2QUESTION 2 OF 3
Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
34,000
officers
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
The easiest place to start is New York City's population, about 8.5 million. How many officers does a big city budget for relative to its size? Roughly 1 for every 250 residents, which works out to about 34,000 officers.
- NYC population, roughly
- 8,500,000
- Officers budgeted per resident
- ÷ 250
- ≈ result
- 34,000
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- Authorized/budgeted uniformed headcount, FY2024
- ~35,000-36,000
- Actual on-board uniformed headcount during 2024 (after attrition)
- ~34,000
- ≈ result
- 34,000
Reference cited by Fermi: NYPD staffing figures via Vital City NYC, 2024
How close was your guess?
Your comparison will appear here.
Compare by ratio: divide the larger number by the smaller one. The closer to 1×, the better.