods, and a distinctive architectural heritage. Downtown Brooklyn is the largest central core neighborhood in the Outer Boroughs. The borough has a long beachfront shoreline including Coney Island, established in the 1870s as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the U.S.[172]Marine Park and Prospect Park are the two largest parks in Brooklyn.[173] Since 2010, Brooklyn has evolved into a thriving hub of entrepreneurship and high technologystartup firms,[174][175] and of postmodern art and design.[175][176] Brooklyn is also home to Fort Hamilton, the U.S. military's only active duty installation within New York City,[177] aside from Coast Guard operations. The facility was established in 1825 on the site of a battery used during the American Revolution, and it is one of America's longest-serving military forts.[178]
Staten Island (Richmond County) is the most suburban in character of the five boroughs. It is connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and to Manhattan by way of the free Staten Island Ferry. In central Staten Island, the Staten Island Greenbelt spans approximately 2,500 acres (10 km2), including 28 miles (45 km) of walking trails and one of the last undisturbed forests in the city.[189] Designated in 1984 to protect the island's natural lands, the Greenbelt comprises seven city parks.
Under the Köppen climate classification, New York City has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa), and is the northernmost major city on the North American continent with this categorization. The suburbs to the immediate north and west are in the transitional zone between humid subtropical and humid continental climates (Dfa).[190][191] The city receives an average of 49.5 inches (1,260 mm) of precipitation annually, which is relatively evenly spread throughout the year. New York averages over 2,500 hours of sunshine annually.[192]
Winters are chilly and damp, and prevailing wind patterns that blow sea breezes offshore temper the moderating effects of the Atlantic Ocean; yet the Atlantic and the partial shielding from colder air by the Appalachian Mountains keep the city warmer in the winter than inland North American cities at similar or lesser latitudes.[193] The daily mean temperature in January, the area's coldest month, is 33.3 °F (0.7 °C).[194] Temperatures usually drop to 10 °F (−12 °C) several times per winter,[195] yet can also reach 60 °F (16 °C) for several days even in the coldest winter month. Spring and autumn are unpredictable and can range from cool to warm, although they are usually mild with low humidity. Summers are typically hot and humid, with a daily mean temperature of 77.5 °F (25.3 °C) in July.[194]
Nighttime temperatures are 9.5 °F (5.3 °C) degrees higher for the average city resident due to the urban heat island effect, caused by paved streets and tall buildings.[196] Daytime temperatures exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on average of 17 days each summer and in some years exceed 100 °F (38 °C), although this is a rare occurrence, last noted on July 18, 2012.[197][198][199][200] Similarly, readings of 0 °F (−18 °C) are extremely rare, last occurring on February 14, 2016.[201] Extreme temperatures have ranged from 106 °F (41 °C), recorded on July 9, 1936, down to −15 °F (−26 °C) on February 9, 1934;[194] the coldest recorded wind chill was −37 °F (−38 °C) on the same day as the all-time record low.[202] Average winter snowfall between 1991 and 2020 was 29.8 inches (76 cm); this varies considerably between years. The record cold daily maximum was 2 °F (−17 °C) on December 30, 1917, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum was 87 °F (31 °C), on July 2, 1903.[197] The average water temperature of the nearby Atlantic Ocean ranges from 39.7 °F (4.3 °C) in February to 74.1 °F (23.4 °C) in August.[203]
Hurricanes and tropical storms are rare in the New York area.[204] Hurricane Sandy brought a destructive storm surge to New York City on the evening of October 29, 2012, flooding numerous streets, tunnels, and subway lines in Lower Manhattan and other areas of the city and cutting off electricity in many parts of the city and its suburbs.[205] The storm and its profound impacts have prompted the discussion of constructing seawalls and other coastal barriers around the shorelines of the city and the metropolitan area to minimize the risk of destructive consequences from another such event in the future.[151]
New York City has over 28,000 acres (110 km2) of municipal parkland and 14 miles (23 km) of public beaches.[213] The largest municipal park in the city is Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, with 2,772 acres (1,122 ha),[188][214] and the most visited urban park is the Central Park, and one of the most filmed and visited locations in the world, with 42 million visitors in 2023.[215]
Environmental issues in New York City are affected by the city's size, density, abundant public transportation infrastructure, and its location at the mouth of the Hudson River. For example, it is one of the country's biggest sources of pollution and has the lowest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions rate and electricity usage. Governors Island is planned to host a US$1billion research and education center to make New York City the global leader in addressing the climate crisis.[218]
