20.3%
of Manhattan adults have been told they have some form of arthritis (estimate for 2023)
About 280,400 adults; 18.9% after adjusting for age
24.9%
in Upper East Side-Carnegie Hill, the highest of Manhattan’s 32 residential neighborhoods
30.2% of residents are 65 or older
12.0%
in Financial District-Battery Park City, the lowest in Manhattan
8.1% of residents are 65 or older
19.9%
of all New York City adults
About 1,405,700 adults; Staten Island has the highest borough estimate, 24.4%
What these numbers measure
The figures come from CDC’s PLACES project. They estimate the share of adults who would answer yes to a national health survey question: “Have you ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that you have some form of arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, lupus, or fibromyalgia?” (CDC measure definition).
- All arthritis, not knee arthritis. The question covers every type of arthritis in any joint. No public data source gives knee arthritis by neighborhood.
- Model-based estimates, not counts. CDC combines survey answers with census population data in a statistical model to estimate each area. Nobody counted diagnoses neighborhood by neighborhood. In CDC’s words, “Doctor-diagnosed arthritis is self-reported and is not confirmed by a health care provider or objective monitoring.”
- Crude and age-adjusted. The neighborhood figures are crude: the share of all adults who live there. For boroughs, CDC also gives an age-adjusted figure, which removes the effect of an older or younger population so places can be compared like for like.
Manhattan, neighborhood by neighborhood
We combined CDC’s 304 census tract estimates for Manhattan into the city’s official neighborhoods (Neighborhood Tabulation Areas), weighting each tract by its adult population. Parks and other areas with few residents are left out, which leaves 32 neighborhoods.
Source: CDC PLACES, 2025 release (census tract estimates); NYC Department of City Planning neighborhood boundaries. Fox Vein Care calculation.
Manhattan neighborhoods ranked by the estimated share of adults with arthritis, 2023. “Rank in NYC” is out of 197 residential neighborhoods. Residents 65+ is the share of all residents, from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Share of adults | Adults with arthritis (est.) | Residents 65+ | Rank in NYC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upper East Side-Carnegie Hill | 24.9% | 13,000 | 30.2% | 13 |
| 2 | Chinatown-Two Bridges | 23.5% | 8,600 | 25.7% | 29 |
| 3 | East Harlem (North) | 22.8% | 11,700 | 14.2% | 39 |
| 4 | Harlem (North) | 22.8% | 15,300 | 13.4% | 40 |
| 5 | Upper West Side-Manhattan Valley | 22.3% | 9,900 | 23.0% | 58 |
| 6 | East Harlem (South) | 22.0% | 10,800 | 17.2% | 62 |
| 7 | Upper West Side (Central) | 21.9% | 18,900 | 23.0% | 66 |
| 8 | Lower East Side | 21.1% | 8,900 | 22.3% | 78 |
| 9 | Upper West Side-Lincoln Square | 20.7% | 12,400 | 20.1% | 92 |
| 10 | East Midtown-Turtle Bay | 20.5% | 8,500 | 27.7% | 96 |
| 11 | Inwood | 20.4% | 6,100 | 16.7% | 103 |
| 12 | Manhattanville-West Harlem | 20.3% | 3,800 | 13.3% | 109 |
| 13 | Washington Heights (South) | 20.2% | 12,400 | 18.5% | 113 |
| 14 | Washington Heights (North) | 20.0% | 12,100 | 17.1% | 118 |
| 15 | Harlem (South) | 19.6% | 7,600 | 10.9% | 125 |
