New York City, officially the City of New York, is the most populous city in the United States and the most densely populated major city in North America.
The city is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture, and is considered to be one of the world's four primary global cities (along with London, Paris, and Tokyo) with a nearly unrivaled collection of museums, galleries, performance venues, media outlets, international corporations, and financial markets.
Located in the state of New York, New York City has a population of 8.2 million within an area of 321 square miles (approximately 830 km2). It is at the heart of the New York Metropolitan Area, which at a population of almost 22 million is among the largest urban areas in the world. The city proper consists of five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island -- all except Staten Island contain over a million people and independently would be counted among the largest cities in the United States.
New York City attracts large numbers of immigrants from over 180 countries, as well as people from all over the United States, who come to the city for its culture, energy, cosmopolitanism, and economic opportunity. The city is also currently notable for having the lowest crime rate among major American cities.
New York City is located at the center of the BosWash megalopolis, 218 miles (350 km) driving distance from Boston and 232 miles (373 km) from Washington, D.C.. The city's total area is 468.9 square miles (1,214.4 km2), of which 35.31% is water. The city is situated on the three major islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and western Long Island. The Bronx is the only borough that is part of the mainland United States.
New York City's significance as a trading city results from the superb natural harbor formed by Upper New York Bay, which is surrounded by Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and the coast of New Jersey. It is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island in Lower New York Bay.
The Hudson River flows from the Hudson Valley into New York Bay, becoming a tidal estuary that separates the Bronx and Manhattan from New Jersey. The East River, actually a tidal strait, stretches from the Long Island Sound to New York Bay, separating the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates Manhattan from the Bronx.
The city's land has been altered considerably by human intervention, with substantial land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in Lower Manhattan with modern developments like Battery Park City. Much of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan. One possible meaning for "Manhattan" is "island of hills"; in fact, the island was quite hilly before European settlement.
As of the census of 2004, there are 8,168,338 people (up from 7.3 million in 1990), 3,021,588 households, and 1,852,233 families residing in the city. This amounts to about 40% of New York state's population and a similar percentage of the New York City metropolitan population.
Recently, New York City has had large numbers of foreign immigrants arriving, many long-standing residents leaving, an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor, and a rise in the black middle class. In some areas of the city there is rapid growth fueled by immigrants and their children. Some areas are undergoing racial and ethnic transition; others are gentrifying.
The two most notable demographic features of the city are its density and diversity. By American standards, the city has an extremely high population density of 26,402.9/mi2, about 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest city, San Francisco. Manhattan's population density is 66,940.1/mi2. New York is also uniquely diverse. 36% of its population is foreign born, a larger percentage than in any other major city in the United States except Los Angeles. Whereas in that city the vast majority are from a single country - Mexico - in New York no single country of origin dominates. Only the four largest, the Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, and Russia represent groups larger than five percent. In 2000, the city was 44.7% white, 26.6% black, and 9.8% Asian, while people of Hispanic origin (who may be of any race) were 27% of the population.
New York City's estimated daytime population is the largest in the United States at more than 8.5 million persons. In absolute terms the increase of more than half a million people over the nighttime population is larger than anywhere else. However, as a percentage of the city's total population, the 7% increase puts New York mid-pack among cities with more than a million residents. This is because a disproportionately high number of people both work and live in the city compared with the national average.
Median family income in New York was $44,131 in 2003. The unemployment rate in March of 2005 was 5.2%, identical to the nationwide rate. The median age is 34, a year younger than the figure nationally. Nearly 30% of New York City households have children under 18.
New Yorkers belong to a diverse range of ethnic groups. 11.5% are African-American, 9.8% Puerto Rican, 8.7% Italian, 5.3% Irish, 5.1% Dominican, 4.5% Chinese, 2.1% Asian Indian, 1.8% Filipino and 1.6% Korean. Several of these minority populations have become the predominant influence over particular sections of Manhattan, including Chinatown, Harlem, Little Italy, and Spanish Harlem. The Irish have also had a notable presence in the city, and 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. Additionally, New York City is home to the nation's largest community of American Jews, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic, with an estimate of just under 1 million in 2002. The city is the worldwide headquarters of the Hasidic Lubavitch movement and the Bobover and Satmar branches of Hasidism.
New York City is a major center for business and commerce and is one of the three world cities (along with London and Tokyo) that controls world finance. The financial, insurance, and real estate industries form the basis of its economy. The city is the most important center for mass media, journalism and publishing in the United States and is also the preeminent arts center in the country. New York's film industry is the nation's second largest after Hollywood. Medical research, technology, and fashion are also important sectors.
The city's stock exchanges are among the most important in the world. The New York Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange worldwide by dollar volume, while NASDAQ is the world's largest by number of listings. Many international corporations are headquartered in the city, including more Fortune 500 companies than anywhere else. New York is unique among American cities for its large number of foreign corporations. One out of every ten private sector jobs in the city is with a foreign company. Often this makes the perspective of New York's business community internationalist and at odds with Washington's foreign policy, trade policy, and visa policy.
