Upper East Side Gained 12K People, Got More Diverse This Decade

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Think the streets are more crowded on the Upper East Side these days than they were a few years ago? You wouldn't be mistaken: the neighborhood has gained more than 12,000 residents since 2010, according to new census data.

Data from the 2020 Census, released this month, shows that the Upper East Side now has a population of 231,983: a 5.5 percent increase from 10 years prior, when it had 219,920 residents.

Those residents are also more racially diverse: the white population actually shrunk in the past decade, while thousands more Upper East Siders now identify as Asian, multiracial or Hispanic.

Keep reading for an analysis of each trend, including maps. (This is the first in a series of articles breaking down insights from the 2020 Census on the Upper East Side.)

Yorkville grew the most

The city breaks each neighborhood's data into subdivisisions: on the Upper East Side, that includes Yorkville, Carnegie Hill Lenox Hill-Roosevelt Island.

Among those three, Yorkville grew the most, adding 6,104 new residents from 2010 to 2020.

It also had the fastest growth rate, expanding by about 7.8 percent compared to 5.9 percent for Lenox Hill-Roosevelt Island and 2 percent for Carnegie Hill. (Stay tuned for maps that break down the growth in greater detail.)

Though it may seem steep, the Upper East Side's expansion puts it in the bottom half of all New York City community districts, in terms of growth rate. The neighborhoods seeing the most explosive growth include DUMBO and Downtown Brooklyn, which expanded by about 31 percent, and the Financial District/Tribeca area, which grew by 29 percent.

The city as a whole swelled by about 600,000 people, to 8.8 million. Only two areas got smaller: the Lower East Side and East Village, and Washington Heights and Inwood in Upper Manhattan.

Changing racial makeup

On the whole, the Upper East Side is a more diverse neighborhood than it was 10 years ago, according to the data. Despite the neighborhood's overall growth, the white population shrunk by more than 3,300.

It's not entirely clear, however, whether all of those residents actually left the neighborhood. Far more Americans identified as multiracial on the 2020 Census than in previous years' — a trend that was felt on the Upper East Side, where the multiracial population grew by 4,610.

Some residents, then, may have changed their identification while staying in the same place. (The census was taken in April 2020, meaning it may not capture some changes brought about by the pandemic.)

Overall, the Upper East Side is now about 73.5 percent white, down from 79 percent in 2010. The Asian population jumped by nearly 3 percent, while the Hispanic population grew by about 1 percentage point.

The Upper East Side's Black population, meanwhile, dropped by more than 800 residents, making it one of several Manhattan neighborhoods that lost Black residents this decade.

This is the first in a series of articles breaking down insights from the 2020 Census on the Upper East Side. To stay on top of future installments, subscribe to the newsletter from Upper East Side Patch.