Midtown, Hell's Kitchen Got Younger This Decade, Census Shows

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — In addition to getting bigger and more diverse, Midtown and Hell's Kitchen got younger over the past decade, according to new census data.

Since 2010, the number of residents under 18 years old grew by more than 14,600 across the four city-designated neighborhoods that span Hell's Kitchen and Midtown, according to findings from the 2020 Census.

Compared to 7.6 percent in 2010, children and teenagers now make up about 8.9 percent of those neighborhoods — listed as Midtown-Times Square, East Midtown-Turtle Bay, Midtown South-Flatiron-Union Square, and Hell's Kitchen.

That trend stands in contrast to the rest of the city, whose youth percentage dropped from 21.6 to 19.8 percent in the same decade. That included Manhattan neighborhoods like Harlem, which lost more than 7,600 young people.

Youth gains across Midtown

Most parts of Midtown and Hell's Kitchen saw gains in their youth populations since 2010, according to the census data. (Zoom in and click on the interactive map below.)

The census tract seeing the biggest growth in young people is a section of Hell's Kitchen between West 42nd and 46th streets, west of 10th Avenue, which gained 748 residents under 18. (That same tract had the neighborhood's biggest overall population growth.)

Notably, Hell's Kitchen was also home to the few areas that lost young people. One tract, running from West 46th to 50th street between 10th and Eighth avenues, saw its youth population decline by 145, the data shows.

Youngest, oldest blocks

As a percentage of overall population, young people are spread fairly evenly across Midtown and Hell's Kitchen, with slight concentrations on the East and West sides, maps show.

The youngest census tract runs from West 41st to 46th streets between Eighth and Sixth Avenue, where 14.7 percent of the area's 1,120 residents are under 18.

That same tract happens to abut the oldest area: a tract between East 42nd and 49th streets, from Fifth to Sixth avenue, where less than 3 percent of residents were minors.

Midtown and Hell's Kitchen remain older than the rest of the city, even as the youth population declined in other neighborhoods.

The loss of young people in other areas has been linked with gentrification. A 2019 study examining the "booming cities" of Austin, Denver and Portland found that all three were losing children even as their populations grew — a trend that researchers attributed to a lack of housing suitable for larger families.

"As housing prices rise, families with children in particular face diminished choices about where to live," researchers wrote.

More census coverage:

• Here's Where Midtown, Hell's Kitchen Grew The Most Since 2010
• Hell's Kitchen Gained 13,600 People, Got More Diverse This Decade