New York is the most populous city in the United States[13][14] and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world.[15][16][17] The city is referred to as New York City or the City of New York[18] to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part.[19] A global power city,[20] New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. The home of the United Nations Headquarters,[21] New York is an important center for international diplomacy[22] and has been described as the cultural capital of the world.[23][24][25][26]

Located on one of the world's largest natural harbors,[27] New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a county of New York State.[28] The five boroughs—The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898.[29][30] With a Census-estimated 2012 population of 8,336,697[10][11] distributed over a land area of just 302.64 square miles (783.8 km2),[31][32][33] New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States.[34] As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world.[35] The New York City Metropolitan Area's population is the United States' largest, with 18.9 million people distributed over 6,720 square miles (17,400 km2),[36][37] and is also part of the most populous combined statistical area in the United States, containing 22.2 million people as of 2011.[9]

New York traces its roots to its 1624 founding as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic, and was named New Amsterdam in 1626.[38] The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664[38][39] and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York.[40][41] New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790.[42] It has been the country's largest city since 1790.[43] The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to America by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries[44] and is a globally recognized symbol of the United States and its democracy.[45]