1950 Population Distribution

For the first time the exact geographical distribution of the 14,000,000 persons who inhabit the New York Metropolitan Region has been mapped.

During the decade 1940-1950, the New York Metropolitan Region grew by one and one-half million persons (11½ per cent) to maintain itself as one of the largest urban concentrations in the world. The detailed distribu­tion of this tremendous population, essential information for the many individuals, agencies, businesses and institutions whose activities are shaped by the patterns in which people live, is here made available in a new and exceedingly useful form.

With the help of the dot maps in this bulletin it is a simple matter to determine the number of residents within any specified geographical area in the Region, however irregular its shape. Each dot represents 1000 per­sons. Hence, it is necessary only to draw a bounding line and then to check off the number of enclosed dots, multiplying each by one thousand to obtain total residential (night-time) population.

The different densities of population from place to place in the region are reflected clearly in the relative shades of gray produced by the dots. These show the full range of metropolitan living from the extreme concen­trations in the older cities such as New York, Newark or Bridgeport, to the sparsely settled rural areas of Somerset, Dutchess or Fairfield counties.