Why is Manhattan always crowded?

Answer 1

Manhattan has a population density of almost 71,000 people per square mile (over 27,400 people per square kilometer). It is one of the most densely populated cities on earth. So naturally it is quite crowded.

The reason it has such a high population density is that it is a tiny island (33.77 square miles, or 87.5 square kilometers) that has become one of the world's most major cities. People flock here from all over the country in hopes of making their dreams come true: artists, actors, musicians, bankers, stockbrokers, lawyers, fashion designers, chefs, restaurantiers...hordes of people come to New York in hopes of Making It Big, because New York City is one of the world's biggest financial and cultural centers.

In fact, people flock here from all over the world. New York City has been the Gateway of U.S. Immigration for close to two centuries. Not all of the immigrants stay to live in New York, but a lot of them do. And the ones that don't stay disperse to points all over the U.S.

For example, say 100 immigrants arrive on a boat at New York Harbor. Forty of them decide to stay in New York, and the other 60 travel on and settle in 60 different towns and cities across the U.S. From that boatload, New York has added 40 new people to its population. The other 60 towns and cities have added only one person to their populations.

So, part of the reason that New York is crowded is that so many new immigrants put down roots here. In fact, even today, over one-third of New York City's population is foreign-born, and almost 800 different languages are spoken throughout the city.

Los Angeles, by comparison, has a population of 4.06 million people. It is the second-most populous U.S. city after New York. But it has a population density of only 8,205 people per square mile (3,168 people per square kilometer).

Of course, although Manhattan is the main borough of New York City -- where Times Square, Wall Street, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Madison Square Garden, Madison Avenue, Lincoln Center, etc., are -- it is not the only borough of New York City. The other four boroughs -- Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx -- have lower population densities.

Still, when the population densities of the five boroughs are averaged, all of New York City has a population density of 27,532 people per square mile (10,630 people per square kilometer).

By comparison, Los Angeles is only slightly larger than New York City's five boroughs combined: L.A. is 498.3 square miles (1,290.6 square kilometers), while New York City is 468.9 square miles (1,214.4 square kilometers). But L.A. has less than half the population of New York (as mentioned before, L.A.'s population is a little over 4 million, while New York's is roughly 8.5 million). So L.A. has less than one-third the population density of New York City, and roughly one-tenth the population density of Manhattan.