No one knows for certain how many pigeons there are in New York. Depending on the method used, estimates vary from around 425,000 to several million. A figure of about 1 million is often quoted, but it does not come from a full count.
One Pigeon Per Person
One rough rule of thumb says there is one pigeon per person in most big cities, including New York City.
About 8.8 million people live in New York City itself (nearly 20 million in the wider metro area), so this would suggest roughly 8.8 million pigeons in the city.
If the population grows, the rule would also suggest growing numbers of pigeons.
The idea has some logic, as cities suit pigeons well. The more people live in a city, the more opportunities there are for pigeons to find food and places to nest.
New York suits pigeons well. Its high-rise buildings resemble the coastal cliffs where their rock dove ancestors lived.
City slicker pigeons have adapted to human food consumption. America is the birthplace of fast food, after all. With all those millions of people eating every day, it’s an ongoing open buffet.
So the one pigeon per person rule gives an upper-end guess for the number of pigeons in New York.
However some people suggest one pigeon for every two people is more realistic, which would give around 4.4 million pigeons in New York.
Many people feel there are far more pigeons than people in New York, but it’s impossible to guess accurately because pigeons are hard to survey.
Pigeons Per 100m²
To make some sense of the numbers, you could imagine how many pigeons a single restaurant or hotdog stand could support, estimate the average number of restaurants per block, and then multiply by the number of blocks in the city.
This method has been used to estimate the number of pigeons in London (opens in new tab).
For London, one approach split the city into a grid of small squares. A random sample of squares was chosen and the pigeons in each were counted at a set time.
The average across the selected grids was then multiplied by the number of grids, giving an estimate of the total number of pigeons in the city.
This gave an estimate of about 850,000 pigeons in London.
London has a population of around 9 million.
New York City has a population of about 8.8 million. London covers an area of 1,572 square kilometres. New York City covers about 784 km².
So if you apply London’s density of about 541 pigeons per km² to New York, you get around 425,000 pigeons.
This is a radically different number from the pigeon per person method.
This demonstrates exactly how difficult it is to come up with a figure for the number of pigeons in New York – or any city.
Conclusion
The true number of pigeons in New York City probably lies somewhere between these estimates.
Whatever the numbers are, they don’t seem to be shrinking much. Many methods have been tried to reduce them, with limited success.
Some cities have tried using predators such as falcons. Peregrine falcons do nest on New York buildings and bridges and eat pigeons, but they have not noticeably reduced pigeon numbers.
Last updated 24 October 2026 · Facts