New York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States of America. With 62 counties, it is the country's third most populous state. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and shares a water border with Rhode Island as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Its five largest cities are New York City (also the largest city in the United States), Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse.

New York City is known for its history as a gateway for immigration to the United States and its status as a financial, cultural, transportation, and manufacturing center.

New York was inhabited by Algonquian, Iroquois, and Lenape indigenous people at the time Dutch and French nationals moved into the region in the very early 17th century. First claimed by Henry Hudson in 1609, the region came to have Dutch forts in Fort Orange, near the site of the present-day capital of Albany in 1614 and was colonized by the Dutch in 1624, at both Albany and Manhattan; it later fell to British annexation in 1664. About one third of all of the battles of the Revolutionary War took place in New York. The state ratified the United States Constitution in 1788, the 11th state to do so; its own constitution was enacted in 1777.