Haymarket is adjacent to Darling Harbour and is surrounded by the suburbs of Ultimo, Chippendale, Surry Hills and the Sydney CBD.

Sydney's produce markets were located in Haymarket from the early 20th century through to the 1980s when they were moved to a new site at Flemington.

[3] With the relocation of the produce market to Flemington and outflow of residents to the suburbs, the commercial role of Haymarket declined.

Despite significant demographic change due to successive waves of immigration from Asia, today's Chinatown remains a centre for Asian restaurants and other businesses.

Haymarket has a number of heritage-listed sites, including: In 2011, 87.8% of the population was foreign born, the highest for any Australian suburb.

Additionally, 82.7% spoke a language other than English at home, with Mandarin being the most common at 24.3%, followed by Thai at 16.3%, Indonesian at 8.6%, Cantonese at 5.7%, and Korean at 2.5%.

Haymarket is also serviced by the Inner West Light Rail line with stations at Central, Capitol Square and Paddy's Markets.

A short section is not used by the light rail having been converted to The Goods Line pedestrian link to Railway Square and Central station.