Racial and ancestral makeup

The major ancestry groups in New York state are African American (15.8%), Italian (14.4%), Hispanic (14.2%), Irish (12.9%), and German (11.1%). According to a 2004 estimate, 20.4% of the population is foreign-born.

New York is home to the largest Puerto Rican and Dominican population in the United States. The New York City neighborhood of Harlem has historically been a major cultural capital for African-Americans. Queens, also in New York City, is home to the state's largest Asian-American population.
New York ethnic distribution
New York ethnic distribution

In the 2000 Census, Italian-Americans make up the largest ancestral group in Staten Island and Long Island, followed by Irish-Americans. Albany and southeast-central New York are heavily Irish-American and Italian-American. In Buffalo and western New York, German-Americans are the largest group; in the northern tip of the state, French-Canadians.

6.5% of New York's population were under 5 years of age, 24.7% under 18, and 12.9% were 65 or older. Females made up 51.8% of the population.

New York State has a higher number of Italian-Americans than any other U.S. state.

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 13.61% of the population aged 5 and over speak Spanish at home, while 2.04% speak Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin), 1.65% Italian, and 1.23% Russian

Religion

Catholics comprise more than 40% of the population in New York.[5] Protestants are 30% of the population, Jews 5%, Muslims 3.5%, Buddhists 1%, and 13% claim no religious affiliation.

Economy

New York's gross state product in 2005 was $963.5 billion, ranking third in size behind the larger states of California and Texas.[6] If New York were an independent nation, it would rank as the 16th largest economy in the world behind South Korea. Its 2005 per capita personal income was $50,038, an increase of 5.9% from 2004, placing it fifth in the nation behind Massachusetts, and eighth in the world behind Ireland. New York's agricultural outputs are dairy products, cattle and other livestock, vegetables, nursery stock, and apples. Its industrial outputs are printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric equipment, machinery, chemical products, and tourism.

New York exports a wide variety of goods such as foodstuffs, commodities, minerals, manufactured goods, cut diamonds, and automobile parts. New York's five largest export markets in 2004 were Canada ($30.2 billion), United Kingdom ($3.3 billion), Japan ($2.6 billion), Israel ($2.4 billion), and Switzerland ($1.8 billion). New York's largest imports are oil, gold, aluminum, natural gas, electricity, rough diamonds, and lumber.

Canada is a very important economic partner for the state. 23% of the state's total worldwide exports went to Canada in 2004. Tourism from the north is also a large part of the economy. Canadians spent US$487 million in 2004 while visiting the state.

New York City dominates the economy of the state. It is the leading center of banking, finance and communication in the United States and is the location of the New York Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the world by dollar volume. Many of the world's largest corporations are based in the city.

The state also has a large manufacturing sector that includes printing and the production of garments, furs, railroad equipment and bus line vehicles. Many of these industries are concentrated in upstate regions. Albany and the Hudson Valley are major centers of nanotechnology and microchip manufacturing, while the Rochester area is important in photographic equipment and imaging.

New York is a major agricultural producer, ranking among the top five states for agricultural products including dairy, apples, cherries, cabbage, potatoes, onions, maple syrup and many others. The state is the largest producer of cabbage in the U.S. The state has about a quarter of its land in farms and produced US$3.4 billion in agricultural products in 2001. The south shore of Lake Ontario provides the right mix of soils and microclimate for many apple, cherry, plum, pear and peach orchards. Apples are also grown in the Hudson Valley and near Lake Champlain. The south shore of Lake Erie and the southern Finger Lakes hillsides have many vineyards. New York is the nation's third-largest grape-producing state, behind California, and second largest wine producer by volume. In 2004, New York's wine and grape industry brought US$6 billion into the state economy. The state has 30,000 acres (120 km²) of vineyards, 212 wineries, and produced 200 million bottles of wine in 2004. A moderately sized saltwater commercial fishery is located along the Atlantic side of Long Island. The principal catches by value are clams, lobsters, squid, and flounder.

Transportation

New York boasts the most extensive and one of the oldest transportation infrastructures in the country. Engineering difficulties because of the terrain of the state and the unique issues of the city brought on by urban crowding have had to be overcome since the state was young. Population expansion of the state generally followed the path of the early waterways, first the Hudson River and then the Erie Canal. Today, railroad lines and the New York State Thruway follow the same general route. The New York State Department of Transportation is often criticized for how they maintain the roads of the state in certain areas for the fact that the tolls collected along the roadway have long passed their original purpose. Until 2006, tolls were collected on the Thruway within The City of Buffalo. They were dropped late in 2006 during the campaign for Governor (both candidates called for their removal).
The Bear Mountain Bridge crossing the Hudson River.
The Bear Mountain Bridge crossing the Hudson River.

New York City is home to the most complex and extensive transportation network in the United States, with more than 12,000 iconic yellow cabs, 120,000 daily bicyclists,[8] a massive subway system, bus and railroad systems, immense airports, landmark bridges and tunnels, ferry service and even an aerial commuter tramway. About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York and its suburbs.

Three suburban commuter railroad systems enter and leave New York City, including the Long Island Rail Road, MTA Metro-North, the PATH system and five of NJTransit's rail services.

Besides New York City, many of the other cities have urban and regional public transportation. Syracuse is the smallest city in the U.S. to have a commuter rail line, known as OnTrack. Buffalo also has a Subway line, sometimes called a Lightrail System run by the NFTA, and Rochester had a subway system, although it is mostly destroyed. Only a small part exists under the old Erie Canal Aquaduct.

Portions of the transportation system are intermodal, allowing travelers to easily switch from one mode of transportation to another. One of the most notable examples is AirTrain JFK which allows rail passengers to travel directly to terminals at Kennedy Airport.

Politics and government

Under its present constitution (adopted in 1894), New York is governed by three branches of government: the executive branch, consisting of the Governor of New York and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch, consisting of the the bicameral New York State Legislature; and the judicial branch, consisting of the state's highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, and lower courts. The state has two U.S. senators, 31 members in the United States House of Representatives, and 33 electoral votes in national presidential elections (a drop from its 41 votes in 1970).

New York's capital is Albany. The state's subordinate political units are its 62 counties. Other officially incorporated governmental units are towns, cities, and villages. New York has more than 4,200 local governments that take one of these forms. About 52% of all revenue raised by local governments in the state is raised solely by the government of New York City, which is the largest municipal government in the United States.[9]

The state has a strong imbalance of payments with the federal government. New York state receives 82 cents in services for every $1 it sends in taxes to the federal government in Washington.[10] The state ranks near the bottom, in 42nd place, in federal spending per tax dollar.

Many of New York's public services are carried out by public benefit corporations, frequently called authorities or development corporations. Well known public benefit corporations in New York include the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees New York City's public transportation system, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a bi-state transportation infrastructure agency.

New York's legal system is explicitly based on English common Law. Capital punishment has been unconstitutional in New York since 2004.