New York EXPLAINED
Get the brief

The numbers of New York · Reviewed July 2026

The numbers of New York

Official series that answer the questions New Yorkers actually argue about: the subway, the rent, jobs, crime, shelter, the streets. Every chart is drawn from the agency's own published data, linked and dated, and refreshed on a stated schedule.

  1. Transit & Streets Subway ridership 1.28 billion subway rides in 2025 Annual rides on the subway, from the MTA's own monthly count: the 2020 collapse and the climb back.
  2. Housing & Real Estate Rent Guidelines Board increases 3% for one-year leases starting October 2025 through September 2026 (Order 57) What the board that sets rent-stabilized increases allowed for one-year leases, every year of the modern era.
  3. Business & Economy The unemployment rate 5.4% unemployment in May 2026, seasonally adjusted The city's jobless rate, every month since 1976: the fiscal-crisis years, the COVID spike, and where it stands now.
  4. Business & Economy Jobs in New York City 4.82 million payroll jobs in 2025, on average Payroll jobs located in the five boroughs, averaged over each year since 1990.
  5. Public Safety & Justice Major felony complaints 121,652 major felony complaints in 2025 The NYPD's count of the seven major felonies, year by year since 2000: murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, and the two grand larcenies.
  6. Transit & Streets Traffic deaths 229 people killed in traffic crashes in 2025 People killed in crashes on city streets each year, summed from the NYPD's own collision records.
  7. Housing & Real Estate People in city shelters 85,651 people in DHS shelters on an average night of 2025 The nightly count of people sleeping in the main city shelter system, averaged over each year.
  8. Housing & Real Estate City-financed affordable housing 29,721 affordable homes in projects the city financed in 2025 Homes the city financed under its affordable-housing plans, counted at project start, new construction and preservation together.
  9. Politics & Government 311 requests 3.66 million 311 service requests in 2025 Service requests New Yorkers file with 311 each year: the city's complaint box, counted from the request-level data.
  10. Transit & Streets Traffic on MTA bridges and tunnels 337.3 million vehicle crossings in 2024 Paid vehicle crossings on the MTA's seven bridges and two tunnels, year by year.

How these pages are made

Every chart is built from the named agency's own published dataset: the raw download is archived, a deterministic script turns it into the series you see, and a gate re-verifies every printed figure against the stored data before the site can publish. Each page says exactly what its series counts, what it leaves out, when it was retrieved, and when the desk refreshes it. No estimates of our own, no smoothing, and gaps in the source stay visible.

The numbers move. We watch them.

These charts are the long view. The morning brief is the short one: what changed in New York today, what it costs you, and who benefits, in one free read.

Free to start. The unsubscribe link actually works.