Demographics of New York City

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The demographics of New York City depict a uniquely large and ethnically diverse metropolis, the largest city in the United States with a population defined by a long history of international immigration. New York City is home to more than 8 million people, accounting for about 40% of the population of New York State and a similar percentage of the New York metropolitan area, home to about 20 million. Over the last decade the city has been growing faster than the region. Demographers estimate New York's population will reach 9.4 million by 2025.

The two key demographic features of the city are its density and diversity. The city has an extremely high population density of 26,402.9/mi² (10,194.2/km²), about 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest American city, San Francisco. Manhattan's population density is 66,940.1/mi² (25,845.7/km²).

New York City is exceptionally diverse. Throughout its history the city has been a major point of entry for immigrants; the term "melting pot" was first coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Side, and according to some estimates as many as one in four Americans can trace their roots to Brooklyn. In 2000, 36% of the city's population was foreign-born. Among American cities this proportion was higher only in Los Angeles and Miami. While the immigrant communities in those cities are dominated by a few nationalities, in New York no single country or region of origin dominates.

Contents 1 Current demographics 1.1 Population 1.2 Households 1.3 Income 2 Future demographics 3 Historic population figures 4 Nationalities and Ethnicities in New York 4.1 African Americans 4.2 Asian ancestry 4.2.1 Chinese 4.2.2 South Asian 4.3 European ancestry 4.3.1 German 4.3.2 Irish 4.3.3 Italian 4.3.4 Jewish New York 4.4 Latin Americans 4.4.1 Dominican Republic 4.4.2 Puerto Rico 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Current demographics

[edit] Population

New York City compared
2000 Census Data	New York	LA	Chicago	New York State	United States
Total population	8,085,742	3,694,820	2,869,121	18,976,457	281,421,906
Population, percent change, 1990 to 2000	+9.4%	+6%	+4%	+5.5%	+13.1%
Population density	26,402.9/mi²	7,876.8/mi²	12,750.3/mi²	402/mi²	80/mi²
Median household income (1999)	$38,293	$36,687	$38,625	$43,393	$41,994
Per capita income (1999)	$22,402	$20,671	$20,175	$23,389	$21,587
Bachelor's degree or higher	27%	26%	26%	27%	24%
Foreign born	36%	41%	22%	20%	11%
Caucasian	44%	47%	42%	62%	69%
African-American	27%	11%	37%	16%	12%
Latin-American	27%	46%	26%	15%	13%
Asian-American	10%	10%	4%	6%	4%

As of the census of 2000, there were 8,008,278 people, 3,021,588 households, and 1,852,233 families residing in the city. This is roughly equivalent to the combined populations of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia—America's second, third, and fifth most populous cities, respectively. The population density was 10,194.2/km² (26,402.9/mi²). There were 3,200,912 housing units at an average density of 4,074.6/km² (10,553.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 35.0% White, 24.5% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American, 9.8% Asian or Pacific Islander, 3.7% from other races or from two or more races. 27% of the population were Hispanic. 35.9% of the population was foreign born (18.9% born in Latin America, 8.6% Asia, 7.0% Europe).

In the city, the population was spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 90.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.9 males.

According to the U.S. Census, New York City had the largest estimated daytime population, at more than 8.5 million persons. In absoloute terms the increase of more than half a million people over the night-time population was bigger than that found in any other area in the country. However, as a percentage increase of 7%, New York's daytime population growth is close to the median among cities with more than a million residents. This is because a large number of New Yorkers both work and live within the city limits.

The city has a long tradition of attracting international immigration and Americans seeking careers in certain sectors. As of 2005, New York City has ranked number one for six consecutive years as the U.S. city people would most like to live in or near.^[1]

[edit] Households

There were 3,021,588 households with a median income of $38,293; 29.7% contained children under the age of 18 and 37.2% were married couples living together. 19.1% have a single female householder, and 38.7% were non-families. 31.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.9% were single residents 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.32.

