The City's Population Growing a Little Faster Than Anticipated

April 3, 2015 — Nearly a year ago, we reported that one of Mayor Bill de Blasio's goals was to see a more economically diverse New York City by building 80,000 new units of affordable housing. It's not been the smoothest of journeys, and it may get even bumpier soon. The problem? Overcrowding. Yeah, no kidding, you may say, and rightfully so, but it's even worse than we thought. According to new census estimates, the population of New York City soared to 8,491,079 — that's just 60,000 people short of the projected population in 2020. In fact, reports New York YIMBY, we will have reached the 2020 estimate by 2016. Whoops! Guess we underestimated just how many people love moving to the Big Apple. Of course, that means there's that many more people putting a strain on the city's aging infrastructure, the already competitive job market — and don't get us started on the housing crisis. If the population keeps growing at this rate, we're really gonna need those 80,000 new units and then some, and quickly before the endangered species that is the native New Yorker becomes extinct.