Queens Borough President Donovan Richards released a 2025 Queens Community Board Demographic Report on Tuesday, July 13. The report gave an overview of the demographic breakdowns of all 14 Queens Community Boards and a breakdown of this year’s more than 300 community board appointees.
More than 4,500 applications have been submitted since 2021, with the majority coming from individuals who had not previously served on a community board.
The New York City Charter requires the report to be published and available to the public. This year, the borough president’s office received 916 applications and appointed 361 applicants. Of these 361 appointees, 119 are new members who were not previously serving on a board. This is the largest number of new members appointed during Richards’ administration so far.
The 119 members were widely represented by people of color, according to the demographic report. People who identify as Hispanic/Latinx make up 29.4 % of new appointees; East Asian/Pacific Islanders and South Asians collectively comprise 23.5 % of new members; and African Americans make up 22.7 % of new appointees.
This year’s new applicants also saw an influx of younger community board members, with more than half ( 55.5%) of new appointees under the age of 40, and nearly 20 % are under the age of 30. The youngest new appointee is 17 years old. Prior to Richards’ tenure, less than 25 % of community board members were younger than 45.
The gender breakdown of new community board members shows that of the 119 new community board members this year, more than 51% identify as female. When combining all five of Richards’ community board application cycles, 52 % of his new appointees have been identified as female. Prior to his administration, 43 % of board members identified as female, showing a nearly 10% increase in female participation within the combined application cycles.
Additionally, 24.4 % of new members are parents or guardians of a school-aged child, while 19.3% are immigrants. In terms of LGBTQIA+ representation, 10.1% of new members identified as such, up from 3.2% of community board members as of 2020, prior to Borough President Richards taking office.
This year’s demographic breakdown also included transportation data.
Over fifty-eight percent of the 2025 class of new members reported they “mostly” or “often” navigate the borough by using the subway, while 94.1 % said they at least “sometimes” use the subway. Additionally, 92.4 % of new appointees reported they at least “sometimes” ride the bus, and 42 % said they at least “sometimes” use a bicycle or other micro-mobility vehicle for transportation.
The borough president’s office credits Richards’ 2021 announcement of a centralized code of conduct for all 14 community boards with increasing interest in serving on community boards.