[edit] Income

Per capita income was $22,402; men and women had a median income of $37,435 and $32,949 respectively. 21.2% of the population and 18.5% of families were below the poverty line, of whom 30.0% were under the age of 18 and 17.8% were 65 and older. Manhattan has a high degree of income disparity, with extreme wealth and pockets of poverty. Overall it is one of the highest-income places in the United States with a population over 1,000,000. In particular ZIP code 10021 on Manhattan's Upper East Side, with over 100,000 inhabitants and a per capita income of over $90,000, is one of the largest concentrations of extreme wealth in the United States. The outer boroughs, especially Queens and Staten Island, have large middle class populations.

The richest New Yorker, oil magnate David H. Koch, is worth an estimated $12 billion.^[2] The poorest New Yorkers, 1.5 million people with incomes below the poverty line, are collectively worth less than Mr. Koch's net worth. Of Forbes Magazine's 400 richest Americans, 45 live in New York City, and they are each worth at least $1 billion.^[3]

New York City's unemployment rate in October of 2006 was 4.1%, lower than the nationwide rate of 4.4%.^[4]

[edit] Future demographics

New York has had the highest population among American cities since the first census in 1790. Growth forecasts project New York will maintain this position. The Department of City Planning estimates the city's residents will swell from 8.1 million in 2004 to nearly 9.4 million in 2025. Similar estimates are made by Urbanomics, a consultant to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, an intergovernmental planning group. Their study projects that by 2025, the Bronx will be home to 1.5 million people and Brooklyn to 2.8 million. This would mean both boroughs would surpass their mid twentieth century population peaks. Queens will have 2.8 million people, the study says, and Staten Island nearly 600,000; records for both boroughs. Manhattan, with 1.7 million, will still be short of the more than two million people who lived there early in the twentieth century, many in densely packed tenements.

The Urbanomics projections estimate a continuing decline of non-Hispanic whites, although births will again outnumber deaths among non-Hispanic whites after 2010; the number of black residents will also begin to decline in 2015. Hispanics and Asians will drive overall population growth until 2025; New York's population is then expected to expand more slowly, to nearly 9.5 million in 2030. That would represent a 16% increase from 2004.

According to Urbanomics, between 2025 and 2030 among Asians the total of births over deaths will more than double. The projections also expect the net migration to New York — people arriving versus leaving — will more than triple. New York's economic makeup is also projected to change, becoming generally wealthier; 36% of households are expected to earn more than $100,000 in 2025 compared with 14% now after adjusting for inflation.^[5]

[edit] Historic population figures

Historical Population of New York City pre-Greater New York City [6]
Year	Manhattan	Brooklyn	Queens*	Bronx**	Staten Is.	Total
1790	33,111	4,549	6,000	2,000	3,827	49,487
1800	60,489	5,740	7,000	2,000	4,563	79,792
1810	96,373	8,303	7,000	3,000	5,347	120,023
1820	123,706	11,187	8,000	3,000	6,135	152,028
1830	202,589	20,535	9,000	3,000	7,082	242,206
1840	312,710	47,613	14,000	5,000	10,965	390,288
1850	515,547	138,882	19,000	8,000	15,061	696,490
1860	813,669	279,122	33,000	24,000	25,492	1,175,283
1870	942,292	419,921	45,000	37,000	33,029	1,477,242
1880	1,206,299	599,495	57,000	52,000	38,991	1,953,785
1890	1,515,301	838,547	87,000	89,000	51,693	2,581,541
* Queens County excluding modern day Nassau County. ** Bronx County excluding modern day Westchester County.

Historical Population of New York City post-Greater New York City [7]
Year	Manhattan	Brooklyn	Queens	The Bronx	Staten Is.	Total
1900	1,850,093	1,166,582	152,999	200,507	67,021	3,437,202
1910	2,331,542	1,634,351	284,041	430,980	85,969	4,766,883
1920	2,284,103	2,018,356	469,042	732,016	116,531	5,620,048
1930	1,867,312	2,560,401	1,079,129	1,265,258	158,346	6,930,446
1940	1,889,924	2,698,285	1,297,634	1,394,711	174,441	7,454,995
1950	1,960,101	2,738,175	1,550,849	1,451,277	191,555	7,891,957
1960	1,698,281	2,627,319	1,809,578	1,424,815	221,991	7,781,984
1970	1,539,233	2,602,012	1,986,473	1,471,701	295,443	7,894,862
1980	1,428,285	2,230,936	1,891,325	1,168,972	352,121	7,071,639
1990	1,487,536	2,300,664	1,951,598	1,203,789	378,977	7,322,564
2000	1,537,195	2,465,326	2,229,379	1,332,650	443,728	8,008,278

