Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, in the northeastern United States. At New York Harbor it is approximately 0.35 miles (0.56 km) from Manhattan Island and extends eastward over 100 miles (160 km) into the Atlantic Ocean. The island comprises four counties; Kings and Queens counties and Nassau County share the western third of the island, while Suffolk County occupies the eastern two thirds. More than half of New York City's residents live on Long Island, in Brooklyn and in Queens. However, people in the New York metropolitan area colloquially use the term Long Island to refer exclusively to Nassau and Suffolk counties, and conversely, employ the term the City to mean Manhattan alone. While the Nassau plus Suffolk definition of Long Island does not have any legal existence, it is recognized as a "region" by the state of New York.
