New York's three Chinatowns
From a few crowded blocks to Flushing and Sunset Park.
Chinatown, 1950
For decades exclusion laws kept Chinatown small. In 1950 about 9,000 Asian New Yorkers lived in these blocks, hemmed in by Italian and Jewish neighborhoods.
After 1965
When the quotas ended in 1965, Chinatown grew fast, spilling into Little Italy and the Lower East Side. By 1980 about 37,000 Chinese New Yorkers lived here.
Flushing, 1990
In Queens, Korean and Taiwanese newcomers rebuilt downtown Flushing. In 1990 about 11,000 Koreans and 9,000 Chinese lived around Main Street.
Sunset Park, 2010
A third Chinatown grew along Eighth Avenue in Brooklyn, home to about 44,000 Chinese New Yorkers by 2010.
Flushing today
Today three in four people mapped in downtown Flushing are of Asian origin, and about 44,000 Chinese live here, more than in Manhattan's Chinatown.
Where New York Came From: a map of NYC immigration and ancestry, 1910 to today