About Long Island -- Long Island Maps -- Developed Land and Projected Buildout -- Urbanized Land on Long Island, 1962 and 1995
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Following several decades of growth, there is very little undeveloped land left on Long Island that is not protected parkland. With homes, buildings and pavement covering most of the Island as far as central Suffolk, the edge of rural, undeveloped land is not found until one reaches the William Floyd Parkway, some 60 miles from Manhattan. The 2006 New York State Open Space Preservation Plan estimated that approximately 75,000 acres of privately-owned, undeveloped land remain on the Island, less than 10% of Long Island’s total land mass.
Although development was most rapid in the 1950s and 1960s when population growth was surging, developed (or “urbanized”) land has grown much faster than population. In fact, land developed at twice the rate of population between the mid-1950s and the mid-1990s. By 1995 Nassau County was 88% urbanized and Suffolk 64%.
Comparatively, Long Island is also more developed than other suburban areas in the New York region that have more forest and farmland, particularly on their outer fringe. 70% of Long Island is urbanized, while only 43% of the suburbs north of New York City and 40% of northern New Jersey have been developed.
If you would like to read more about this topic, see the Long Island Index 2007 section on Land Preservation.