New York's high rate of public transit use, more than 610,000 daily cycling trips as of 2022[update],[221] and many pedestrian commuters make it the most energy-efficient major city in the United States.[222] Walk and bicycle modes of travel account for 21% of all modes for trips in the city; nationally, the rate for metro regions is about 8%.[223] In both its 2011 and 2015 rankings, Walk Score named New York City the most walkable large city in the United States,[224][225][226] and in 2018, Stacker ranked New York the most walkable U.S. city.[227]Citibank sponsored public bicycles for the city's bike-share project, which became known as Citi Bike, in 2013.[228] New York City's numerical "in-season cycling indicator" of bicycling in the city had hit an all-time high of 437 when measured in 2014.[229]
The New York City drinking water supply is extracted from the protected Catskill Mountains watershed.[230] As a result of the watershed's integrity and undisturbed natural water filtration system, New York is one of only four major cities in the United States the majority of whose drinking water is pure enough not to require purification through water treatment plants.[231] The city's municipal water system is the largest in the United States, moving more than 1 billion U.S. gallons (3.8 billion liters) of water daily from a watershed covering 1,900 square miles (4,900 km2)[232][233]
According to the 2016 World Health Organization Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database,[234] the annual average concentration in New York City's air of particulate matter measuring 2.5micrometers or less (PM2.5) was 7.0micrograms per cubic meter, or 3.0micrograms within the recommended limit of the WHO Air Quality Guidelines for the annual mean PM2.5.[235] The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in partnership with Queens College, conducts the New York Community Air Survey to measure pollutants at about 150 locations.[236]
New York City is the most populous city in the United States,[5] with 8,804,190 residents as of the 2020 United States census, its highest decennial count ever, incorporating more immigration into the city than outmigration since the 2010 census.[4][239][240] More than twice as many people live in New York City as compared to Los Angeles, the second-most populous U.S. city.[5] The city's population in 2020 was 31.2% White (non-Hispanic), 29.0% Hispanic or Latino, 23.1% Black or African American (non-Hispanic), 14.5% Asian, and 0.6% Native American (non-Hispanic), with 8.9% listing two or more races.[4] A total of 3.4% of the non-Hispanic population identified with more than one race.[241]
Between 2010 and 2020, New York City gained 629,000 residents, more than any other U.S. city, and a greater amount than the total sum of the gains over the same decade of the next four largest U.S. cities (Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Phoenix) combined.[242][243] The city's population density of 27,744.1 inhabitants per square mile (10,712.1/km2) makes it the densest of any American municipality with a population above 100,000.[169] Manhattan's population density is 70,450.8 inhabitants per square mile (27,201.2/km2), the highest of any county in the United States.[169]
Based on data from the 2020 census, New York City comprises about 43.6% of the state's population of 20,202,320,[4] and about 39% of the population of the New York metropolitan area.[244] The majority of New York City residents in 2020 (5,141,539 or 58.4%) were living in Brooklyn or Queens, the two boroughs on Long Island.[245] As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York,[22][246][247][248] and the New York City metropolitan statistical area has the largest foreign-born population of any metropolitan region in the world. The New York region continues to be by far the leading metropolitan gateway for legal immigrants admitted into the United States, substantially exceeding the combined totals of Los Angeles and Miami.[249] Nearly seven times as many young professionals applied for jobs in New York City in 2023 as compared to 2019, making New York the most popular destination for recent college graduates.[250]
Based on data from 2018 to 2022, approximately 36.3% of the city's population is foreign born (compared to 13.7% nationwide),[4] and 40% of all children are born to mothers who are immigrants.[251] Throughout its history, New York has been a major port of entry for immigrants into the United States.[252][253] No single country or region of origin dominates.[252] Queens has the largest Asian American and Andean populations in the United States, and is also the most ethnically and linguistically diverse urban area in the world.[254][181]
Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was the largest international Pride celebration in history, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, with 150,000 participants and five million spectators attending in Manhattan alone.[282] New York City is home to the largest transgender population in the world, estimated at more than 50,000 in 2018, concentrated in Manhattan and Queens; however, until the June 1969 Stonewall riots, this community had felt marginalized and neglected by the gay community.[281][129] Brooklyn Liberation March, the largest transgender-rights demonstration in LGBT history, took place on June 14, 2020, stretching from Grand Army Plaza to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, focused on supporting Black transgender lives, drawing an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 participants.[283][284]
Islam ranks as the third-largest religion in New York City, following Christianity and Judaism, with estimates ranging between 600,000 and 1,000,000 observers of Islam, including 10% of the city's public school children.[291] 22.3% of American Muslims live in New York City, with 1.5 million Muslims in the greater New York metropolitan area, representing the largest metropolitan Muslim population in the Western Hemisphere[292]—and the most ethnically diverse Muslim population of any city in the world.[293]Powers Street Mosque in Brooklyn is one of the oldest continuously operating mosques in the U.S., and represents the first Islamic organization in both the city and the state of New York.[294][295]
Following these three largest religious groups in New York City are Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, and others. As of 2023, 24% of Greater New Yorkers identified with no organized religious affiliation, and 4% were self-identified atheists.[296]
New York City has the largest educational system of any city in the world.[17] The city's educational infrastructure spans primary education, secondary education, higher education, and research. The New York City Public Schools system, managed by the New York City Department of Education, is the largest public school system in the United States, serving about 1.1 million students in approximately 1,800 separate primary and secondary schools, including charter schools, as of the 2017–2018 school year.[297] The New York City Charter School Center assists the setup of new charter schools.[298] There are approximately 900 additional privately run secular and religious schools in the city.[299]
More than a million students, the highest number of any city in the United States,[301] are enrolled in New York City's more than 120 higher education institutions, with more than half a million in the City University of New York (CUNY) system alone as of 2020[update], including both degree and professional programs.[302] According to Academic Ranking of World Universities, New York City has, on average, the best higher education institutions of any global city.[303]
NYC Health + Hospitals (HHC) is a public-benefit corporation established in 1969 which operates the city's public hospitals and a network of outpatient clinics.[314][315] As of 2021[update], HHC is the largest municipal healthcare system in the United States with $10.9 billion in annual revenues.[316] HHC serves 1.4 million patients, including more than 475,000 uninsured city residents.[317] HHC operates eleven acute-care hospitals, four nursing homes, six diagnostic and treatment centers, and more than 70 community-based primary care sites, serving primarily the city's poor and working-class residents.[318][319] HHC's MetroPlus Health Plan is one of New York City's largest providers of government-sponsored health insurance, enrolling 670,000 city residents as of June 2022.[320]
HHC's facilities annually provides service to millions of New Yorkers, interpreted in more than 190 languages.[321] The best-known hospital in the HHC system is Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the United States, established in 1736.[322] Bellevue is the designated hospital for treatment of the president of the United States and other world leaders should they require care while in New York City.[323]
The city banned smoking in most parts of restaurants in 1995 and prohibited smoking in bars, restaurants and places of public employment in 2003.[324] In August 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed legislation outlawing pharmacies from selling cigarettes once their existing licenses to do so expired, beginning in 2018.[325][needs update]
New York City enforces a right-to-shelter law guaranteeing shelter to anyone who needs it, regardless of their immigration, socioeconomic, or housing status, which entails providing adequate shelter and food.[326] As a result, while New York has the highest total homeless population of U.S. cities, only 5% were unsheltered by the city, representing a significantly lower percentage of outdoor homelessness than in other cities.[327] As of 2023, there were 92,824 homeless people sleeping nightly in New York City's shelter system.[328]
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is the largest police force in the United States, with more than 36,000 sworn officers, more than triple the size of the Chicago Police Department.[329] Members of the NYPD are frequently referred to by politicians, the media, and their own police cars by the nickname, New York's Finest.[330]
