Queens

Geography

Queens is the largest of New York City’s boroughs, and only Manhattan has more people.  The borough shares Long Island with Brooklyn to the West and Nassau and Suffolk Counties to the East.  Queens has 109 square miles of land.  The streets form a grid pattern similar to Manhattan and the Bronx, with Avenues running east-west and numbered streets running north-south.  The grid doesn’t always line up cleanly, though, and often consecutive streets share numbers.  This can be confusing to visitors and new residents.  The Rockaway Peninsula is a major exception to the borough’s street numbering system.

Demographics

• 2,241,600 residents, or 7,900 people per square mile
• About 31% of households have children, 47% are married couples
• 23% of residents are under 18
• 10% are 18 to 24
• 33% are 25 to 44
• 21% are 45 to 64
• 13% are 65+
• The median age is 35
• median income is $37,400 and per capita income is $19,222
• 17% of the population lives below the poverty line
• 44% White
• 25% Hispanic of any race
• 20% Black
• Queens is the most diverse county in the country, with large populations of Greeks, Irish Americans, Jews, Italian Americans, Hispanics, Eastern European Immigrants, Asian Americans, Koreans, Chinese, African Americans and Caribbeans.  Queens also has one of the largest Indian American populations in the country.

Culture

Jazz was important in Queens in the 40s, and the borough is becoming an important artistic center.   The American Museum of the Moving Image,  The Museum for African Art,  P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, and the Noguchi Museum are all in Queens.  The New York Mets are based in Queens, which also hosts the U.S. Open.

History

Queens was settled by Dutch and English in the early 17th century, under Dutch rule.  In 1664 it was captured by the English, and again fell under British rule during the Revolutionary War.  Queens became a borough of New York City in 1898, and had subway access by 1910.  By 1920 the population had more than doubled, and passed a million people by 1930.