In 1910, Manhattan crammed 2.3 million residents into 22 square miles—a density the borough has never matched since. By 2025, the overnight population sits around 1.7 million. But Manhattan’s real story isn’t about who lives here anymore. Every weekday, the island swells to nearly 4 million people by early afternoon, then empties out again each night. Midtown hits densities comparable to Mumbai and Macau at peak hours, while neighborhoods north of Central Park lose residents during work hours. Maybe the question isn’t how many people live in Manhattan—it’s how many people Manhattan holds at any given moment.
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