The city saw a spike in crime in the 1970s through 1990s.[331] Crime overall has trended downward in New York City since the 1990s;[332] violent crime decreased more than 75% from 1993 to 2005, and continued decreasing during periods when the nation as a whole saw increases.[333] The NYPD's stop-and-frisk program was declared unconstitutional in 2013 as a "policy of indirect racial profiling" of Black and Hispanic residents,[334] although claims of disparate impact continued in subsequent years.[335] The stop-and-frisk program had been widely credited as being behind the decline in crime, though rates continued dropping in the years after the program ended.[336][337]
The city set a record high of 2,245 murders in 1990 and subsequently hit a near-70-year record low of 289 in 2018.[338] The number of murders and the rate of 3.3 per 100,000 residents in 2017 was the lowest since 1951.[339] New York City recorded 386 murders in 2023, a decline of 12% from the previous year.[340][341] New York City had one of the lowest homicide rates among the ten largest U.S. cities at 5.5 per 100,000 residents in 2021, behind San Jose, California, at 3.1 per 100,000.[342]
Organized crime has long been associated with New York City, beginning with the Forty Thieves and the Roach Guards in the Five Points neighborhood in the 1820s, followed by the Tongs in the same neighborhood, which ultimately evolved into Chinatown, Manhattan. The 20th century saw a rise in the Mafia, dominated by the Five Families, as well as in gangs, including the Black Spades.[344] The Mafia and gang presence has declined in the city in the 21st century.[345][346]
Many Fortune 500 corporations are headquartered in New York City,[356] as are a large number of multinational corporations. New York City has been ranked first among cities across the globe in attracting capital, business, and tourists.[357][358] New York City's role as the top global center for the advertising industry is metonymously reflected as Madison Avenue.[359] The city's fashion industry provides approximately 180,000 employees with $11 billion in annual wages.[360]
Significant other economic sectors include universities and non-profit institutions. Manufacturing declined over the 20th century but still accounts for significant employment. The city's apparel and garment industry, historically centered on the Garment District in Manhattan, peaked in 1950, when more than 323,000 workers were employed in the industry in New York. In 2015, fewer than 23,000 New York City residents were employed in the industry, although revival efforts were underway,[361] and the American fashion industry continues to be metonymized as Seventh Avenue.[362] In 2017, the city had 205,592 employer firms, of which 22.0% were owned by women, 31.3% were minority-owned and 2.7% were owned by veterans.[4]
In 2022, the gross domestic product of New York City was $1.053 trillion, of which $781 billion (74%) was produced by Manhattan.[8] Like other large cities, New York City has a degree of income disparity, as indicated by its Gini coefficient of 0.55 as of 2022.[363][364] In November 2023, the city had total employment of 4.75 million of which more than a quarter were in education and health services.[365] Manhattan, which accounted for more than half of the city's jobs, had an average weekly wage of $2,590 in the second quarter of 2023, ranking fourth-highest among the nation's 360 largest counties.[366] New York City is one of the relatively few American cities levying an income tax (about 3%) on its residents;[367][368][369] despite this tax levy, New York City in 2024 was home by a significant margin to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world, with a total of 110.[31]
Manhattan contained over 500 million square feet (46.5 million m2) of office space in 2018,[376] making New York City the largest office market in the world,[377][378] while Midtown Manhattan, with 400 million square feet (37.2 million m2) in 2018,[376] is the largest central business district in the world.[379]
New York is a top-tier global technology hub.[12][380]Silicon Alley, once a metonym for the sphere encompassing the metropolitan region's high technology industries,[381] is no longer a relevant moniker as the city's tech environment has expanded dramatically both in location and in scope since at least 2003, when tech business appeared in more places in Manhattan and in other boroughs, and not much silicon was involved.[381][382] New York City's current tech sphere encompasses the array of applications involving universal applications of artificial intelligence (AI),[383][384] broadband internet,[385]new media, financial technology (fintech) and cryptocurrency, biotechnology, game design, and other fields within information technology that are supported by its entrepreneurship ecosystem and venture capital investments. Technology-driven startup companies and entrepreneurial employment are growing in New York City and the region. The technology sector has been claiming a greater share of New York City's economy since 2010.[386]Tech:NYC, founded in 2016, is a non-profit organization which represents New York City's technology industry with government, civic institutions, in business, and in the media, and whose primary goals are to further augment New York's substantial tech talent base and to advocate for policies that will nurture tech companies to grow in the city.[387]