| 16 | Hamilton Heights-Sugar Hill | 19.4% | 8,200 | 14.5% | 126 |
| 17 | Midtown-Times Square | 18.5% | 4,300 | 21.8% | 139 |
| 18 | Upper East Side-Yorkville | 18.4% | 13,300 | 22.8% | 142 |
| 19 | Upper East Side-Lenox Hill-Roosevelt Island | 18.2% | 13,500 | 19.3% | 144 |
| 20 | Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village | 17.6% | 3,400 | 18.6% | 152 |
| 21 | West Village | 16.9% | 5,400 | 16.8% | 162 |
| 22 | East Village | 16.6% | 10,800 | 14.7% | 166 |
| 23 | Greenwich Village | 16.6% | 5,100 | 17.6% | 167 |
| 24 | SoHo-Little Italy-Hudson Square | 16.5% | 3,500 | 17.9% | 169 |
| 25 | Chelsea-Hudson Yards | 16.3% | 10,300 | 15.9% | 171 |
| 26 | Gramercy | 15.9% | 4,200 | 15.3% | 176 |
| 27 | Hell's Kitchen | 15.7% | 8,600 | 16.6% | 179 |
| 28 | Tribeca-Civic Center | 15.3% | 3,100 | 13.6% | 183 |
| 29 | Morningside Heights | 15.2% | 5,300 | 16.9% | 184 |
| 30 | Murray Hill-Kips Bay | 14.5% | 8,400 | 17.5% | 187 |
| 31 | Midtown South-Flatiron-Union Square | 14.1% | 4,200 | 12.1% | 191 |
| 32 | Financial District-Battery Park City | 12.0% | 5,400 | 8.1% | 194 |
Upper East Side-Carnegie Hill has the highest estimate in Manhattan, 24.9%, and ranks 13 of 197 across the city. It also has the oldest population of any Manhattan neighborhood: 30.2% of residents are 65 or older. Financial District-Battery Park City, at 12.0%, has the youngest, with 8.1% aged 65 or older. The gap between the two is 12.9 percentage points.
Age is not the whole picture. East Harlem (North) and Harlem (North) both have estimates of 22.8%, among the highest in Manhattan, although their populations are among the youngest in Manhattan: 14.2% and 13.4% of residents are 65 or older, ranking 26th and 28th of 32 on that measure. CDC’s model also uses sex, race and ethnicity, and education, so differences in those can also move the estimates.
The five boroughs
CDC publishes its own estimate for each borough (county). Before age adjustment, Staten Island has the highest share, 24.4%, and Manhattan the lowest, 20.3%. After age adjustment the order changes: Bronx is highest at 21.2%, and Queens is lowest at 17.4%. For the city as a whole, CDC estimates 19.9% (19.2% age-adjusted), about 1,405,700 adults.
CDC PLACES county estimates, 2023. The 95% range is CDC’s confidence interval for the share of adults. Adults with arthritis rounded to the nearest 100.
| Borough | Share of adults | 95% range | Age-adjusted | Adults with arthritis (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staten Island | 24.4% | 22.1 to 26.9 | 21.0% | 94,000 |
| Bronx | 23.0% | 21.0 to 25.1 | 21.2% | 237,300 |
| Brooklyn | 20.7% | 18.9 to 22.7 | 19.3% | 414,800 |
| Queens | 20.4% | 18.6 to 22.3 | 17.4% | 371,600 |
| Manhattan | 20.3% | 18.6 to 21.9 | 18.9% | 280,400 |
Highest estimates across the city
Across all 197 residential neighborhoods, the highest estimate is 29.9% in Spring Creek-Starrett City (Brooklyn), and the lowest is 8.8% in Long Island City-Hunters Point (Queens). Neighborhoods with a larger share of residents 65 or older tend to have higher estimates: across the 197 neighborhoods, the correlation between the two is 0.5 (where 1 would mean they rise and fall together exactly). That is expected, because age is one of the inputs to CDC’s model.
