About
New York – referred to as New York City or the City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part – is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York metropolitan area, the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States[6][7][8] and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world.[9] A global power city,[10] New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations,[11] New York is an important center for international diplomacy[12] and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world.[13][14][15][16][17]

On one of the world's largest natural harbors,[18] New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a county of New York State.[19] The five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898.[20] With a census-estimated 2013 population of 8,405,837[1] distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km2),[21] New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States.[22] As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York,[23][24] making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world.[25] By 2013 census estimates, the New York City metropolitan region remains by a significant margin the most populous in the United States, as defined by both the Metropolitan Statistical Area (19.9 million residents)[26] and the Combined Statistical Area (23.5 million residents).[27] In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of nearly US$1.39 trillion,[28] while in 2012, the CSA[29] generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion, both ranking first nationally by a wide margin and behind the GDP of only twelve nations and eleven nations, respectively.[30]