Queens' Rate Of Population Growth Outpaces NYC's, Data Shows

QUEENS — More than 174,000 people moved to Queens over the last decade, a 7.8 percent population increase that narrowly outpaces the city’s overall percentage of growth, new census data shows.

All told, 629,057 people moved to the five boroughs between 2010 and 2020, a 7.7 percent swell in the city’s population, according to U.S. Census Bureau numbers released Thursday.

Despite residents reportedly fleeing New York amid the pandemic, as the census count itself took place, the city saw one of the highest rates of population growth among large metropolitan areas nationally, data shows.

In Queens, the borough’s population grew to more than 2.4 million, marking the second biggest population rise of any borough aside from Brooklyn.

Population increases, however, were not the same across different racial groups in the World’s Borough, with some communities growing while others shrank in numbers.

The number of Asian residents in Queens counted by the census grew to nearly 706,000 residents — a 29 percent population increase, data shows.

As The City reported, some of the borough’s Asian activists are seeking to translate this strength in numbers into electoral power.

Already, the City Council primaries resulted in the most-ever Asian American Democratic primary winners — six in total, five of whom will represent districts in Queens if they succeed in getting elected this November.

And, as lawmakers prepare to redraw districts for members of Congress and state legislatures, some activists are working to break down borders in densely Asian-populated areas of Queens — like Richmond Hill and Ozone Park — where they say existing district boundaries divide Asian communities.

“For us, redistricting is not an academic exercise, nor simply a mathematical equation,” Elizabeth OuYang, the coordinator of an Asian community group-led redistricting task force told The City. “It means power, accountability, and equal access to services that we are entitled to for the next 10 years.”

By contrast, the borough’s Asian population surge almost equaled the white population decline of 29.9 percent in Queens — a pattern that mirrors a nation-wide trend, where the share of the U.S. white population shrank over the past decade. In New York State, for instance, only Hamilton County saw growth in its overall percentage of white residents.

Similarly, Queens’ Black population decrease of 5.5 percent is on par with citywide losses in the Black population over the past decade, The City reported.

Only Staten Island, among the five boroughs, saw its Black population grow, which Dr. Zulema Blair, the redistricting research director at Medgar Evers College’s Center for Law and Social Justice, told The City might be because of the borough’s share of more affordable housing.

“If you listened to people on the ground, you realized what was going on. The population is shifting because of the housing crisis, rising rents, the lack of housing ownership and rising foreclosure,” she said. “We saw all of these things mounting and we knew that the Black community would be impacted the most.”

While Mayor Bill de Blasio attributed the city’s overall population growth to his administration (“This is what happens when you invest in pre-K for all, safe streets and working families,” he tweeted), census organizers in Queens — and city agencies — attributed increases to hard work and counting.

Felicia Singh, the democratic City Council winner in Queens’ District 32, said on Twitter that getting the census count in Queens “took deep relational organizing, community empowerment and funding.”

Jaslin Kaur, the democratic City Council winner in Queens District 23, echoed Singh’s statement.

“Really thankful for all the amazing women of color, faith groups, and organizations who put Queens at the top of Census turnout,” she tweeted. “We really did that in the sweltering heat and in the middle of a pandemic for thousands of immigrant New Yorkers who deserve the most.”

See more 2020 census data here.