+ Population trend Year Inhabitants 1731 2,150 1756 2,707 1771 3,623 1786 3,966 1790 4,549 1800 5,740 1810 8,303 1820 11,187 1830 20,535 1840 47,613 1850 138,882 1860 279,122 1870 419,921 1880 599,495 Year Inhabitants 1890 838,547 1900 1,166,582 1910 1,634,351 1920 2,018,356 1930 2,560,401 1940 2,698,285 1950 2,738,175 1960 2,627,319 1970 2,602,012 1980 2,230,936 1990 2,300,664 2000 2,465,326 2010 2,504,710 2020 2,736,074 The demographics of Brooklyn reveal a very diverse borough of New York City and a melting pot for many cultures, like the city itself. Since 2010, the population of Brooklyn was estimated by the Census Bureau to have increased 3.5% to 2,592,149 as of 2013, representing 30.8% of New York City's population, 33.5% of Long Island's population, and 13.2% of New York State's population. If the boroughs of New York City were separate cities, Brooklyn would be the third-largest city in the United States after Los Angeles and Chicago.
According to the 2010 Census, 35.7% of the population was non-Hispanic White, 31.9% non-Hispanic Black or African American, 10.4% non-Hispanic Asian, 0.4% from some other race (non-Hispanic) and 1.6% of two or more races (non-Hispanic). 19.8% of Brooklyn's population was of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin (they may be of any race).
In the 2020 census data from New York City Department of City Planning, there were a total of 2,736,074 residents with 968,427 White residents making up 35.4%, 729,696 Black residents making up 26.7%, 516,426 Hispanic residents making up 18.9%, and 370,776 Asian residents making up 13.6%.
Households Of its 880,727 households 33.3% have children under the age of 18 living in them, 38.6% were married couples living together, 22.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.7% were non-families. 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 the county 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 is 33 years. For every 100 females there were 88.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.1 males.
Income
The median income for a household in the county was $32,135, and the median income for a family was $36,188. Males had a median income of $34,317 versus $30,516 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,775. About 22.0% of families and 25.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 34.0% of those under age 18 and 21.5% of those age 65 or over.
Race and ethnicity +Brooklyn / Kings County, New York – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)1,085,233923,229854,532893,306968,42748.64%40.13%34.66%35.67%35.39%Black or African American alone (NH)689,626797,802848,583799,066729,69630.91%34.68%34.42%31.90%26.67%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)3,1825,4164,4944,6383,9640.14%0.24%0.18%0.19%0.14%Asian alone (NH)42,965106,022184,291260,129370,7761.93%4.61%7.48%10.39%13.55%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)xincluded in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusxincluded in the Asian category in the 1990 Census803633718xx0.03%0.03%0.03%Other race alone (NH)17,8125,78416,05710,63332,8970.80%0.25%0.65%0.42%1.20%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)xnot an option in the 1980 Censusxnot an option in the 1990 Census68,68840,010113,170xx2.79%1.60%4.14%Hispanic or Latino (any race)392,118462,411487,878496,285516,42617.58%20.10%19.79%19.81%18.87%Total2,230,9362,300,6642,465,3262,504,7002,736,074 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
According to the 2009 American Community Survey, White Americans made up 54.6% of Brooklyn's population. Black Americans made up 34.2% of Brooklyn's population; non-Hispanic black people made up 32.9% of the population. Native Americans made up 0.3% of Brooklyn's population. Asian Americans made up 9.5% of the population; Pacific Islander Americans made up 0.1% of the populace. Multiracial Americans made up 1.4% of Brooklyn's population. Hispanic and Latino Americans made up 19.6% of Brooklyn's population.
European Americans
According to the 2009 American Community Survey, white Americans made up a majority (54.6%) of Brooklyn's population, of which 51.9% are non-Hispanic whites. Whites (both Hispanic and non-Hispanic) number near 1.3 million individuals, and there are nearly 1.15 million non-Hispanic whites residing in Brooklyn.
As of the 2020s, the European White American communities are mainly concentrated in southern parts of Brooklyn and northwestern sections of Brooklyn. The Italian Americans are mainly concentrated in Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Mill Basin and Gravesend and in scattered parts of northwest Brooklyn such as Williamsburg, Carroll Gardens, and Cobble Hill; however, Bensonhurst has long held the name as the Little Italy of Brooklyn despite its ongoing slow decline since the 2000s as more of them are migrating to the suburbs with the Asian population increasing in Bensonhurst. Jewish Americans are mainly concentrated in Borough Park, Sheepshead Bay, Midwood, Kensington, Gravesend, Brighton Beach, and Coney Island. There is a significant Polish Community in Greenpoint often with the nickname, "Little Poland" though due to gentrification it is experiencing significant decline. The Russian-speaking communities are mainly concentrated in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay though with some of them overlapping into Bensonhurst as well.
