Nassau and Suffolk Counties

Long Island is home to 2.8 million people distributed evenly between its two counties: Nassau and Suffolk. Both counties are relatively affluent and well educated. Long Island has a sizable industry base, which is heavily concentrated in high-tech manufacturing-particularly in Suffolk County. Still, data on commuting patterns suggest that Long Island's economy, and especially Nassau County's, is closely linked with New York City's.

Manufacturing employment, which had fallen sharply in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as the defense industry shrank, leveled off in the mid- to late-1990s, helped by high-tech and bio-tech startups. This shift from defense to high-tech industries reflected both local economic development incentives in the high-tech area and the presence of several major research labs. Since 2000, manufacturing employment has fallen by roughly a third, though most of the decline has been in Nassau County. Computer and electronic products manufacturing remains a key industry in Suffolk County. Long Island was hit hard by the 2008-09 recession. Employment fell by slightly over 4 percent—a bit steeper than statewide but milder than for the nation as a whole.

Recent Trends
Thus far in the recovery, Long Island has lagged the nation in job growth. Since late 2010, overall job growth fluctuated around 1 percent. There seemed to be some acceleration in early 2012, but growth has since slowed back down. Thus far, 2012 has seen strong job growth in the financial sector but steep job losses in construction. Long Island's housing market has yet to show any signs of an upturn: after falling by just over 20 percent from 2006 to early 2009, prices remained essentially flat until mid-2010 but drifted down further in 2011 and the first half of 2012.

Nassau County
Bordering on New York City, Nassau is by far the more urban county, and comprises a blend of urban and suburban communities. With 4,672 residents per square mile, Nassau is New York State's most densely populated county outside New York City. The county’s population barely increased in the last decade, growing by less than ½ percent from 2000 to 2010, well below the 5 percent pace seen during the 1990s. One in five residents is foreign born, and nearly half of that group is from Latin America. Nassau's population is relatively affluent and well-educated. Two out of five adults over age 25 hold college degrees and median household income was $94,000 in 2009. An extraordinary 83 percent of homes are owner-occupied, compared with 67 percent nationwide; the median value of these homes was estimated at $475,500, which is roughly 55 percent above the statewide median and more than two and a half times the national figure.

Nassau County's industrial profile is heavily weighted toward wholesale and retail trade. There is a relatively low incidence of manufacturing industries across the board. While commuting data from the 2010 Census is not yet available, based on the 2000 Census, 58 percent of all employed residents worked within the county, and a substantial 32 percent commuted to New York City; only 8 percent commuted to neighboring Suffolk County. Of those who worked in Nassau, a sizable 16 percent "reverse" commuted from New York City, mostly Queens.

Suffolk County 
Suffolk County's landscape is fairly diverse, with the westernmost portion, like Nassau County, characterized by a mix of urban and suburban areas, and the eastern part somewhat more rural. Overall, there are nearly 1,640 residents per square mile. The population grew by 5.2 percent between 2000 and 2010—roughly half the national rate, but still more than double the statewide average. Suffolk County's population is relatively affluent and educational attainment is moderately above the national average. Median household income was roughly $85,000 in 2009—nearly two-thirds above the national median and 50 percent above the statewide figure. Slightly over 31 percent of adults over the age of 25 hold college degrees—the same as for the state as a whole but above the nationwide average of 27 percent. Almost 15 percent of the county’s population is foreign born, or slightly more than for the nation as a whole, and slightly more than half those foreign-born are from Latin America. Similar to Nassau County, 82 percent of homes are owner-occupied and the median value of these homes was estimated at $430,000, based on data from 2007-09, or a third above the statewide median.

Suffolk County also has a high concentration of wholesale and retail trade industries. However, unlike Nassau County, Suffolk also has a relatively high concentration of manufacturing—particularly computers and electronic products. The presence of Brookhaven National Laboratory, SUNY Stony Brook, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory provide a strong foundation for Suffolk County’s high tech cluster.

While commuting data from the 2010 Census is not yet available, based on the 2000 Census, 74 percent of all employed residents worked in the county and another 14 percent worked in neighboring Nassau; almost all the remaining 12 percent worked in New York City. A relatively small proportion of Suffolk's work force "reverse" commuted in—9 percent commuted from Nassau and just 3 percent commute from New York City (again, mostly Queens).

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¹Trends in home prices referred to here are all based on repeat-sales indexes from CoreLogic.

	Long Island Metro Division*: selected characteristics
		Population in 2010			% of 2010 Population that is1
		Total Population1	% Change from 20001	per Sq. Mile2	Black	Hispanic	Asian
	Long Island Metro Division	2,832,882	2.9	2363	9.2	15.6	5.4
	Nassau	1,339,532	0.4	4672	11.1	14.6	7.6
	Suffolk	1,493,350	5.2	1637	7.4	16.5	3.4
	New York State	19,378,102	2.1	410	15.9	17.6	7.3
	USA	308,745,538	9.7	87	12.6	16.3	4.8

	Long Island Metro Division*: selected characteristics
		Median		% of Homes	% of Adults with5
		Household Income3	Home Value4	Owner Occupied4	College Degrees	HS Degrees
	Long Island Metro Division	$88,123	$463,600	82.7	35.6	89.3
	Nassau	$93,696	$494,000	83.2	40.5	89.5
	Suffolk	$85,196	$430,600	82.2	31.3	89.1
	New York State	$54,659	$310,100	55.4	31.8	84.2
	USA	$50,221	$191,900	66.4	27.5	84.6
* Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) are metro areas defined by the Office of Management and Budget for use by federal statistical agencies. 1 Source: US Bureau of the Census, decennial Census of Population. 2 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Population; land area data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s geographic database (TIGER® database) for Census 2000. 3 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, American Community Survey, 2009 (1-year estimates) 4 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, American Community Survey, 2007-09 (3-year estimates) 5 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, American Community Survey, 2006-08 (3-year estimates)

September 2012