New York City's AI sector raised US$483.6 million in venture capital investment in 2022.[388] In 2023, New York unveiled the first comprehensive initiative to create both a framework of rules and a chatbot to regulate the use of AI within the sphere of city government.[389]
New York City real estate is a safe haven for global investors.[29] The total value of all New York City property was assessed at US$1.479 trillion for the 2017 fiscal year, an increase of 6.1% from the previous year; of the total market value for 2024, single family homes accounted for $765 billion (51.7%), co-ops, condominiums and apartment buildings totaled $351 billion (23.7%) and commercial properties were valued at $317 billion (21.4%).[392][393]Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan commands the highest retail rents in the world, at $2,000 per square foot ($22,000/m2) in 2023.[394][395]
New York City has one of the highest costs of living in the world, which is exacerbated by the city's housing shortage.[396][397] In 2023, one-bedroom apartments in Manhattan rented at a median monthly price of US$4,443.[398] The median house price city-wide is over $1 million as of 2023.[399]
With 33,000 units available in 2023 among the city's 2.3 million rentable apartments, the vacancy rate was 1.4%, the lowest level since 1968 and a rate that is indicative of a shortage of available units, especially among those with rents below the median monthly rental of $1,650, where 1% of units were available.[400]
Tourism
Times Square is one of the world's leading tourist attractions with 50 million tourists annually.[215]
Tourism is a vital industry for New York City, and NYC Tourism + Conventions represents the city's official bureau of tourism.[401] New York has witnessed a growing combined volume of international and domestic tourists, with as many as 66.6 million visitors to the city per year, including as many as 13.5 million visitors from outside the United States, with the highest numbers from the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, and China.[402] Multiple sources have called New York the most photographed city in the world.[403][404][405]I Love New York (stylized I ❤ NY) is both a logo and a song that are the basis of an advertising campaign and have been used since 1977 to promote tourism in New York City,[406] and later to promote New York State as well. The trademarked logo is owned by New York State Empire State Development.[407]
Many districts and monuments in New York City are major landmarks, including three of the world's ten-most-visited tourist attractions in 2023.[408] A record 66.6 million tourists visited New York City in 2019, bringing in $47.4 billion in tourism revenue. Visitor numbers dropped by two-thirds in 2020 during the pandemic, rebounding to 63.3 million in 2023.[402][409] Major landmarks in New York City include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and Central Park.[410] Times Square is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District,[411] and a major center of the world's entertainment industry.[412] that attracts 50 million visitors annually to one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections.[215]
As of 2019[update], New York City was the second-largest center for filmmaking and television production in the United States, producing about 200 feature films annually. The industry employed more than 100,000 people in 2019, generating $12.2 billion in wages and a total economic impact of $64.1 billion.[426] By volume, New York is the world leader in independent film production—one-third of all American independent films are produced there.[427][418]
New York is a major center for non-commercial educational media. NYC Media is the official public radio, television, and online media network and broadcasting service of New York City,[428] and has produced several original Emmy Award-winning shows covering music and culture in city neighborhoods and city government. The oldest public-access television channel in the United States is the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, founded in 1971.[429]WNET is the city's major public television station and produces a third of national Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television programming.[430]WNYC, a public radio station owned by the city until 1997,[431] has the largest public radio audience in the United States.[432]
One of the most common traits attributed to New York City is its fast pace,[445][446][447] which spawned the term New York minute.[448] New York City's residents are prominently known for their resilience historically, and more recently related to their management of the impacts of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic.[449][450][451] New York was voted the world's most resilient city in 2021 and 2022, per Time Out's global poll of urban residents.[450]
Broadway theatre is one of the premier forms of English-language theatre in the world, named after Broadway, the major thoroughfare that crosses Times Square,[454] sometimes referred to as "The Great White Way."[455][456][457]
