New York City is composed of five boroughs, an unusual form of government.
Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of New York State as shown below.
Throughout the boroughs there are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods, many with a definable history and character to call their own.
If the boroughs were each independent cities, four of the boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx) would be among the ten most populous cities in the United States.
New York's Five Boroughs at a Glance
Jurisdiction Population Land Area
Borough of County of estimate for
1 July 2008 square
miles square
km
Manhattan New York 1,634,795 23 59
the Bronx Bronx 1,391,903 42 109
Brooklyn Kings 2,556,598 71 183
Queens Queens 2,293,007 109 283
Staten Island Richmond 487,407 58 151
City of New York
8,363,710 303 786
State of New York
19,490,297 47,214 122,284
Source: United States Census Bureau
The five boroughs:
The Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island
* The Bronx (Bronx County: Pop. 1,373,659) is New York City's northernmost borough, the site of Yankee Stadium, home of the New York Yankees, and home to the largest cooperatively owned housing complex in the United States, Co-op City.
Except for a small piece of Manhattan known as Marble Hill, the Bronx is the only section of the city that is part of the United States mainland.
It is home to the Bronx Zoo, the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States, which spans 265 acres (1.07 km2) and is home to over 6,000 animals.
The Bronx is the birthplace of rap and hip hop culture.
* Manhattan (New York County: Pop. 1,620,867) is the most densely populated borough and home to most of the city's skyscrapers, as well as Central Park.
The borough is the financial center of the city and contains the headquarters of many major corporations, the United Nations, as well as a number of important universities, and many cultural attractions, including numerous museums, the Broadway theatre district, Greenwich Village, and Madison Square Garden.
Manhattan is loosely divided into Lower, Midtown, and Uptown regions. Uptown Manhattan is divided by Central Park into the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, and above the park is Harlem.
* Brooklyn (Kings County: Pop. 2,528,050) is the city's most populous borough and was an independent city until 1898. Brooklyn is known for its cultural, social and ethnic diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods and a unique architectural heritage. It is also the only borough outside of Manhattan with a distinct downtown area. The borough features a long beachfront and Coney Island, established in the 1870s as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country.
* Queens (Queens County: Pop. 2,270,338) is geographically the largest borough and the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, and may overtake Brooklyn as the city's most populous borough due to its growth. Historically a collection of small towns and villages founded by the Dutch, today the borough is largely residential and middle class.
It is the only large county in the United States where the median income among African Americans, approximately $52,000 a year, is higher than that of White Americans.
Queens is the site of Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, and annually hosts the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
Additionally, it is home to two of the three major airports serving the New York metropolitan area, LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport. (The third being Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.)
* Staten Island (Richmond County: Pop. 481,613) is the most suburban in character of the five boroughs. Staten Island is connected to Brooklyn by the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and to Manhattan via the free Staten Island Ferry.
The Staten Island Ferry is one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York City as it provides unsurpassed views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and lower Manhattan.
Located in central Staten Island, the 25 km² Greenbelt has some 35 miles (56 km) of walking trails and one of the last undisturbed forests in the city.
Designated in 1984 to protect the island's natural lands, the Greenbelt comprises seven city parks.
The FDR Boardwalk along South Beach is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long, the fourth largest in the world.
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