The ten New York City neighborhoods with the highest estimates, 2023. All 197 are in the CSV download.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Borough | Share of adults | Residents 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spring Creek-Starrett City | Brooklyn | 29.9% | 29.0% |
| 2 | Coney Island-Sea Gate | Brooklyn | 29.0% | 27.9% |
| 3 | Co-op City | Bronx | 27.9% | 27.3% |
| 4 | Oakwood-Richmondtown | Staten Island | 27.0% | 21.9% |
| 5 | Brighton Beach | Brooklyn | 26.8% | 27.7% |
| 6 | Todt Hill-Emerson Hill-Lighthouse Hill-Manor Heights | Staten Island | 26.3% | 22.9% |
| 7 | Great Kills-Eltingville | Staten Island | 25.9% | 17.9% |
| 8 | Grasmere-Arrochar-South Beach-Dongan Hills | Staten Island | 25.2% | 19.8% |
| 9 | Westerleigh-Castleton Corners | Staten Island | 25.2% | 17.3% |
| 10 | Breezy Point-Belle Harbor-Rockaway Park-Broad Channel | Queens | 25.0% | 23.2% |
Manhattan ZIP codes
CDC also publishes estimates by ZIP code area (ZCTA). Among Manhattan ZIP codes, the highest is 10039 at 24.5% and the lowest is 10005 at 9.1%. The table lists ZIP codes with at least 1,000 adults; three with fewer adults are in the CSV.
CDC PLACES ZIP code (ZCTA) estimates, 2023, for ZCTAs with at least half their land in Manhattan. Adults: Census 2020 count used by CDC.
| ZIP code | Share of adults | 95% range | Adults |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10001 | 14.9% | 13.8 to 16.4 | 29,742 |
| 10002 | 21.9% | 20.4 to 23.9 | 70,736 |
| 10003 | 14.8% | 13.7 to 16.2 | 53,076 |
| 10004 | 12.8% | 11.7 to 14.1 | 3,496 |
| 10005 | 9.1% | 8.2 to 10.1 | 9,477 |
| 10006 | 9.7% | 8.7 to 10.9 | 3,794 |
| 10007 | 13.7% | 12.5 to 15.2 | 6,563 |
| 10009 | 18.3% | 17.0 to 20.0 | 55,073 |
| 10010 | 16.2% | 15.0 to 17.7 | 30,139 |
| 10011 | 17.9% | 16.6 to 19.6 | 48,298 |
| 10012 | 15.7% | 14.5 to 17.1 | 21,107 |
| 10013 | 16.8% | 15.5 to 18.5 | 26,106 |
| 10014 | 16.8% | 15.6 to 18.4 | 29,732 |
| 10016 | 13.9% | 12.9 to 15.3 | 57,170 |
| 10017 | 17.0% | 15.7 to 18.7 | 16,021 |
| 10018 | 12.2% | 11.2 to 13.3 | 10,280 |
| 10019 | 16.3% | 15.1 to 17.8 | 44,882 |
| 10021 | 21.4% | 19.9 to 23.3 | 39,336 |
| 10022 | 21.7% | 20.2 to 23.7 | 33,025 |
| 10023 | 21.1% | 19.6 to 23.0 | 60,795 |
| 10024 | 21.8% | 20.3 to 23.9 | 52,476 |
| 10025 | 21.4% | 19.9 to 23.2 | 82,789 |
| 10026 | 19.7% | 18.3 to 21.6 | 29,081 |
| 10027 | 18.0% | 16.7 to 19.6 | 53,933 |
| 10028 | 19.6% | 18.2 to 21.4 | 41,259 |
| 10029 | 22.1% | 20.5 to 23.9 | 63,268 |
| 10030 | 21.8% | 20.3 to 23.7 | 23,970 |
| 10031 | 19.3% | 17.9 to 21.1 | 48,144 |
| 10032 | 20.0% | 18.6 to 21.8 | 47,196 |
| 10033 | 19.8% | 18.3 to 21.6 | 42,387 |
| 10034 | 20.4% | 18.9 to 22.3 | 30,486 |
| 10035 | 23.5% | 21.9 to 25.4 | 29,385 |
| 10036 | 16.4% | 15.1 to 18.0 | 31,103 |
| 10037 | 24.1% | 22.5 to 26.1 | 16,243 |
| 10038 | 15.4% | 14.2 to 16.8 | 22,499 |
| 10039 | 24.5% | 22.9 to 26.6 | 23,002 |
| 10040 | 20.7% | 19.2 to 22.7 | 33,676 |
| 10044 | 16.9% | 15.6 to 18.4 | 9,950 |
| 10065 | 20.3% | 18.9 to 22.2 | 28,383 |
| 10069 | 17.2% | 15.8 to 18.9 | 5,260 |
| 10075 | 21.4% | 19.8 to 23.3 | 23,749 |
| 10128 | 19.3% | 17.9 to 20.9 | 54,489 |
| 10162 | 23.4% | 21.5 to 25.5 | 1,346 |
| 10280 | 15.4% | 14.1 to 17.1 | 7,367 |
| 10282 | 15.1% | 13.8 to 16.7 | 4,142 |
What this means if your joints hurt
- These are estimates for whole neighborhoods. They say nothing about any one person.
