Queens is an enormous coastal borough (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of New York. With a population of 2,405,464 people and 724 associated neighborhoods, Queens is the second largest community in New York.
Queens home prices are not only among the most expensive in New York, but Queens real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Also of interest is that Queens has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 9.58% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Queens is one of the most attractive larger cities for people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. This makes it a good place to live for young singles in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting their professional careers. Although Queens is a large city, this demographic is significant enough that young professionals will find many others like themselves here, with really good opportunities for friendships, recreation, romance, and more.
One of the nice things about Queens is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
In Queens, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 40.92 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. In addition, the borough is also quite pedestrian-friendly, because many neighborhoods are very dense and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.
Queens is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Queens really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Queens citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Queens ride the subway. Whereas in some cities one is destined to sit in traffic every morning to get to work and every evening to get home, in Queens a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the subway.
The population of Queens is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 21.84% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 34.77% of adults in Queens have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Queens in 2022 was $39,201, which is middle income relative to New York, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $156,804 for a family of four. However, Queens contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Queens is an extremely ethnically-diverse borough. The people who call Queens home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Queens, accounting for 28.03% of the borough’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Queens residents report their race to be Asian, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Queens include Italian, Irish, Guyanese, Jamaican, and German.
In addition, Queens has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (47.14%).
The most common language spoken in Queens is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.