Forty-one venues mostly in Midtown Manhattan's Theatre District, each with at least 500 seats, are classified as Broadway theatres.[458] The 2018–19 Broadway theatre season set records with total attendance of 14.8 million and gross revenue of $1.83 billion[459] Recovering from closures forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022–23 revenues rebounded to $1.58 billion with total attendance of 12.3 million.[460][461] The Tony Awards recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre and are presented at an annual ceremony in Manhattan.[462]
Accent and dialect
The New York area is home to a distinctive regional accent and speech pattern called the New York dialect, alternatively known as Brooklynese or New Yorkese. It has been considered one of the most recognizable accents within American English.[463] The traditional New York area speech pattern is known for its rapid delivery, and its accent is characterized as non-rhotic so that the sound [ɹ] does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant, therefore the pronunciation of the city name as "New Yawk."[464] The classic version of the New York City dialect is centered on middle- and working-class New Yorkers. The influx of non-European immigrants in recent decades has led to changes in this distinctive dialect,[464] and the traditional form of this speech pattern is no longer as prevalent.[464]
New York has architecturally noteworthy buildings in a wide range of styles and from distinct time periods, from the Dutch Colonial Pieter Claesen Wyckoff House in Brooklyn, the oldest section of which dates to 1656, to the modern One World Trade Center, the skyscraper at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan and the most expensive office tower in the world by construction cost.[465]
Manhattan's skyline, with its many skyscrapers, has been recognized as an iconic symbol of the city,[466][467][468] and the city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world. As of 2019[update], New York City had 6,455 high-rise buildings, the third most in the world after Hong Kong and Seoul.[469]
The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegant brownstone rowhouses and townhouses and shabby tenements that were built during a period of rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930.[470] Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835.[471]
In contrast, New York City also has neighborhoods that are less densely populated and feature free-standing dwellings. In neighborhoods such as Riverdale (in the Bronx), Ditmas Park (in Brooklyn), and Douglaston (in Queens), large single-family homes are common in various architectural styles such as Tudor Revival and Victorian.[472][473][474]
New York City has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries.[476] The city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts.[476] The city is also home to hundreds of cultural institutions and historic sites. Museum Mile is the name for a section of Fifth Avenue running from 82nd to 105th streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,[477] in the upper portion of Carnegie Hill.[478]
Nine museums occupy the length of this section of Fifth Avenue, making it one of the densest displays of culture in the world.[479] Its art museums include the Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Neue Galerie New York, and The Africa Center. In addition to other programming, the museums collaborate for the annual Museum Mile Festival, held each year in June, to promote the museums and increase visitation.[480] Many of the world's most lucrative art auctions are held in New York City.[481][482]
New York has frequently been ranked the top fashion capital of the world on the annual list compiled by the Global Language Monitor.[492]New York Fashion Week (NYFW) is a high-profile semiannual event featuring models displaying the latest wardrobes created by prominent fashion designers worldwide in advance of these fashions proceeding to the retail marketplace.[493]
NYFW sets the tone for the global fashion industry.[494] New York's fashion district encompasses roughly 30 city blocks in Midtown Manhattan,[495] clustered around a stretch of Seventh Avenue nicknamed Fashion Avenue.[496] New York's fashion calendar also includes Couture Fashion Week to showcase haute couture styles.[497] The Met Gala is often described as "Fashion's biggest night."[498]
New York City is well known for its street parades, the majority held in Manhattan. The primary orientation of the annual street parades is typically from north to south, marching along major avenues. The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the world's largest parade,[499] beginning alongside Central Park and proceeding southward to the flagship Macy's Herald Square store;[500] the parade is viewed on telecasts worldwide and draws millions of spectators in person.[499] Other notable parades including the annual New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade in March, the NYC LGBT Pride March in June, the LGBT-inspired Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in October, and numerous parades commemorating the independence days of many nations. Ticker-tape parades celebrating championships won by sports teams as well as other accomplishments march northward along the Canyon of Heroes on Broadway from Bowling Green to City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan.