[edit] Nationalities and Ethnicities in New York

[edit] African Americans

According to the 2000 Census, New York City has the largest population of self-defined African-American and black residents of any US city, at over 2 million within the city's boundaries. It has the largest population of black immigrants and descendants of immigrants from the Caribbean (especially from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana, Bahamas, and Haiti), and of sub-Saharan Africans. An April 3, 2006 New York Times article noted, however, that for the first time since the U.S. Civil War, the African-American population was declining, based on emigration to other regions, a declining African-American birthrate in New York, and decreased immigration of Blacks from the Caribbean and Africa.^[8]

In 2005, the median income among black households in Queens was close to $52,000 a year, surpassing that of whites. No other county in the country with a population over 65,000 can make that claim.^[9]

[edit] Asian ancestry

[edit] Chinese

See also: Chinese American and Chinatown, Manhattan.

Like other Chinatown districts in American cities, the Chinatown neighborhood of Manhattan is an ethnic enclave with a large population of Chinese immigrants.

By the 1980s, it had surpassed San Francisco's Chinatown to become the largest enclave of Chinese immigrants in the Western hemisphere, but in the last few years it too has been outgrown by the lesser-known but larger New York City Chinatown community in nearby Flushing, Queens.

[edit] South Asian

According to 2005 American Community Survey Estimates, New York City is home to approximately 275,000 persons from the countries of India (226,587), Pakistan (22,180), Bangladesh (18,825), and Sri Lanka (1,094), and comprise a combined 3.5% of New York City's population. A majority of them are concentrated in Queens neighborhoods such as Richmond Hills, Kew Gardens, Jackson Heights, and Ozone Park. In the borough of Queens, the South Asian population is approximately 170,000, where they comprise 8% of the population.

[edit] European ancestry

[edit] German

See also: German Americans

Heavy German immigration to the United States occurred between 1848 and World War I, during which time nearly 6 million Germans immigrated to the U.S. The Germans became widespread throughout the Northern half of the country, especially the Midwestern states. Today German-Americans are the largest self-reported ethnic group in the United States.

Carl Schurz, a refugee from the unsuccessful first German democratic revolution of 1848, served as United States Secretary of the Interior and as United States Senator from Missouri. Carl Schurz Park in Manhattan is named after him.

The influence of German immigration can still be felt in areas of New York City. The Yorkville neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan was a center of German-American culture.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, Little Germany, in what is now Alphabet City, was the first non-English speaking urban enclave in the United States.

[edit] Irish

Main article: Irish Americans in New York City

The Irish community is one of New York's major ethnic groups, and has been a significant proportion of the City's population since the waves of immigration in the late 1800s.

As a result of the Irish Potato Famine, many Irish families were forced to emigrate from the country. By 1854, between 1.5 and 2 million Irish left their country. In the United States, most Irish became city-dwellers. With little money, many had to settle in the cities that the ships they came on landed in. By 1850, the Irish made up a quarter of the population in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The Irish play a significant role in city politics, the Roman Catholic Church and the New York City Fire Department and Police Department.

According to a 2006 genetic survey by Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, about one in 50 New Yorkers of European origin carry a distinctive genetic signature on their Y chromosomes inherited from Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish high king of the fifth century A.D.^[10]

[edit] Italian

See also: Italian-American

The largest wave of Italian immigration to the United States took place in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Between 1820 and 1978, 5.3 million Italians immigrated to the United States, including over two million in the years 1900-1910 alone. Only the Irish and Germans immigrated in larger numbers. In the United States 2000 Census, Italian-Americans constituted the sixth-largest ancestry group in America with about 16 million people (5.3% of the total U.S. population).

In some Italian-American communities, Saint Joseph's Day (March 19) is marked with celebrations and parades. Columbus Day is also widely celebrated in these communities, as are the feasts of some regional Italian patron saints, most notably Feast of San Gennaro (September 19) by those claiming Neapolitan heritage, and Santa Rosalia (September 4) by Sicilians.

