Queens is one of the most attractive larger cities for people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. This makes it a good place to live for young singles in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting their professional careers. Although Queens is a large city, this demographic is significant enough that young professionals will find many others like themselves here, with really good opportunities for friendships, recreation, romance, and more.
One of the nice things about Queens is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
One downside of living in Queens is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Queens, the average commute to work is 40.92 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the borough, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative. In addition, it is also a pedestrian-friendly borough. Many of Queens’s neighborhoods are dense enough and have amenities close enough together that people find it feasible to get around on foot.
Queens is a big city, and with that comes lots of benefits. One benefit is that most big cities have public transit, but Queens really shines when it comes to the extensiveness and use of its public transit system. More than most large American cities, Queens citizens use public transit daily to get to and from work. And while there are transportation options, most people in Queens ride the subway. Whereas in some cities one is destined to sit in traffic every morning to get to work and every evening to get home, in Queens a lot leave their cars at home (if they even choose to own one), and hop a ride on the subway.
The population of Queens is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 21.84% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 34.77% of adults in Queens have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Queens in 2022 was $39,201, which is middle income relative to New York, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $156,804 for a family of four. However, Queens contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Queens is an extremely ethnically-diverse borough. The people who call Queens home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Queens, accounting for 28.03% of the borough’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Queens residents report their race to be Asian, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Queens include Italian, Irish, Guyanese, Jamaican, and German.
Foreign born people are also an important part of Queens's cultural character, accounting for 47.14% of the borough’s population.
The most common language spoken in Queens is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
