being on one of the world's largest natural harbors, new york city is made up of five boroughs, each of which is a county of the state of new york. the five boroughs—brooklyn, queens, manhattan, the bronx, and staten island—were combined into one city in 1898. the city and its metropolitan area are an important place for legal immigration to the united states. as many as 800 languages are spoken in new york, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. new york has more than 3.2 million people born outside the united states, the biggest foreign-born population of any city in the world as of 2016.