New York County, New York

New York is a county in New York, United States, coextensive with the borough of Manhattan and the smallest county by land area in the state. It had a population of 1,694,251 at the 2020 census and covers 33.86 square miles (87.7 km2), of which 22.66 square miles (58.7 km2) is land, centred near 40°42′46″N 74°00′21″W.

New York has no separate county seat: the county government is folded into New York City’s, and the county has been coextensive with the borough of Manhattan since the 1898 consolidation of the five boroughs. Its ZIP codes fall in the 100xx–102xx range, it has zero incorporated cities, towns, or villages of its own (it is entirely built-up neighborhoods inside one city), and it sits in the Eastern time zone.

Neighborhoods of New York County

New York County has never had incorporated towns or villages the way most US counties do — it is Manhattan, one built-up landmass governed as a single city borough, and its historic place names below are neighborhoods, not municipalities. The list below carries over the well-known districts from the county’s own historical record, split loosely into downtown, midtown, and uptown groupings.

A handful of the old list’s entries are apartment complexes rather than neighborhoods — Stuyvesant Town, Peter Cooper Village, Knickerbocker Village, and Penn Station South, among others — and are omitted from the table above as duplicative of the neighborhoods that contain them.

ZIP Codes

New York County’s ZIP codes run in three ranges: the 100xx series covers Lower and Midtown Manhattan south of Central Park, the 101xx series is reserved for large-volume business addresses (including several Midtown skyscrapers with their own code), and the 102xx series covers Upper Manhattan north of Central Park, including Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood.

Geography

New York County is an island county: it comprises Manhattan Island, plus Marble Hill (physically attached to the Bronx since a 19th-century canal was filled in) and a scatter of small islands in the East and Harlem rivers. Central Park occupies roughly 840 acres near the island’s center, and the county has no natural lakes of its own, relying entirely on the Hudson and East rivers for its water boundary. It borders Bronx County to the north (across the Harlem River), Queens County to the east and Kings County (Brooklyn) to the southeast (both across the East River), and Hudson and Bergen counties in New Jersey to the west across the Hudson River, reached via the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, and PATH trains rather than any land border.

Demographics

At the 2020 census, New York County had 1,694,251 residents, the most densely populated of any US county at roughly 75,000 people per square mile. Its two largest neighborhoods by population are the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side, both with well over 200,000 residents apiece. Median household income runs well above the New York median of $82,095 in much of Manhattan’s downtown and Upper East Side census tracts, though Harlem and Washington Heights track closer to or below it — income varies more block-to-block here than in almost any other US county.

Economy & Local Life

New York County is the country’s financial and media capital: the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are both headquartered in Lower Manhattan, and Midtown holds the corporate offices of most of the country’s largest media, advertising, and law firms. Columbia University (Morningside Heights), New York University (Greenwich Village), and dozens of hospitals anchor a large education and health-care sector alongside finance. Broadway theaters in Midtown and Central Park’s public events draw millions of visitors annually, and the county hosts the New York City Marathon’s finish line each November.

History

The county traces to the Dutch trading post founded in 1624 and renamed New Amsterdam in 1626; England took the colony in 1664 and renamed it New York. New York County was organized as one of the province’s original counties, and in 1898 it was consolidated with Kings, Queens, Richmond, and part of Westchester (the future Bronx County) to form modern New York City, at which point the county’s government became the City’s Manhattan borough government. The county’s population peaked at 2,331,542 in 1910 before decades of decline; it has grown again since the 1980s, passing 1.6 million in the 2010s.

Getting There

Manhattan is served by an extensive subway and bus network, and by Penn Station, the busiest rail terminal in the Western Hemisphere, with Amtrak, Long Island Rail Road, and NJ Transit service.

• Bronx, NY — adjoining, across the Harlem River
• Brooklyn (Kings County), NY — adjoining, across the East River
• Jersey City, NJ — about 2 miles west, via PATH train or the Holland Tunnel
• LaGuardia Airport, Queens — about 8 miles northeast

John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports are also within about 15 miles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is New York County?
It is in southeastern New York state, coextensive with the island of Manhattan in New York City.

What is the population of New York County?
1,694,251 at the 2020 census, the third most populous county in New York state.

How big is New York County?
33.86 square miles (87.7 km2) total, of which 22.66 square miles (58.7 km2) is land — the smallest New York county by land area.

What is the county seat of New York County?
None separately — the county has been governed as part of New York City since 1898, with Manhattan’s borough hall serving as the local seat of city government.

How many towns are in New York County?
None. The county has no incorporated cities, towns, or villages; it is one continuous urban landmass of neighborhoods within New York City.

What ZIP codes are in New York County?
The 100xx, 101xx, and 102xx ranges, running from Lower Manhattan up through Inwood.

Is Central Park in New York County?
Yes — the roughly 840-acre park sits entirely within the county, near the geographic center of Manhattan.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in New York.