The city has played host to more than 40 major professional teams in the five sports and their respective competing leagues. Four of the ten most expensive stadiums ever built worldwide (MetLife Stadium, the new Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, and Citi Field) are in the New York metropolitan area.[509]
Mass transit in New York City, most of which runs 24 hours a day, accounts for one in every three users of mass transit in the United States, and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in the New York City metropolitan area.[533][534]
Buses
New York City's public bus fleet runs 24/7 and is the largest in North America.[535] The New York City bus system serves the most passengers of any city in the nation: In 2022, MTA New York City Transit's buses served 483.5 million trips, while MTA Regional Bus Operations handled 100.3 million trips.[536]
The Port Authority Bus Terminal is the city's main intercity bus terminal and the world's busiest bus station, serving 250,000 passengers on 7,000 buses each workday in a building opened in 1950 that was designed to accommodate 60,000 daily passengers. A 2021 plan announced by the Port Authority would spend $10 billion to expand capacity and modernize the facility.[532][537][531] In 2024, the Port Authority announced plans for a new terminal that would feature a glass atrium at a new main entrance on 41st Street.[538][539]
Public transport is widely used in New York City. 54.6% of New Yorkers commuted to work in 2005 using mass transit.[544] This is in contrast to the rest of the United States, where 91% of commuters travel in automobiles to their workplace.[545] According to the New York City Comptroller, workers in the New York City area spend an average of 6hours and 18 minutes getting to work each week, the longest commute time in the nation among large cities.[546] New York is the only U.S. city in which a majority (52%) of households do not have a car; only 22% of Manhattanites own a car.[547] Due to their high usage of mass transit, New Yorkers spend less of their household income on transportation than the national average, saving $19 billion annually on transportation compared to other urban Americans.[548]
New York City's commuter rail network is the largest in North America.[533] The rail network, connecting New York City to its suburbs, consists of the Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad, and New Jersey Transit. The combined systems converge at Grand Central Terminal and New York Penn Station and contain more than 250 stations and 20 rail lines.[533] The elevated AirTrain JFK in Queens connects JFK International Airport to the New York City Subway and the Long Island Rail Road.[549] For inter-city rail, New York City is served by Amtrak, whose busiest station by a significant margin is Penn Station on the West Side of Manhattan, from which Amtrak provides connections to Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. along the Northeast Corridor, and long-distance train service to other North American cities.[550]
The Staten Island Railway rapid transit system solely serves Staten Island, operating 24 hours a day, with access to Manhattan from the St. George Terminal via the Staten Island Ferry.[551] The PATH train links Midtown and Lower Manhattan with Hoboken Terminal and Newark Penn Station in New Jersey, and then those stations with the World Trade Center Oculus across the Hudson River.[552] Like the New York City Subway, the PATH operates 24 hours a day, meaning three of the five rapid transit systems in the United States which operate on 24-hour schedules are wholly or partly in New York.[553]
The Staten Island Ferry is the world's busiest ferry route, carrying more than 23 million passengers from July 2015 through June 2016 on a 5.2-mile (8.4 km) route between Staten Island and Lower Manhattan and running 24/7.[563][564] Other ferry systems shuttle commuters between Manhattan and other locales within the city and the metropolitan area. NYC Ferry, a NYCEDC initiative with routes planned to travel to all five boroughs, was launched in 2017.[565]
Identified by their color and taxi medallion, the city's 13,587 yellow taxicabs are the only vehicles allowed to pick up riders making street hails throughout the city.[566]Apple green-colored boro taxis can pick up street hails in Upper Manhattan and the four outer boroughs.[567] Long dominated by yellow taxis, high-volume for hire vehicles from Uber and Lyft have provided the most trips in the city since December 2016, when the for-hire vehicles and cabs each had about 10.5 million trips. By October 2023, the 78,000 vehicles-for-hire from such companies as Uber and Lyft combined for 20.3 million trips, while 3.5 million trips were in yellow taxis.[568][569]
Citi Bike bike share service, which started in May 2013
New York City has mixed cycling conditions which include urban density, relatively flat terrain, congested roadways with stop-and-go traffic, and many pedestrians. The city's large cycling population includes utility cyclists, such as delivery and messenger services; recreational cycling clubs; and an increasing number of commuters. Cycling is increasingly popular in New York City; in 2022 there were approximately 61,200 people who commuted daily using a bicycle and 610,000 daily bike trips, with both numbers nearly doubling over the previous decade.[221] As of 2022[update], New York City had 1,525 miles (2,454 km) of bike lanes, including 644 miles (1,036 km) of segregated or "protected" bike lanes citywide.[221]