Specialized manufacturing accounts for a large but declining share of employment. Garments, chemicals, metal products, processed foods, and furniture are some of the principal manufacturers. New York's fine natural harbor has meant international shipping has always been a major part of the city's economy, but in recent decades most cargo shipping has moved from the Brooklyn waterfront across the harbor to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey. Some cargo shipping remains. Brooklyn handles the majority of cocoa bean imports to the United States.
Creative industries, like design, new media, and architecture account for a growing share of employment. With the increasing commercial role of the city's many medical laboratories and research centers, science and research is another strong growth sector. Jobs in the sector grew 4.9% in 2004 - 2005. High-tech industries like software development, gaming design, and Internet services are also growing; New York is the leading international internet gateway in the United States, with 430 Gbps of international internet capacity terminates, because of its position at the terminus of the transatlantic fiber optic trunkline. By comparison, the number two U.S. hub, Washington/Baltimore, has 158 Gbps of internet terminates.
New York City has an estimated gross metropolitan product of nearly $500 billion within the city limits, larger than the GDP of Switzerland ($377 billion) and nearly equaling that of Russia ($582 billion). As a nation, the city's economy would be 17th largest in the world, and at $59,000 per person, New York would have the second highest per capita GDP after Luxembourg. New York is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other place in the United States.
The region had long been inhabited by the Lenape at the time of its discovery by European Giovanni da Verrazzano. The Dutch established New Amsterdam and New Netherland in 1613, and the colony was granted self-government in 1652 under Peter Stuyvesant, but was conquered by the British in 1664, when it was renamed "New York" after the English city of York. The Dutch briefly regained it in August 1673, renaming the city "New Orange", but ceded it permanently in November 1674.
Under British rule the City of New York continued to develop, and while there was growing sentiment for greater political independence, the area was decidedly split in its loyalties during the New York Campaign, a series of major early battles during the American Revolutionary War. Subsequently, the city was under British occupation until the end of the war, and was the last port British ships evacuated in 1783.
New York City was the capital of the newly-formed United States from 1788 to 1790. In the 19th Century, the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 enabled New York to overtake Boston and Philadelphia in economic importance, and local politics became dominated by a Democratic Party political machine known as Tammany Hall, supported by Irish immigrants. The New York Draft Riots during the American Civil War were suppressed by the Union Army. In later years known as the Gilded Age, the city's upper classes enjoyed great prosperity amid the further growth of a poor immigrant working class, associated with economic and municipal consolidation of what would become the five boroughs in 1898.
A series of new transportation links, most notably the opening of the New York City Subway in 1904, helped bind together the newly-consolidated city. The height of European immigration brought social upheaval, and the anticapitalist labor union IWW was fiercely repressed. Later, in the 1920s, the city saw the influx of African-Americans as part of the Great Migration from the American South. The Harlem Renaissance blossomed during this period, part of a larger boom in the Prohibition era that saw the city's skyline transformed by construction of dueling skyscrapers. New York overtook London as the most populous city in the world in 1925, ending that city's century-old claim to the title. The city suffered during the Great Depression, which saw the election of reformist mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the end of Tammany Hall's eighty years of political dominance. The city's industries and port facilities, such as the Brooklyn Navy Yard, also played a major role in World War II.
New York emerged from World War II as the unquestioned leading city of the world, with Wall Street leading America's emergence as the world's dominant economic power, the United Nations headquarters (built in Manhattan in 1952) emphasizing its political influence, and the rise of Abstract Expressionism displacing Paris as center of the art world. The growth of post-war suburbs saw a slow decline in the city's population. Later, changes in industry and commerce, suburban flight, and rising crime rates pushed New York into a social and economic crisis in the 1970s.
The 1980s was a period of modest boom and bust, followed by a major boom in the 1990s. Racial tensions calmed in latter years; a dramatic fall in crime rates, improvements in quality of life and a major reinvigoration of immigration and growth renewed the city, and New York's population passed eight million for the first time in its history. In the late 1990s, the city benefited disproportionately from the success of the financial services industry during the dot com boom, one of the factors supporting a decade of booming residential and commercial real estate values.
The city was the site of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history on September 11, 2001, when almost 3,000 people were killed in the destruction of the World Trade Center. Among those who died were workers in the buildings, passengers and crew on two commercial jetliners, and hundreds of firemen, policemen, and rescue workers who responded to the disaster. The city's economy was substantially hurt but has since recovered. The Freedom Tower, intended to be exactly 1,776 feet tall (a number symbolic of the year the Declaration of Independence was written), is to be built on the site and is slated for construction between 2006 and 2010.
Source:
NewYorkCityNewYork.com
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