Long Island, NY

Coordinates: 40°48′N 73°18′W / 40.8°N 73.3°W / 40.8; -73.3

Long Island is a densely-populated island in the southeastern geographical area of the U.S. state of New York; it is also part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th-most populous in the world. The island begins at New York Harbor approximately 0.35 miles (0.56 km) east of Roosevelt Island, Manhattan and extends eastward approximately 118 miles (190 km) into the Atlantic Ocean and 23 miles wide at its most distant points. The island comprises four counties; Kings and Queens counties (the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, respectively) and Nassau County share the western third of the island, while Suffolk County occupies the eastern two thirds of the island. More than half of New York City’s residents (58.4%) lived on Long Island as of 2020, in Brooklyn and in Queens. However, according to website longisland.com, many people in the New York metropolitan area colloquially use the term “Long Island” (or “the Island”) to refer exclusively to Nassau and Suffolk counties, and conversely, employ the term the City to mean Manhattan alone. While the Nassau-plus-Suffolk definition of Long Island does not have any legal existence, it is recognized as a “region” by the state of New York. Although geographically an island, the Supreme Court of the United States has held that given the island’s extensive ties to the mainland, it should be treated like a peninsula, allowing the state to have jurisdiction within its maritime boundaries.

Long Island may refer both to the main island and the surrounding outer barrier islands. To its west, Long Island is separated from Manhattan and the Bronx by the East River tidal estuary. North of the island is Long Island Sound, across which lie Westchester County, New York, and the state of Connecticut. Across the Block Island Sound to the northeast is the state of Rhode Island. Block Island—which is part of Rhode Island—and numerous smaller islands extend further into the Atlantic. To the extreme southwest, Long Island, at Brooklyn, is separated from Staten Island and the state of New Jersey by Upper New York Bay, the Narrows, and Lower New York Bay.

The longest and the largest island in the contiguous United States, Long Island extends 118 miles (190 km) eastward from New York Harbor to Montauk Point, with a maximum north-to-south distance of 23 miles (37 km) between Long Island Sound and the Atlantic coast. With a land area of 1,401 square miles (3,630 km), Long Island is the 11th-largest island in the United States and the 149th-largest island in the world—larger than the 1,214 square miles (3,140 km²) of the smallest U.S. state, Rhode Island.