Though a part of New York City, Brooklyn maintains a distinct culture, independent art scene, and unique architectural heritage. Many Brooklyn neighborhoods are ethnic enclaves where particular ethnic groups and cultures predominate.
According to the 2005-2007 American Community Survey Estimates, the borough's population was 43.7% White (36.2% non-Hispanic White alone), 36.2% Black or African American (33.7% non-Hispanic Black or African American alone), 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 9.3% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, 11.9% from some other race and 1.5% from two or more races. 19.6% of the total population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. [8]
37.4% of the population were foreign born (and another 3.5% were Born in Puerto Rico, U.S. Island areas, or born abroad to American parents), 46.1% spoke a language other than English at home and 27.4% had a Bachelor's degree or higher. [9]
In the 2000 Census, the following percentages of Brooklyn residents self-reported these European ancestries:
According to 2005 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there are 2,486,235 people (up from 2.3 million in 1990), 880,727 households, and 583,922 families residing in Brooklyn. The population density was 34,920/square mile (13,480/km²). There were 930,866 housing units at an average density of 13,180/square mile (5,090/km²).
In 2000, 41.20% of Brooklyn residents were white; 36.44% were black; 7.54% were Asian; 0.41% were Native American; 0.06% Pacific Islander; 10.05% were of other races; and 4.27% were from two or more races. People of Hispanic or Latino origin, who may be of any race, comprised 19.79% of the population. 18.00% of the population reported speaking Spanish at home, 5.95% Russian, 4.19% French or a French-based creole, 3.92% Chinese, 3.10% Yiddish, 2.10% Italian, 1.42% Polish, 1.13% Hebrew, 1.09% Punjabi and 0.68% Urdu.
Of the 880,727 households in Brooklyn, 38.6% were married couples living together, 22.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.7% were non-families. 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households 27.8% are made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 3.41.
In Brooklyn the population was spread out with 26.9% under the age of 18, 10.3% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. Brooklyn has more women, with 88.4 males for every 100 females.
The median income for households in Brooklyn was $32,135, and the median income for a family was $36,188. Males had a median income of $34,317, which was higher than females, whose median income was $30,516. The per capita income was $16,775. About 22% of families and 25.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34% of those under age 18 and 21.5% of those age 65 or over.
Brooklyn has long been a magnet for immigrants. It has often been regarded as the borough where each ethnic group contains their own neighborhood cultural identity. In other words each neighborhood is dominated by a single ethnic group where they are able to maintain their dominant culture there. However, with gentrification on the rise, many of Brooklyn's neighborhoods are now becoming increasingly diverse with an influx of immigrants integrating its neighborhoods. It presently has substantial populations from many countries, including Poland, Italy, China, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad, Guyana, Grenada, Barbados, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Russia. The borough also attracts people previously residing in the United States. Of these, most come from Chicago, San Francisco, Washington DC/Baltimore, Boston, and Seattle.
Brooklyn is well served by public transit. Eighteen New York City Subway lines, including the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, traverse the borough and 92.8% of Brooklyn residents traveling to Manhattan use the subway. Major stations include, Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street, Broadway Junction, DeKalb Avenue, Jay Street-Borough Hall, and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue.
The public bus network covers the entire borough. There is also daily express bus service into Manhattan. New York's famous yellow cabs also provide transportation in Brooklyn, although they are less numerous in the borough. There are three commuter rail stations in Brooklyn: East New York station, Nostrand Avenue station, and Atlantic Terminal/Flatbush Avenue, the terminus of the Atlantic Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. The terminal is located adjacent to the Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street Station, with ten connecting subway lines.
The grand majority of limited-access expressways and parkways are located in the western and southern sections of Brooklyn. These include, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Gowanus Expressway, which is part of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Prospect Expressway, New York State Route 27, the Belt Parkway, and the Jackie Robinson Parkway. Major thoroughfares include, Atlantic Avenue, 4th Avenue, 86th Street, Kings Highway, Bay Parkway, Ocean Parkway, Eastern Parkway, Linden Boulevard, McGuiness Boulevard, Flatbush Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Bedford Avenue.
Much of Brooklyn has only named streets, but Park Slope and western sections south of there have numbered streets running approximately east/west, and numbered avenues going approximately north/south. East of Dahill Avenue, lettered avenues run east/west, and numbered streets have the prefix "East". Numbered streets prefixed by "North", "South", "West", "Bay", "Brighton" or "Flatlands" exist in other areas, loosely based on the old grids of the original towns of Kings Country that eventually consolidated to form Brooklyn.
Brooklyn is connected to Manhattan by three bridges, the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges; a vehicular tunnel, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel; and several subway tunnels. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge links Brooklyn with the more suburban borough of Staten Island. Though much of its border is on land, Brooklyn shares several water crossings with Queens, including the Kosciuszko Bridge (part of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), the Pulaski Bridge, and the JJ Byrne Memorial Bridge, all of which carry traffic over Newtown Creek, and the Marine Parkway Bridge connecting Brooklyn to the Rockaway Peninsula.
Historically Brooklyn's waterfront was a major shipping port, especially at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park. Most container ship cargo operations have shifted to the New Jersey side of New York Harbor, while the city has recently built a new cruise ship terminal in Red Hook that is to become a focal point for New York's growing cruise industry. The Queen Mary 2, the world's largest ocean liner, was designed specifically to fit under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the United States. The Queen Mary 2 makes regular ports of call at the Red Hook terminal on her transatlantic runs from Southampton, England. New York Water Taxi offers commuter services from Brooklyn's west shore to points in Lower Manhattan, Midtown, Long Island City and Breezy Point in Rockaway, Queens, as well as tours and charters. A Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel, originally proposed in 1920s as a core project for the then new Port Authority of New York is again being studied and discussed as a way to ease freight movements across a large swath of the metropolitan area.