Religion

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In 2001, the five largest denominations in New York were: Roman Catholic (about 38% of total state population), Baptist (7%), Methodist (6%), Jewish (5%) and Lutheran (3%).
New York is home to more of America's Jews (25% of their national total), Muslims (24%), Taoists (26%), and Greek Orthodox (25%) than any other state

History,Early settlement

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The first settlers in the area now known as the State of New York were Dutch settlers in the colony known as New Amsterdam, beginning in 1613. The English traded the modern-day country of Suriname for New Amsterdam in 1664; they renamed it New York, after the Duke of York, the future King James II. On November 1, 1683, the government was reorganized. The colony, then called the Province of New York, was divided into twelve counties, each of which was subdivided into homos. The territory of New York extended much farther than present-day New York State, having no official western boundary other than the Pacific Ocean. Two of New York's eastern coastal counties, Cornwall and Dukes, later became parts of Massachusetts and Maine. Counties were also ceded to Vermont before Vermont entered the Union in 1791.

Geography

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New York State's borders touch (clockwise from the northwest) two Great Lakes( Erie and Ontario, which are connected by the Niagara River); one former (briefly) Great Lake (Lake Champlain); the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada; three New England states (Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut); the Atlantic Ocean, and two Mid-Atlantic states ( New Jersey and Pennsylvania). In addition, Rhode Island shares a water border with New York.
New York is also the site of the only extra-territorial enclave within the boundaries of the U.S., the "United Nations compound on Manhattan's East River.
The southern tip of New York State—New York City, its suburbs, and the southern portion of the Hudson Valley—can be considered to form the central core of a "megalopolis," a super-city stretching from the northern suburbs of Boston to the southern suburbs of Washington and therefore occasionally called "BosWash". First described by Jean Gottmann in 1961 as a new phenomenon in the history of world urbanization, the megalopolis is characterized by a coalescence of previous already-large cities of the Eastern Seaboard: a heavy specialization on tertiary activity related to government, trade, law, education, finance, publishing and control of economic activity; plus a growth pattern not so much of more population and more area as more intensive use of already existing urbanized area and ever more sophisticated links from one specialty to another. Several other groups of megalopolis-type super-cities exist in the world, but that centered around New York City was the first described and still is the best example.
The five New York City boroughs (and their counties) are:
The Bronx (Bronx), on the mainland, north of
Manhattan (New York) on Manhattan Island and Roosevelt Island. The Hudson River is their western boundary.
Brooklyn (Kings) and
Queens (Queens) are across the East River from Manhattan on the western end of Long Island, and
Staten Island (Richmond) is south of Manhattan.
The eastern end of Long Island includes the suburban counties of Nassau and Suffolk, which, however, are not part of New York City.
The megalopolis, however, is not the only aspect of New York State. While best known for New York City's urban atmosphere, especially Manhattan's skyscrapers, by contrast the rest of the state is dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes. Few people know that New York's Adirondack State Park is larger than any National Park in the U.S. outside of Alaska. Niagara Falls, on the Niagara River as it flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, is a popular attraction. The Hudson River begins with Lake Tear of the Clouds and flows south through the eastern part of the state without draining Lakes George or Champlain. Lake George empties at its north end into Lake Champlain, whose northern end extends into Canada, where it drains into the Richelieu and then the St Lawrence Rivers. Four of New York City's five boroughs are on the three islands at the mouth of the Hudson River: Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Long Island.
"Upstate" is a common term for New York State north of the New York City metropolitan area. Which of the suburban counties north of The Bronx along the Hudson River (Rockland, Westchester, Putnam, Orange, and Dutchess) are included in the Upstate region depends on who is using this term. Upstate New York typically includes the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains, the Shawangunk Ridge, the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes in the west; and Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Oneida Lake in the northeast; and rivers such as the Delaware, Genesee, Hudson, Mohawka, and Susquehanna. The highest elevation in New York is Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks.
East of Manhattan extends the appropriately named Long Island, stretching approximately 120 miles (190 km) from Kings (Brooklyn) and Queens Counties (part of New York City) on the western end to Orient and Montauk Points in the rural "East End" of the Island. The two counties that are encountered as one travels east from New York City are Nassau and Suffolk. Three of Suffolk County's ten towns— Brookhaven, Riverhead, and Southampton—are host to the 102,500 acre (415 km²) state designated and protected Central Pine Barrens region. This remarkably undeveloped region overlies part of Long Island's federally designated Sole Source Aquifer which provides drinking water to nearly three million residents, and it contains terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of statewide and national significance, interconnected surface and ground waters, recreational areas, historic locales, farmlands, and residential communities. This region is the largest remnant of a forest thought to have once encompassed over a quarter million acres (1,000 km²) on Long Island following the last glacial advance some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. Much of the region's ecosystem is similar to the larger New Jersey Pinelands (also called " Pine barrens") to the south and southwest of New York City, along with Cape Cod's pine barrens. All three areas share geologic and ecological characteristics common along the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the U.S.
Trees have played a major role in the surrounding areas of New York. Very large trees can even grow in the New York metropolitan area (for example, the Queens Giant is the tallest tree and the oldest living thing in the New York metro area).

New York

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New York is a state in the northeastern United States. It is sometimes called New York State when there is need to distinguish it from New York City, the most populous city in both the state and the nation. Because of the preponderance of the population concentrated in the southern portion around New York City, the state is often regionalized into Upstate and Downstate.