New York City is the most-populous city in the United States, with an estimated record high of over 8 million residents as of 2013. More people live in New York City than in the next two most-populous U.S. Cities (Los Angeles and Chicago) combined.
Approximately 37% of the city's population is foreign born, with no single country or region of origin dominating. The New York Region continues to be by far the leading metropolitan gateway for legal immigrants admitted into the United States.
New York City is home to the largest Jewish and Israeli communites outside Israel; 20% of the nation's Indian American population; 15% of all Korean Americans; the largest Asian Indian population in the Western Hemisphere; and the largest Russian American, Italian American, African American, Dominican American, Puerto Rican American, and South American communities in the country.
The borough of Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.
The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest self-identifying gay and bisexual community in the United States, at an estimated population of over 500 thousand individuals. Same-sex marriages in New York are legal.
The city is the birthplace of the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art; abstract expressionism in painting; and hip hop, punk, salsa, disco freestyle, Tin Pan Alley, and Jazz in music.
New York City has been considered the dance capital of the world.
The city is also widely celebrated in popular lore, frequently the setting for books, movies and television programs.
New York has also frequently been ranked the top fashion capital of the world.
New York City has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries of all sizes.
“Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather.”
Tom Wolfe