The New York metropolitan area has a population of about 18.7 million and is one of the largest urban areas in the world. The city proper consists of five boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. With the exception of Staten Island, each of these boroughs is home to at least a million people and would be among the nation's largest cities if considered independently.

APopularly known as the "Big Apple", the city attracts large numbers of immigrants—over a third of its population is foreign born—as well as people from all over the United States who come for its culture, energy, cosmopolitanism, and economic opportunity. It is among the most diverse cities in the world; 138 languages are spoken in Queens alone. The city is also distinguished for having the lowest crime rate among the 25 largest American cities.

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts. Writer Tom Wolfe said of the city that "Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather." The city's size, multicultural history and variety of arts institutions makes it the cultural capital of the United States.

Many major American cultural movements originated in the city. The Harlem Renaissance established the African-American literary canon in the United States. The city was the epicenter of jazz in the 1940s and beyond. Jazz greats likes Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald found refuge from the segregation in the mixed communities of Queens, while a younger generation — Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and others — were developing bebop in the clubs of Harlem. The New York School of painters, which developed abstract expressionism in the post-World War II period, became the first truly original school of painting in America. American modern dance developed in New York during that same time. In the 1970s, punk rock developed in the downtown music scene while hip hop was emerging in the Bronx and New York rap stars like Jay-Z defined new genres of rap by the 1990s.

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