File:Manhattan (NYC-New York City) Skyline (31769153946).jpg

Manhattan (/mænˈhætən/, /mənˈhætən/) is the most densely populated borough of New York City, its economic and administrative center, and the city's historical birthplace.[2] The borough is coextensive with New York County, founded on November 1, 1683, as one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the East, Hudson, and Harlem Rivers, and also includes several small adjacent islands and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood on the U.S. mainland.

Manhattan is often described as the cultural and financial capital of the world[3][4][5] and hosts the United Nations Headquarters.[6] Anchored by Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City has been called both the most economically powerful city and the leading financial center of the world,[7][8][9][10][11] and Manhattan is home to the world's two largest stock exchanges by total market capitalization: the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.[12][13] Many multinational media conglomerates are based in the borough. It is historically documented to have been purchased by Dutch colonists from Native Americans in 1626 for 60 guilders which equals US$1051 today.[14][15] Manhattan real estate has since become among the most expensive in the world, with the value of Manhattan Island, including real estate, estimated to exceed US$3 trillion in 2013;[2][16] residential property sale prices in Manhattan typically exceeded US$1,400 per square foot ($15,000/m2) as of 2016.[17]

New York County is the United States' second-smallest county by land area (larger only than Kalawao County, Hawaii), and is also the most densely populated U.S. county.[18] It is also one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with a census-estimated 2015 population of 1,644,518[1] living in a land area of 22.83 square miles (59.13 km2),[19] or 72,033 residents per square mile (27,812/km2), higher than the density of any individual American city.[20] On business days, the influx of commuters increases that number to over 3.9 million,[21] or more than 170,000 people per square mile (65,600/km2). Manhattan has the third-largest population of New York City's five boroughs, after Brooklyn and Queens, and is the smallest borough in terms of land area.[22]