Animated map reveals how Manhattan’s working population moves from home to work over 24 hours

Odds are if you’re reading this post right now, you’re probably at work in Midtown.

Created by Joey Cherdarchuk, “Breathing City” is a hypnotic visualization that tracks Manhattan’s working and resident population as they move from their home to their office.

To build the map, Cherdarchuk pulled population, employment, land use and building footprint data from the U.S. Census Bureau and New York City Planning, and plotted it against a breakdown, hour by hour, of what the Bureau of Labor Statistics deems a “typical” workday for the average American (“Manhattan probably has a different profile than the US average, but close enough,” he admits).  

Per Cherdarchuk, the roughly 1.5 million people living in Manhattan and 2 million people working in Manhattan were assigned the schedule. And as you’ll see ahead, New York is truly the city that never sleeps. 

However, one thing to note that is not clearly reflected in the map is that when the city’s central business districts empty out, a large percentage actually file out to their homes in the outer boroughs and Jersey or head northbound to Connecticut and the like. If you want to know what that looks like, you can get an idea here.

[Via Dark Horse Analytics]

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