New York City Population: How Many People Call The Big Apple Home?

New York City is home to about 8.6 million people. The latest official estimate puts the population at 8,584,629 residents as of July 1, 2025, across all five boroughs. The Census Bureau released that citywide figure in May 2026.

If you’ve ever made your way through a crowd in Times Square, you might wonder how many people are New Yorkers and how many are just passing through. That resident total doesn’t tell you how many people are standing within the city at that moment. Commuters and visitors are part of the crowd, too!

Here’s how the numbers fit together, from Brooklyn’s millions of residents to the much bigger region beyond the city limits.

Does New York City Have 8 Million Or 18 Million People?

For the five boroughs, about 8.6 million is the answer. A figure closer to 18 million describes a different boundary, an older estimate or another measure. It isn’t the latest population of NYC itself.

“New York” can mean three different places:

The state and metro totals happen to be similar, but their borders are very different. New York State stretches far beyond the city. The metro area crosses the state line and follows connections between communities, including commuting patterns.

NYC accounts for about 43% of New York State’s population. That leaves around 11.4 million residents elsewhere in the state. Both figures use the same July 2025 estimates.

And yes, New York is a state in the United States, while New York City is a city within it. Manhattan is one borough. When someone says they’re heading into “the city,” they may mean Manhattan, but that familiar bit of New York slang doesn’t change NYC’s boundaries.

How Many People Are In Each Of The Five Boroughs?

Think Manhattan has the most residents? Brooklyn takes that spot, with Queens coming second. Together, they account for about 58% of the city’s population.

Here’s the borough breakdown for July 1, 2025. Every figure comes from the same Census release:

Those five figures add up to 8,584,629. Staten Island has the fewest residents, but more than half a million people still call it home.

The citywide total already includes Brooklyn, Queens and the other boroughs. Adding Brooklyn’s population to NYC’s would count Brooklyn twice.

Looking through county records? Brooklyn appears as Kings County, Manhattan as New York County, and Staten Island as Richmond County. The Bronx and Queens keep their names. New York County therefore means Manhattan, rather than all of New York City.

For a closer look at the places behind the numbers, explore our guide to New York City’s five boroughs.

How Densely Populated Is New York City?

NYC covers about 300 square miles of land. Dividing its July 2025 population estimate by the Census Bureau’s 2020 land-area figure of 300.45 square miles gives roughly 28,600 residents per square mile.

That’s an average across the city. It doesn’t mean every square mile has the same number of residents, or that you’ll encounter that many people on a walk. Homes share the city with parks, offices, shops, roads and other spaces.

The same caution applies to a city block. A block of apartment buildings can hold far more households than a block of detached homes. There’s no single “people per NYC block” number you can apply to every neighborhood.

When comparing city sizes, check whether the area includes water. A land-only figure and a land-and-water figure answer different questions, even when both are labeled “New York City.”

Is New York City’s Population Growing Or Shrinking?

The latest figures show a small dip. NYC’s estimated population fell by 12,196 residents between July 2024 and July 2025, a decrease of about 0.14%.

The longer view puts the pandemic-era fall and partial recovery beside earlier census counts:

The annual estimates in this table all come from the same Census release. The 2000 and 2020 entries are actual census counts, a different kind of measurement.

By July 2025, the city remained about 219,600 people below its April 2020 census count, or roughly 2.5% lower. So a period of growth doesn’t necessarily mean NYC has returned to its earlier population.

The annual population drop isn’t a count of everyone who packed up and moved away. It reflects births, deaths, arrivals and departures together.

Between July 2024 and July 2025, NYC had an estimated net loss of 113,718 residents through moves within the United States. That means departures exceeded arrivals from elsewhere in the country by that amount. International migration and more births than deaths offset much of that loss.

Births also contribute to the total. Between July 2024 and July 2025, the estimates included 90,084 births to city residents—an average of about 247 a day. That average describes the year, rather than a count for any particular day. Counting every birth that happens inside NYC would use a different boundary.

What Does NYC’s Population Look Like?

The city’s total brings together children, older adults and people from many different backgrounds. These details come from censuses and surveys with their own dates, so they don’t all describe July 2025.

Age And Households

The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 survey estimates put residents under 18 at 20.2% of NYC’s population and those aged 65 or older at 16.6%. That’s roughly one in five residents under 18 and one in six aged 65 or over.

These percentages describe a five-year survey period. They aren’t exact headcounts for today.

Households offer another way to picture those millions of residents. The 2024 American Community Survey estimated 1,161,166 New Yorkers living alone and 1,919,714 family households. A family household includes the householder and at least one relative connected by birth, marriage or adoption. That includes families without children. These are different units: the first figure counts people in one-person homes; the second counts households, rather than everyone in those families. Sharing an apartment with unrelated roommates doesn’t make it a family household under this definition.

Race And Identity

The Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey gives this citywide breakdown. These are survey estimates for 2024, separate from the July 2025 headline population:

These categories add up to the survey’s 8,478,072 residents. Hispanic or Latino residents can be of any race; the other rows exclude Hispanic residents so nobody is counted twice. The final row combines non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and other single-race responses.

