Long Island is one of the world’s most urbanized and highly developed islands. As of 2021, Long Island had a population over 8 million people and a gross domestic product of around $400 billion. Between 2014 and 2019, Long Island experienced a 4.3% growth in jobs. Median income on the island is $112,000 and the median home price is $450,000. Among those over the age of 25, 42.6% hold a college degree or higher educationally.
Affluence
The counties of Nassau and Suffolk have long been renowned for their affluence and high standard of living. This affluence is especially pervasive among the hamlets and villages on the North Shore of Long Island as far as western Suffolk, the extreme eastern South Shore (home to the Hamptons) and several wealthy pockets along the South Shore further west. However, nearly all of Long Island (especially Nassau County and western Suffolk County) is extremely expensive to live on by national standards.
Northern Long Island is home to some of the most expensive mansions in the country. In 2005, the most expensive residence in the country was Three Ponds in Bridgehampton. Several of the nation's largest private residences are also on Long Island, including financier Ira Rennert's, Fair Field, in the Southampton village of Sagaponack and the country's second largest home, Oheka Castle. Long Island is home to the luxury communities of the Hamptons, Cold Spring Harbor, Dix Hills, Centerport, Huntington Bay, and Lloyd Harbor in Suffolk County, and Hewlett Bay Park, Cove Neck, Oyster Bay Cove, Laurel Hollow, Sands Point, Roslyn, Brookville, Old Brookville, Upper Brookville, Lattingtown, Matinecock, Muttontown, Hewlett Harbor, Garden City, Stewart Manor, and Manhasset in Nassau County.
Aviation industry
Long Island industry has long benefited from its proximity to New York City. During the 1930s, the island developed an aviation industry, and until about 1990 was considered one of the aviation centers of the United States, with companies such as Grumman Aircraft having their headquarters and factories in the Bethpage area. Grumman was long a major supplier of warplanes for the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps, as seen in many movies. Prominent WW-II Grumman aircraft included the F4F Wildcat and F6F Hellcat fighters, and the TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. Following WW II, the Grumman A-6 Intruder were utilized by the US Navy and USMC until their retirement in the 1990s, and the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, first introduced in 1964, is still in service with the US Navy. In more recent years, Grumman produced the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, a fighter aircraft deployed on U.S. aircraft carriers from 1974 to 2006. Obtained by the Shah of Iran in the 1970s when Iran was an ally, F-14 Tomcat has been placed in service as fighters by the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, where it still may be active. The Grumman EA-6B Prowler was also deployed by the US Navy and US Marine Corps, until its respective retirements by each service in 2015 and 2019. Grumman was also prominent in the US space program, being the producer of the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module.
In their early decades, aerospace-related companies were concentrated on Long Island, especially in eastern Nassau County in the Bethpage area. Over the years, the industry also diversified to other locations. The Sperry Gyroscope company did very well during WW-II as military demand skyrocketed; it specialized in high technology devices such as gyrocompasses, analog computer-controlled bombsights, airborne radar systems, and automated take-off and landing systems. These became jumping-off points into the multibillion-dollar annually avionics business. During the Cold War decade of the 1950s, part of Sperry Gyroscope was moved to Phoenix, Arizona. This was to try to preserve parts of this vital defense company in the event of nuclear warfare. Both on Long Island and in Arizona, Sperry continued to excel in avionics, and it also provided avionics systems for such NASA programs as the Space Shuttle.
The Cradle of Aviation Museum illustrates and celebrates Long Island aviation.
Long island is home to major divisions of the aircraft systems manufacturer, B/E Aerospace. Their products range from cabin lighting assemblies to aircraft lavatory systems.