The East End of Long Island is constituted by the five towns at the eastern end of New York's Suffolk County, namely Riverhead, Southampton (which includes Westhampton), Southold, Shelter Island, and East Hampton.
While other Suffolk County communities have long been considered suburban to New York City, the more rural East End townships have traditionally relied more upon agriculture and recreation.
Residents of the five eastern townships had occasionally advocated seceding from Suffolk County to form a proposed "Peconic County",[5][6] named for the Peconic Bay at the center of the East End's geography.
The East End is also home to Gabreski Air Base, Plum Island's Animal Disease Center, and the Shinnecock Indian Nation's Shinnecock Reservation.
[7] Suffolk County's five western townships (that is, Suffolk County without the East End) have a total land area of 1,462.001 km2 (564.482 sq mi) and an adjusted 2000 census population of 1,293,927 inhabitants, for a population density of 885.04 people/km2 (2,292.2 people/sq mi), more than six times that of the East End.