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The area of Manhattan island was formerly part of the Lenape territory, an indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. European settlement began with a trading post established by colonists from The United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1624. Later, the trading post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The territory of the settlement and its neighborhoods came under English control in 1664 and was renamed New York.
Nowadays, Manhattan is the most densely inhabited and geographically smallest of the 5 boroughs of New York City. Over 58 million people live within 250 miles (402 kilometers) of Manhattan, which serves as New York City’s historical birthplace, administrative and economic center, and is described as the world’s financial capital.
Manhattan is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a 2020 census population of 1,694,251 living in a land area of 22.83 square miles or 59.13 square kilometers (72,918 people per sq mi or 28,154 per sq km). On business days, the inflow of commuters raises this number to over 3.9 million, or more than 170 thousand people per square mile (65.6 thousand per sq km). Manhattan has the 3rd-largest population of New York City’s 5 boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, and is the smallest borough in terms of land area. If each borough were ranked as a city, Manhattan would be the 6th-most populous in the United States.
Located on one of the world’s largest natural harbors, the borough subsists mainly of Manhattan Island, framed by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers along with several small neighboring islands (Roosevelt, U Thant, Randall, Wards Islands). Manhattan Island is split into three informally bounded parts, each cutting across the borough’s long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.
Today, Manhattan real estate is among the most costly in the world, with median residential property sale prices estimated 1,600$ per square foot or $17,000 per square meter in 2018, with Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan commanding the highest retail rents in the world, at 3,000$ per square foot 32,000$ per square meter per year. In 2022, the average monthly apartment rent in Manhattan rose to over 5,000$ for the first time.
Below is a stunning animated map created by Angi that shows Manhattan has changed over the last 400 years.
Columbia University student Myles Zhang created another informative animated map illustrating the expansive urban development within Manhattan and surrounding NYC’s boroughs from 1609 through 2019.
