Sunset Park Is Among Top 10 Most Crowded Neighborhoods, Says Census Data

Sunset Park is tied for fifth place in the list of Top 10 neighborhoods with the most-crowded households, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau that was recently mapped out by StreetEasy. According to the data, as of the year 2013, 19.6 percent of households are “crowded” — defined as a home in which the room-to-person ratio is higher than 1:1.

That number apparently increased over time, from 15.6 percent crowdedness in 2009. However, it is a decrease compared to the crowdedness rate in 2010, which is listed as being 21.7 percent. (The rate went down from that point, to 18,1 percent in 2011 and 17.9 percent in 2012.)

It is unclear whether the data includes single-room occupancy units, but the gist is that as demand has increased for Brooklyn real estate, thus pushing up prices, more Brooklynites have decided that bringing in roommates — or more family members — is the most affordable choice.

According to the Census Bureau, a “severely crowded” household is one in which more than 1.5 people live per room.

By that definition, Sunset Park’s severe overcrowding rate has vacillated from 5.9 percent (2009) to a high of 8.1 percent (2010) and then going back and forth — from 8 percent (2011) to 4.9 percent (2012) to 6.7 percent (2013).

The Bronx leads all the boroughs in terms of “crowding,” but Brooklyn has seen the highest growth in household sizes.

According to 2013 Census data, 8.9 percent of all New York City households met the definition of “crowded” in 2013, whereas just 3.3 percent of all U.S. households were crowded.[i] Among the five boroughs, the Bronx saw the highest percentage of crowded households (12.4 percent), followed by Brooklyn (10.3 percent) and Queens (9.4 percent). Households were less congested in Manhattan and Staten Island by comparison, where just 5.4 percent and 3.4 percent of all households were crowded in 2013, respectively.