How Many People Live on Just One Block in Manhattan?

Have you ever wondered just how many people Manhattan inhales by day and exhales at night? The population more than doubles, from 1.6 million residents at night to 4 million total people during the day. With all the daily workers, you've got, by far, the most densely populated county in the country - on an island - on an island! Leads one to think, "what would happen if everyone left their buildings at the same time?" 

So how many people are there on a typical block? We couldn't find any hard numbers, but we did find thoughtful estimates. Perhaps 10,000 on a densely populated residential block that has three or more high rise apartment buildings. The same holds for a commercial block, although that shrinks significantly at night. The average would be 1,400 people per block. (based on 4 million people and 2,872 blocks) And if you're not tired of numbers, here's one more...there are 175,000 people per square mile in Manhattan during the day.

The five boroughs that make up New York City.

• Manhattan daytime population: 4.0 million
• Manhattan residential population: 1.6 million
• Brooklyn residential population: 2.6 million
• Queens residential population: 2.3 million
• Bronx residential population: 1.5 million
• Staten Island residential population: 0.5 million

Our conclusion...have an awesome go bag and be prepared to shelter in place. 

Note: the Census numbers only include residents and commuters. Local daytime visitors, commuting students, and tourists are another 800,000 that the census bureau doesn't count. See the NYU study. Here are the census numbers.

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