Looking for White or Black residents including Hispanic people? The same survey estimated 2,834,873 White-alone residents and 1,827,815 Black or African American-alone residents. “Alone” means reporting that race without another race. Those totals use different categories from the table, so don’t add them to its rows.

The survey total differs from the revised July 2024 population estimate in the historical table above. They come from different datasets; a revision to the annual population estimate doesn’t automatically update the survey figures. Don’t multiply these demographic shares by today’s population to create new counts.

For sexual orientation, NYC Health’s report on its 2023 Neighborhood Wellness Survey estimated that 5.2% of city adults identified as gay or lesbian. The report’s broader sexual-minority category was 13.7%, including bisexual adults, other sexual orientations and people unsure of their orientation.

Those categories answer different questions. The broader percentage isn’t a gay-only figure, and neither percentage is an all-ages headcount. Multiplying it by the city’s latest population would mix an adult survey with a different year’s total, including children.

Birthplace, Citizenship And Voting

The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 survey estimates put the share of residents born abroad at 36.6%, a little more than one in three. That doesn’t tell you how many remaining residents were born specifically in NYC: U.S.-born New Yorkers may have come from elsewhere in the country.

Birthplace is different from citizenship. A person born abroad may later become a U.S. citizen, and noncitizens can hold many different immigration statuses.

The 2024 one-year survey estimated 7,203,316 U.S. citizens in NYC, including children. Of those, 1,833,359 were naturalized citizens. It also estimated 1,274,756 noncitizens. Citizens and noncitizens together add up to the survey’s 8,478,072 residents.

Immigration status is a separate question. The NYC Comptroller estimated about 400,000 likely undocumented residents in 2023. The report cautions that official 2023 population statistics likely missed many recently arrived migrants staying in city shelters.

This is an estimate with coverage limits. The number of immigrants, noncitizens or recent arrivals cannot simply be substituted for the undocumented population.

For voting-age residents, the separate 2024 one-year survey estimated 6,818,220 people aged 18 or older, including citizens and noncitizens. Being an adult doesn’t automatically mean someone is eligible to vote.

For elections, the Campaign Finance Board’s 2025 report used 5,639,153 voting-age citizens as its estimate of the eligible population, drawing on the 2024 survey. That’s about 5.6 million potential voters. Citizenship and age provide the population estimate; individual eligibility also depends on election rules, including residency requirements.

The report separately counted 5,318,294 registered voters by the 2025 general-election registration deadline, with about 2.2 million people voting in that election. Eligibility, registration and actually casting a ballot describe different things.

How Large Are NYC’s Different Communities?

NYC’s broad race categories only tell part of its story. These estimates cover communities across all five boroughs, with each figure’s data period and definition shown alongside it.

These groups overlap. A New Yorker can be Jewish or Muslim and also report one of the ancestries above. Ancestry describes family origins; ethnicity and religious identity have their own definitions. None of these figures is a count of foreign passport holders. Adding the rows together would count some residents more than once.

The Asian American Federation’s 2025 report supplies the Bangladeshi, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Pakistani estimates. It draws on 2019–2023 American Community Survey data and 2020 census information, generally including Asian identity alone or combined with another race where the data allow. U.S.-born residents are included. Queens had the three council districts with the largest Korean populations, while Japanese residents were concentrated mainly in Manhattan.

The 2024 American Community Survey supplies the Irish, Dutch, French and Greek ancestry figures. Their margins of error are ±14,720 for Irish, ±3,848 for Dutch, ±8,405 for French and ±7,799 for Greek residents. People can report more than one ancestry, and French Canadian ancestry is tabulated separately.

For an example of how ancestry differs from birthplace, someone born in Queens to an Irish American family can report Irish ancestry without being born in Ireland. NYC Planning estimated 20,139 Greece-born residents in 2023; the table’s Greek-ancestry figure includes U.S.-born descendants and uses 2024 data. The French ancestry estimate likewise differs from the number of France-born residents, French citizens or French speakers.

The Dominican estimate comes from CUNY’s Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies, using 2024 American Community Survey data. NYC Planning separately estimated 389,779 Dominican Republic-born residents in 2023. A Dominican American born in the Bronx belongs in the community total without being an immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

The Jewish estimate comes from UJA-Federation of New York’s 2023 Jewish Community Study. Its definition extends beyond religious observance. It counts Jewish residents, rather than only U.S. citizens or everyone in a Jewish household, which may include non-Jewish members.

The study estimated 462,000 Jewish residents in Brooklyn, 277,000 in Manhattan, 150,000 in Queens, 38,000 on Staten Island and 33,000 in the Bronx. Brooklyn had the largest community. UJA’s wider 1,372,000 total includes Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties, so that larger figure doesn’t describe NYC alone.

The Muslim estimate is attributed to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a 2026 City Council proposal. The proposal doesn’t provide the estimate’s survey year or method. Treat it as an approximate indication of community size, with less documented precision than the dated survey figures above.