Italian families first settled in Little Italy's neighborhoods, the most famous one being the one around Mulberry Street, in Manhattan. However, since the 1960s, Italian-American families tend to spread to the suburbs, mainly Westchester County, Nassau County (where a quarter of the population is of Italian origins), and in Staten Island, with almost half of the borough residents having Italian blood.

• Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
• Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, New York
• Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, New York
• Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, New York
• Mulberry Street, Manhattan (New York's Little Italy)
• Pleasant Avenue, East Harlem, Manhattan, New York
• Arthur Avenue, Bronx, New York
• Howard Beach, Queens, New York

[edit] Jewish New York

See also: American Jews

The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel. New York's Jewish population in 2001 was approximately 1.97 million, 1.4 million more than in Jerusalem but 600,000 less than in Tel Aviv.^[11] In 2002, an estimated 972,000 Ashkenazic Jews lived in New York City and constituted about 12% of the city's population. New York City is also home to the worldwide headquarters of the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch sect and the Bobover and Satmar branches of Hasidism.

The Jewish presence in New York City dates to the 1600s when a Jewish community relocated from Recife seeking freedom of worship. Major immigration of Jews to New York started in the 1880s, with the increase of anti-semitism in Central and Eastern Europe. The number of Jews in New York City soared throughout the beginning of the 20th century and reached a peak of 2 million in the 1950s, when Jews constituted one-quarter of the city's population. New York City's Jewish population then began to decline because of low fertility rates and migration to suburbs and other states, particularly California and Florida. A new wave of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union began arriving in the 1980s and 1990s. Many have settled in south Brooklyn.

The first Jewish immigrants settled mainly in the tenement houses of the Lower East Side. Today New York City's Jewish population is dispersed among all the boroughs; Brooklyn's Jewish population in 2003 was estimated 456,000, and Manhattan's at 243,000.

While a quarter of New York Jews are not religious, the Orthodox community is rapidly growing, while the numbers of Conservative and Reform Jews are declining.

Like the Irish, the Jewish community has played an important role in New York City's politics; Jewish voters traditionally vote in large numbers and have often supported politically liberal ideas.

[edit] Latin Americans

[edit] Dominican Republic

[edit] Puerto Rico

See also: Puerto Ricans in the United States

[edit] References

1. ^ Harris Interactive. "California and New York City Most Popular Places People would choose to Live", 2005-09-11. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
2. ^ New York Magazine. "Mind the Income Gap", 2006-11-06. Retrieved on 2006-11-08.
3. ^ New York Magazine. "Mind the Income Gap", 2006-11-06. Retrieved on 2006-11-08.
4. ^ The New York Times. "City’s Unemployment Rate Falls to Its Lowest Level in 30 Years", 2006-11-17. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
5. ^ The New York Times. "By 2025, Planners See a Million New Stories in the Crowded City", 2006-03-19. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
6. ^ University of Virginia.Historical Census Browser
7. ^ University of Virginia.Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990, United States Census Bureau, Last Revised: November 2, 2000
8. ^ The New York Times. "New York City Losing Blacks, Census Shows", 2006-04-03. Retrieved on 2006-04-04.
9. ^ The New York Times. "Black Incomes Surpass Whites in Queens", 2006-10-01. Retrieved on 2006-10-01.
10. ^ The New York Times. "If Irish Claim Nobility, Science may Approve", 2006-01-18. Retrieved on 2006-01-18.
11. ^ Simpletoremember.com. "World Jewish Population, Analysis by City", 2001. Retrieved on 2006-06-22.

[edit] See also

• Demographics of The Bronx
• Demographics of Brooklyn
• Demographics of Manhattan
• Demographics of Queens
• Demographics of Staten Island
• Crime in New York City

[edit] External links

• New York City Department of City Planning Population Division [1]
• The Newest New Yorkers, 2000, by the NYC Population Division, uses Census information and other federal and local data to take a detailed look at the origins, spatial settlement, and other characteristics of the foreign-born population in New York City and in the larger metropolitan region.[2]

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