Queens

See also Queens (borough) and Queens County, New York.

Queens begins on the East River with Long Island City, which existed independently for a few decades before consolidation into New York City. Long Island City was a compound of the hamlets of Dutch Kills, Ravenswood, Steinway and the village of Astoria[?]. Flushing[?], Newtown[?] and Jamaica[?] were also separate towns in Queens County before the creation of the Borough of Queens.

Queens contains the community of Saint Albans.

Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island merged with New York City on January 1, 1898.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 461.7 km² (178.3 mi²). 282.9 km² (109.2 mi²) of it is land and 178.8 km² (69.0 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 38.73% water.

Demographics As of the census of 2000, there are 2,229,379 people, 782,664 households, and 537,690 families residing in the borough. The population density is 7,879.6/km² (20,409.0/mi²). There are 817,250 housing units at an average density of 2,888.5 persons/km² (7,481.6 persons/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough is 44.08% White, 20.01% African American, 0.50% Native American, 17.56% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 11.68% from other races, and 6.11% from two or more races. 24.97% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 782,664 households out of which 31.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.9% are married couples living together, 16.0% have a woman whose husband does not live with her, and 31.3% are non-families. 25.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.81 and the average family size is 3.39.

In the borough the population is spread out with 22.8% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 33.1% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 35 years. For every 100 females there are 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.6 males.

The median income for a household in the borough is $42,439, and the median income for a family is $48,608. Males have a median income of $35,576 versus $31,628 for females. The per capita income for the borough is $19,222. 14.6% of the population and 11.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 18.8% are under the age of 18 and 13.0% are 65 or older.

Famous People from Queens

• Carl Icahn
• Cyndi Lauper
• Fran Dresher[?]
• George Tenet
• Jam Master Jay
• LL Cool J
• Richard Feynman

Sports and other attractions

Queens is the home of the New York Mets baseball team, the US Open tennis tournament, and Aqueduct Racetrack[?].