Lapskaus Boulevard in Bay Ridge and Sunset Park has long been a Norwegian enclave and the neighborhoods have also been home to many Swedish and Danish immigrants while the northern part of Sunset Park is also home to a sizable Finnish immigrant enclave called Finntown, surrounding the park of the same name, bounded by 5th Avenue to the west and 8th Avenue to the east, 39th Street to the north and 45th Street to the south. The Finns brought with them the concept of cooperative housing, and the Alku and Alku Toinen apartment house at 816 43rd Street is said to be the first cooperative apartment building in New York City. However, by the mid 20th century, these neighborhoods were increasingly being shared with Latino and Asian residents, though significant numbers of the Nordic Americans still remain, but in lower numbers than their peak periods in the early to mid 20th century.
Historically during the early-to-mid-20th century, areas surrounding Bedford Stuyvesant such as Crown Heights, Ocean Hill, Brownsville, East New York, Bushwick, Flatbush, East Flatbush, and Canarsie were once mainly populated by European Americans with many being Italian and Jewish enclaves though with some Irish and German enclaves. Even Bedford Stuyvesant also had a significant Jewish and Italian presence until the 1940s. However, within the mid-to-late 20th century, they all slowly began to shift into majority African-American/West Indian American neighborhoods with some limited Latino enclaves in Bushwick, Cypress Hills, and a portion of East New York. During the 1950s–'90s, these neighborhoods experienced en masse White flight.
A section of Crown Heights and a section of Flatbush still have significant remaining small Jewish enclaves. A subsection neighborhood of East New York called Starrett City or Spring Creek still have significant scattered numbers of European Americans. However, in recent decades since the 2000s and especially since the 2010s, the White population has started to rapidly regrow in Bedford Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Bushwick, Ocean Hill, and Flatbush, which these areas are undergoing gentrification. Since the early 2020s, even Brownsville is also experiencing a resurgence of a growing Jewish community as a result of young orthodox Jewish families coming from Crown Heights to seek affordable homes to purchase as property values and sales prices of homes in Crown Heights have largely spiked and gentrified immensely.
According to the 2009 American Community Survey, the six most common European ancestries were the following.
As according to the 2020 census data, the White European American population in Brooklyn increased from 893,306 residents at 35.7% in 2010 to 968,427 residents at 35.4% in 2020 a gain of 75,121 residents or 8.4%, though the percentage portion of White residents out of the total population of Brooklyn slightly declined due to other racial populations increasing adding to the population.
Ancestry Number % of total population Italian 157,068 6.1 Irish 100,923 3.9 Russian 88,766 3.5 Polish 71,099 2.8 German 53,188 2.1 English 36,174 1.4
African Americans According to the 2009 American Community Survey, African Americans made up over one-third (34.2%) of Brooklyn's population. There are over 877,000 African Americans residing in Brooklyn. The historical cultural center of the borough has long been Bedford–Stuyvesant; African Americans became a majority in Bedford–Stuyvesant in the 1930s following the construction of the A line subway between Harlem and Bedford. Bedford-Stuyvesant was the first large African-American community to be established in Brooklyn back then.
After Bedford–Stuyvesant had largely developed into an African-American community in the 1930s–'40s, neighborhoods surrounding Bedford–Stuyvesant in Northern and Eastern Brooklyn such as Ocean Hill, Brownsville, Crown Heights, Flatbush, Kensington, Canarsie, East Flatbush, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, East New York and Fort Greene had continued to be mostly home to Italian and Jewish enclaves with some Germans and Irish intermixed in even though some of the growing African-American population also did spillover into some of these neighborhoods. However, through the processes of a Ripple effect, a Domino effect, and a Snowball effect, starting in the 1950s and throughout the remainder of the 20th century, these surrounding neighborhoods became the next areas to slowly transition to majority African-American communities. Large West Indian Black communities have also emerged and intertwined in some of these areas. As a result, a very large portion of the northern half of Brooklyn is dominantly populated by African Americans with significant West Indian Black enclaves, though Crown Heights and Flatbush continue to have remaining small significant Jewish communities. The roads of Eastern Parkway, Malcolm X Boulevard, Kings Highway, Broadway, Atlantic Avenue, Linden Boulevard, Flatlands Avenue and Jackie Robinson Parkway connect all of these neighborhoods to the point of being very comparatively similar to the city of Newark in terms of the geographic size and the dominantly Black communities.