Demographics
New York is the largest city in the United States, with a population more than double the next largest city, Los Angeles. The estimated 2005 population of New York City is 8,213,839 (up from 7.3 million in 1990). This amounts to about 40% of New York State's population and a similar percentage of the metropolitan regional population. Over the last decade the city has been growing rapidly. Demographers estimate New York's population will reach 9.4 million by 2025.
New York's two key demographic features are its density and diversity. The city has an extremely high population density of 26,403 people per square mile (10,194.2/km²), about 10,000 more people per square mile than the next densest large American city, San Francisco. Manhattan's population density is 66,940.1 people per square mile (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 1 out of 4 Americans trace their ancestry roots back to New York City. 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. The eight largest countries of origin are the Dominican Republic, China, Jamaica, Russia, Italy, Poland, India and Romania.
The city and its metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel. It is also home to nearly a quarter of the nation's Indian-Americans, and the largest African American community of any city in the country. Among Latino New Yorkers Puerto Ricans have long been the city's largest ethnic group, but that has begun to change with new immigration from other Latin American nations. There is also a sizeable Filipino community in Brooklyn. Another historically significant ethnic group in the city are Italians, particularly southern Italians who emigrated in large numbers from Sicily and Naples in the early twentieth century. The Irish also have a notable presence; a 2006 genetic survey by Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland found that 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.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
