Manhattan is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is coextensive with New York County, the smallest county by geographical area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's economic and administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world.

The New York metropolitan area, broadly referred to as the Tri-State area and often also called the Greater New York City Area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, encompassing 4,669.0 sq mi (12,093 km2). The New York metropolitan area is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the only U.S. metropolitan area larger than twenty million residents as of the 2020 United States census. The vast metropolitan area includes New York City, the nation's most populous city, Long Island, the Mid- and Lower Hudson Valley in the State of New York; fourteen counties and eleven of the largest cities in New Jersey; and six of the seven largest cities in Connecticut. The phrase "Tri-State area" usually refers to New York / New Jersey / Connecticut, although an increasing number of people who work in New York City commute from Pennsylvania, particularly from the Lehigh Valley, Bucks County, and Poconos regions in eastern Pennsylvania, making the metropolitan area span four states. The New York metropolitan area is the geographic and demographic hub of the larger Northeast megalopolis.