Queens

Queens is a borough of New York City that shares a border with Queens County in the state of New York, United States. It is the most populous borough of New York City in terms of land area, and it shares a border with the borough of Brooklyn at the western end of Long Island, with the county of Nassau to the east. Queens is also surrounded by water with the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, among many others (via the Rockaways).

At 2,405,464 people, Queens is the second-most populous of the five New York City boroughs, according to the most recent census data from the year 2020. If every borough were considered a city in its own right, Queens would be the fourth most populous in the United States, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn. Queens is home to about 47 percent of the population who are foreign-born. Queens County is also the second most populated county in New York State, behind only Kings County in terms of population. As the most linguistically varied location on Earth and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, Queens is home to a diverse population of people.

It was founded in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of the Province of New York and became known as Queens County. The town was most likely named after the English Queen Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705), who reigned from 1638 to 1705. When the County of Queens was established in 1683, it encompassed what is now Nassau County. Queens was established as a borough in 1898 as a result of the consolidation of New York City, which brought together the formerly independent towns of Long Island City, Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, and western Hempstead. With the exception of Hempstead, all of these communities are now designated Queens neighbourhoods.