Streets are also a defining feature of the city. The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 greatly influenced its physical development. New York City has an extensive web of freeways and parkways, which link the city's boroughs to each other and to North Jersey, Westchester County, Long Island, and southwestern Connecticut through bridges and tunnels. Because these highways serve millions of outer borough and suburban residents who commute into Manhattan, it is common for motorists to be stranded for hours in traffic congestion that are a daily occurrence, particularly during rush hour.[572][573]Congestion pricing in New York City was approved in March 2024 and is expected to enter into force in mid-June if lawsuits will not overturn it.[574]
Unlike the rest of the United States, New York State prohibits right or left turns on red lights at traffic signals in cities with a population greater than one million, to reduce traffic collisions and increase pedestrian safety. In New York City, therefore, all turns on red lights are illegal unless a sign permitting such maneuvers is present.[575]
The boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island are located on islands with the same names, while Queens and Brooklyn are at the west end of the larger Long Island, and the Bronx is on New York State's mainland. Manhattan Island is linked to New York City's outer boroughs and to New Jersey by an extensive network of bridges and tunnels. The 14-lane George Washington Bridge, connecting Manhattan to New Jersey across the Hudson River, is the world's busiest motor vehicle bridge.[576][577] The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, spanning the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island, is the longest suspension bridge in the Americas and one of the world's longest.[578][579] The Brooklyn Bridge, with its stone neo-Gothic suspension towers, is an icon of the city itself; opened in 1883, it was the first steel-wire suspension bridge and was the longest suspension bridge in the world until 1903.[580][581] The Queensboro Bridge "was the longest cantilever span in North America" from 1909 to 1917.[582] The Manhattan Bridge, opened in 1909, "is considered to be the forerunner of modern suspension bridges", and its design "served as the model for the major long-span suspension bridges" of the early 20th century.[583] The Throgs Neck Bridge and Whitestone Bridge connect Queens and the Bronx, while the Triborough Bridge connects the three boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx.
The Lincoln Tunnel, which carries 120,000 vehicles a day under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Midtown Manhattan, is the busiest vehicular tunnel in the world.[584] The tunnel was built instead of a bridge to allow unfettered passage of large passenger and cargo ships that sailed through New York Harbor and up the Hudson River to Manhattan's piers. The Holland Tunnel, connecting Lower Manhattan to Jersey City, New Jersey, was the first mechanically ventilated vehicular tunnel when it opened in 1927.[585][586] The Queens–Midtown Tunnel, built to relieve congestion on the bridges connecting Manhattan with Queens and Brooklyn, was the largest non-federal project in its time when it was completed in 1940.[587] The Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel (officially known as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel) is the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America and runs underneath Battery Park, connecting the Financial District in Lower Manhattan to Red Hook in Brooklyn.[588]
The city's mayor is Eric Adams, who was elected in 2021.[598] The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. As of November 2023, 67% of active registered voters in the city are Democrats and 10.2% are Republicans.[599] New York City has not been carried by a Republican presidential candidate since 1924, and no Republican candidate for statewide office has won all five boroughs since the city was incorporated in 1898. In redistricting following the 2020 census, 14 of New York's 26 congressional districts include portions of New York City.[600]
New York City is a significant geographical source of political fundraising.[601] The city has a strong imbalance of payments with the national and state governments. It receives 83 cents in services for every $1 it sends to the federal government in taxes (or annually sends $11.4 billion more than it receives back). City residents and businesses also sent an additional $4.1 billion in the 2009–2010 fiscal year to the state of New York than the city received in return.[602]
International relations
In 2006, the sister city program[603] was restructured and renamed New York City Global Partners. Through this program, New York City has expanded its international outreach to a network of cities worldwide. New York's historic sister cities are denoted below by the year they joined New York City's partnership network.[604]
Holli, Melvin G., and Jones, Peter d'A., eds. Biographical Dictionary of American Mayors, 1820–1980 (Greenwood Press, 1981) short scholarly biographies each of the city's mayors 1820 to 1980. online; see index at p. 410 for list.
Core cities are metropolitan core cities of at least a million people. The other areas are urban areas of cities that have an urban area of 150,000+ or of a metropolitan area of at least 250,000+. Satellite cities are in italics.