Bronx County: The Bronx
Bronx County, coterminous with the Borough of the Bronx, is the northernmost of New York City's five boroughs and the only one located on the mainland of the United States (the remaining four boroughs are on islands). With approximately 1.4 million residents occupying 42.2 square miles, the Bronx is the fourth most populous borough and the third most densely populated county in New York State. The borough is distinguished by its predominantly Hispanic/Latino population (approximately 56 percent), its rich cultural heritage as the birthplace of hip-hop music, its world-class institutions including Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Zoo, and a trajectory of revitalization that has transformed communities devastated by the urban crisis of the 1970s into neighborhoods experiencing investment and renewal.
The Bronx's geography is defined by its position at the junction of Long Island Sound, the East River, and the Harlem River, which separates it from Manhattan to the southwest. The borough was originally part of Westchester County, with the area west of the Bronx River annexed to New York City in 1874 and the area east of the river annexed in 1895. This Westchester heritage is reflected in the borough's topography, which is more hilly and varied than the flat terrain of the other boroughs, and in its significant parkland, including Pelham Bay Park (the largest park in New York City at 2,772 acres), Van Cortlandt Park, and the New York Botanical Garden.
Demographics and Neighborhoods
The Bronx is a majority-minority borough with a population that is approximately 56 percent Hispanic/Latino (predominantly Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Mexican), 29 percent Black/African American, 9 percent white, and 4 percent Asian. The borough has served as a gateway for successive waves of immigration, from the Irish, Italian, and Jewish communities that populated the borough in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the Puerto Rican and African American communities that arrived during the Great Migration and postwar period, and more recently to Dominican, Mexican, West African, and Bangladeshi immigrant communities.
The South Bronx, encompassing neighborhoods such as Mott Haven, Melrose, Hunts Point, and Highbridge, bore the worst of the urban crisis that devastated the borough in the 1970s, when arson, disinvestment, and abandonment destroyed thousands of residential buildings and caused a catastrophic population loss. The phrase "The Bronx is burning" became a national metaphor for urban decay. Since then, the South Bronx has experienced substantial rebuilding and revitalization, with tens of thousands of units of new and rehabilitated housing, improved infrastructure, and growing commercial investment. Mott Haven, in particular, has attracted significant development activity and has been the subject of gentrification concerns.
The central and northern portions of the borough include established residential communities such as Fordham, Belmont (known as the "Little Italy of the Bronx" and home to the Arthur Avenue retail market), Norwood, Riverdale (an affluent community along the Hudson River that is among the most desirable residential areas in the borough), Country Club, and City Island (a small maritime community in Long Island Sound that retains a New England fishing village character).
Economy
Healthcare is the dominant industry in the Bronx, reflecting both the borough's large population with significant healthcare needs and the presence of major medical institutions. Montefiore Medical Center, the primary teaching hospital of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is the largest employer in the Bronx, with more than 30,000 employees across its facilities. The Montefiore system includes multiple hospital campuses, outpatient facilities, and primary care sites throughout the borough and Westchester County. Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital (both part of NYC Health + Hospitals), St. Barnabas Hospital, and BronxCare Health System are additional major healthcare employers.
Education is another significant employer, with Fordham University (a private Jesuit research university with approximately 16,000 students), the College of Mount Saint Vincent, Manhattan College (despite its name, located in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale), SUNY Maritime College (located at Fort Schuyler on the Throggs Neck peninsula), and Lehman College (CUNY) providing higher education and employment. The public school system in the Bronx serves approximately 250,000 students across hundreds of schools.
The Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, located on the Hunts Point peninsula in the South Bronx, is the largest food distribution center in the world, handling approximately 60 percent of New York City's produce and a significant share of its meat and fish. The Hunts Point Cooperative Market, the Hunts Point Meat Market, and the New Fulton Fish Market collectively process billions of dollars in food products annually, employing thousands of workers and serving as a critical link in the city's food supply chain.
The construction industry is active in the Bronx, driven by residential development (particularly affordable housing construction, in which the Bronx has been a leader among the boroughs), commercial development, and institutional expansion. General contractors, electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, and restoration specialists serve the borough's construction and renovation needs.
Cultural Institutions and Attractions
Yankee Stadium, the home of the New York Yankees (one of the most storied franchises in professional sports history, with 27 World Series championships), is one of the most iconic sports venues in the United States. The current stadium, opened in 2009 adjacent to the site of the original 1923 Yankee Stadium, seats approximately 46,500 spectators and anchors a sports and entertainment district in the South Bronx.
The Bronx Zoo, operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society, is the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States, encompassing 265 acres and housing more than 6,000 animals representing approximately 650 species. The zoo has been a pioneer in wildlife conservation and hosts more than two million visitors annually. Adjacent to the zoo, the New York Botanical Garden is one of the world's premier botanical research and education institutions, occupying 250 acres and featuring the landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, a Victorian-era glass structure that houses tropical and desert plant collections.
The Bronx is recognized as the birthplace of hip-hop music, a cultural movement that originated in the early 1970s at block parties in the South Bronx and has since become one of the most influential cultural phenomena of the modern era. DJ Kool Herc, widely credited as the father of hip-hop, performed the genre's foundational parties at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Morris Heights neighborhood. The borough's contribution to global popular culture through hip-hop is commemorated in the Universal Hip Hop Museum, which opened at Bronx Point in 2024.
Transportation and Parks
The Bronx is served by extensive public transportation, including multiple subway lines (the 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, B, and D trains), bus routes operated by MTA New York City Transit, and the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson and Harlem lines, which provide commuter rail service through the borough to points north in Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties. Major highways include the Cross Bronx Expressway (I-95, one of the most congested highways in the nation), the Bruckner Expressway, the Major Deegan Expressway (I-87), and the Hutchinson River Parkway. The borough's park system includes Pelham Bay Park (the largest park in New York City at 2,772 acres, more than three times the size of Central Park), Van Cortlandt Park (the third largest park in the city), and the Bronx River Greenway, an ongoing effort to create a continuous recreational corridor along the Bronx River. The legal services sector supports the Bronx court system, one of the busiest in the state. For more information about New York City, see the New York City regional page.