We haven’t verified a citywide Amish population figure. New York State’s settlement estimates don’t establish how many Amish people, if any, have their usual home in the five boroughs. That gap doesn’t justify reporting zero, and seeing Amish visitors in the city wouldn’t establish a resident population either.

How Do Housing, Poverty And Jobs Fit Into The Picture?

Population figures also tell us something about New Yorkers’ housing and finances. These measures describe different groups, with plenty of overlap, so they shouldn’t be added together.

Public housing is home to hundreds of thousands of residents. NYCHA reported 298,206 authorized public-housing residents in its January 2025 fact sheet. That includes 293,348 Section 9 residents and 4,858 Section 8 residents in former state- and city-funded developments. The broader population served by NYCHA’s housing and rental-assistance programs is a different measure.

About 1.5 million residents were below the federal poverty threshold, according to the 2024 American Community Survey. Its estimate was 1,497,323 people, or about 18.0% of the population for whom poverty status was determined. This income-based measure doesn’t count everyone struggling with NYC’s cost of living, and it differs from local measures that account for housing costs and benefits.

The same survey estimated 306,671 unemployed residents aged 16 or older, about 6.9% of the civilian labor force. Unemployment describes people without a job who meet the survey’s work-search and availability rules, including its temporary-layoff provisions. Retirees and other people outside the labor force aren’t automatically unemployed. These are 2024 survey estimates, rather than the latest monthly unemployment figures.

Homelessness includes people in shelters as well as those sleeping outside. HUD’s NYC report counted 125,683 people experiencing homelessness on January 28, 2025: 121,010 in emergency shelter or transitional housing, and 4,673 unsheltered. That’s a snapshot under HUD’s definition, rather than everyone who experienced homelessness during the year or a count for today.

A newer, narrower measure comes from the city’s HOPE survey on March 10, 2026. It estimated 4,991 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, including 1,431 in subway areas. The survey was delayed from January by severe winter weather, so comparisons with earlier years need care. Don’t add this March figure to the previous year’s shelter count.

That subway figure helps with questions about people sleeping underground, but it isn’t a count of tunnel residents. It describes people found in subway areas on one survey night. We haven’t verified a separate citywide count of people residing in tunnels or other underground spaces. Giving the subway estimate that label would overstate what the survey tells us.

What Do Disability And Health Figures Tell Us?

Disability and health statistics describe different aspects of the population. People included in these figures may also belong to any of the communities above.

The Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities cites more than 180,000 deaf or hard-of-hearing residents. Its awareness page doesn’t give the estimate’s reference year or method, so treat it as a broad indication of community size. It combines deaf and hard-of-hearing people; it doesn’t supply a current deaf-only count.

NYC Health estimated about 91,300 people with HIV in the city in 2024: roughly 85,800 with diagnosed HIV and 5,500 with undiagnosed HIV. That measures the estimated population with HIV during the year. A count of new diagnoses answers a different question and would miss people diagnosed earlier.

How Many People Are In NYC During The Day?

There isn’t one fixed total for everyone physically in New York City. The number changes as commuters, visitors and residents enter and leave.

Resident population generally follows where people usually make their home. Working in Manhattan while having your usual home outside NYC doesn’t make you a city resident. Neither does a weekend visit.

A daytime estimate asks a different question. The Census Bureau’s basic commuter adjustment starts with residents, adds people working in the area and subtracts workers who reside there. That adjusts for people coming and going for work. It still doesn’t count everyone, including tourists, in the city at a particular hour.

That distinction matters on New Year’s Eve, too. A Times Square crowd estimate describes an event in one part of Manhattan. It can’t tell you how many people are across all five boroughs that night.

If you see a yearly tourism figure, remember that it covers visits across an entire year. You can’t add all those visits to the resident population as though everyone arrived together.

Does NYC Have More Residents Than Los Angeles Or London?

New York remains the most populous city in the United States. Los Angeles, in second place, had an estimated 3,869,089 residents in July 2025. NYC had more than twice that number within its city limits.

London needs a little more care. Using 2024 population estimates, the London region had about 9.1 million residents, compared with about 8.6 million in NYC. On those boundaries and that measure, London had more residents.

That isn’t a comparison of metropolitan areas or land size. “Larger” can mean more people, more land or a bigger surrounding region. Choose the measure first, then compare the figures.

Why Do NYC Population Figures Keep Changing?

Even two articles about the same place and year can show different numbers. Here’s why:

• A census count records the population for a date every ten years.
• An estimate updates the picture between censuses using information about births, deaths and migration.
• A projection looks ahead using assumptions about future changes.

Estimates can also be revised. NYC’s July 2024 estimate changed from about 8.478 million to 8.597 million in the newer release. Comparing the older figure with the 2025 total would make the latest annual trend look like growth instead of a decline.

And an article published in 2026 may still use a July 2025 estimate. The publication year doesn’t turn it into a count for 2026.

Keep the place, date and type of figure together, and those different answers become much easier to understand.

Curious about more than the population? Our interesting facts about New York City are a good place to keep exploring.