Information

Population

New York City is by far the largest in the United States with over 8.2 million people at last count.

• Manhattan: 1,611,000
• Brooklyn: 2,508,000
• Queens: 2,255,000
• The Bronx: 1,361,000
• Staten Island: 477,000

Each borough is its own county, which makes New York City the only American city to be completely made up of complete counties, five in this case.

Visas

Citizens of most foreign countries need to obtain a visa to enter the United States. If you live in one of the following countries, however, you can visit for up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes without a visa as part of the Visa Waiver Program: Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brunei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. If you do not carry a U.S. passport, you may be fingerprinted and photographed upon entering the country.

Land Area

The city covers over 303 square miles, with an additional 165 square miles of water within the city limits.

Currency

U.S. Dollar ($)

Time Zone

New York City is in the Eastern time zone, which covers all the states on the Atlantic ocean and is UTC-5. Daylight savings is observed from early March through early November.

Languages

English is obviously king, but New York City is home to nearly 170 other languages, mostly in the borough of Queens. There are a few scattered neighborhoods where something other than English is most common, Spanish being chief among these and Chinese in some areas as well.

Nicknames

The Big Apple, The Capital of The World, The City That Never Sleeps, Empire City, Gotham, The City So Nice They Named It Twice

Sales tax

New York City has a sales tax of 8.375%, which is applied to most things other than non-prepared food. In 2006 the city eliminated sales tax on clothing and shoes under $110. Prices don???t reflect the sales tax, so if a taxable item is marked at $10, you???ll be asked to pay $10.84 at the register. There is a $2 per bed per night hotel tax that is separate from sales tax.

Electricity and Plugs

The U.S. is on the 110V 60Hz system, and the plugs are of two varieties – one with two parallel flat pieces with a circular grounding pin beneath them, and another with just the two flat pieces and no grounding pin.

Using the Telephone

New York City has five area codes ??? 212, 347, 646, 718, and 917. From landlines you???ll need to dial 1 plus the area code, plus the 7-digit number for all calls. On mobile phones you can skip the 1 before the area code if you like, but you???ll need to dial the area code and 7-digit number regardless if you are in the same area code or not.

Useful Telephone Numbers

Emergency – 911???