- Every residential neighborhood in the city has an estimate of at least 8.8%.
- The measure does not say which joints are affected, so it is not a count of knee arthritis.
- Our guide What causes knee osteoarthritis? explains the main risk factors, knee pain care at Fox Vein Care describes what we offer, and our GAE insurance coverage tracker shows how insurers treat one knee procedure.
How we built this study
- Arthritis estimates: CDC PLACES census tract data, 2025 release, which uses 2023 survey data from CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. CDC’s methodology applies a statistical model using “age, sex, race/ethnicity, and education level” and county poverty to 2020 census block populations, and adds those up to tracts and ZIP codes.
- Neighborhoods: each of the 2,231 New York City tracts was assigned to its 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Area using the NYC Department of City Planning equivalency file. A neighborhood’s estimate is the average of its tracts weighted by adults; its number of adults with arthritis is the sum over tracts of estimate times adults, rounded to the nearest 100. Only residential neighborhoods are ranked. Marble Hill is counted with the Bronx neighborhood it belongs to in the city’s scheme.
- Neighborhood counts use the Census 2020 adult population CDC lists for each tract; borough and city figures are CDC’s own county and city estimates, which use a different population base, so the neighborhood counts do not add up exactly to the borough totals.
- Residents 65 and older: Census Bureau American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates (table B01001), summed over the same tracts.
- ZIP codes: CDC PLACES ZCTA data for the ZCTAs with at least half their land area in Manhattan, from the Census Bureau’s 2020 ZCTA to county relationship file.
- An independent check downloads other copies of the data (CDC’s wide-format files, the city’s census tract and neighborhood files, and an American Community Survey summary table) and recomputes every figure here with separate code. Every figure matched.
Limits
- These are model-based estimates. CDC cautions that its small-area model “cannot detect effects due to local interventions”, so the figures should not be used to judge local programs.
- Within a borough, the model gives every neighborhood the same county-level inputs, so differences between neighborhoods mostly reflect who lives there. Single tracts in Manhattan range from 4.6% to 34.5%; we report neighborhoods, which are larger and steadier.
- Arthritis is self-reported: it counts adults who say a doctor told them they have it, not confirmed diagnoses.
- The question covers all types of arthritis in all joints. It does not measure knee arthritis, how severe the arthritis is, or pain.
- CDC gives age-adjusted estimates for counties and cities but not for tracts, so neighborhood figures are crude only.
Sources
- CDC, PLACES: Local Data for Better Health, Census Tract Data, 2025 release; County Data; Place Data; ZCTA Data.
- CDC, PLACES measure definitions: health outcomes (arthritis among adults) and PLACES methodology.
- NYC Department of City Planning, 2020 Census Tracts to 2020 NTAs and CDTAs Equivalency.
- US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 five-year estimates, table B01001 (sex by age).
- US Census Bureau, 2020 ZCTA to county relationship file.
Download the data and cite this page
Download the data (CSV): estimates for New York City, the five boroughs, all 197 residential neighborhoods and all 48 Manhattan ZIP code areas. Free to reuse with credit under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Suggested citation: Fox Vein Care. “How Common Is Arthritis in Your New York City Neighborhood?” November 12, 2026. https://foxvein.com/research/arthritis-new-york-neighborhoods/