Mural at Grand Concourse in The Bronx

Unlike the other boroughs, The Bronx is always referred to as "The Bronx," never just "Bronx." This is because the borough took its name from a river - the Bronx River. Generally, the word "the" precedes the names of rivers and other bodies of water; hence, the borough is known as the "The Bronx."

By the mid 1990s the population of the Bronx was increasing. It was about a third black, a third Latin American, and a third Asian and white. Some musicologists maintain that salsa music and break dancing originated in the Bronx. Puerto Ricans accounted for more than a quarter of the population by 1990, and there were also growing numbers of Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians, Pakistanis, Cubans, Dominicans, Jamaicans, Greeks, and Russians.

Bronx, with a population of 1,332,650, is home to 416,338 Blacks/African Americans, 39,032 Asians and Pacific Islanders, 3,488 American Indians and Native Alaskans, and 644,705 Hispanics.