New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded on the southern tip of Manhattan Island by Dutch colonists in approximately 1624. New York is home to the highest number of billionaires of any city in the world. If the New York metropolitan area were a sovereign state, it would have the eighth-largest economy in the world. As of 2018, the New York metropolitan area is estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of nearly $1.8 trillion, ranking it first in the United States. New York is home to more than 3.2 million residents born outside the United States, the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world as of 2016. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. The city and its metropolitan area constitute the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States.

The five boroughs- Brooklyn (Kings County), Queens (Queens County), Manhattan (New York County), the Bronx (Bronx County), and Staten Island (Richmond County)-were created when local governments were consolidated into a single municipal entity in 1898. Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, with water covering 36.4% of its surface area, New York City is composed of five boroughs, each of which is coextensive with a respective county of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy, an established safe haven for global investors, and is sometimes described as the capital of the world. New York is the most photographed city in the world.

New York City is a global cultural, financial, and media center with a significant influence on commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, dining, art, fashion, and sports. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous megacities.

Located at the southern tip of New York State, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km 2), New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York, often called New York City ( NYC) to distinguish it from the State of New York, is the most populous city in the United States.

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