Largest Asian Population Of Any City

Question

I have a question about this sentence here:

Asian Americans in New York City represent the largest Asian American population of any city in the United States.

The comparison should be between the asian population of New York City and the asian populations of other cities. But the phrase "the largest Asian American population of any city in the United States" seems to compare the New York City asian population directly with other cities instead of with other cities' asian populations.

So, is the original poorly written?

Answer 1

The phrase is not poorly written. Google has many examples. The sentence is a bit repetitive. Here's a shorter version:

New York City has the largest Asian-American population of any city in the United States.

The basic pattern for the phrase is:

[superlative adjective] [noun] of any [singular noun]

[Singular noun] is a group of things. [Noun] is an attribute of those things. [Superlative adjective] defines the most extreme form of the attribute. The phrase is a way of defining an extreme member of the group.

That was pretty abstract, so here are more examples:

Our high school has the lowest dropout rate of any school in the state.
This opera has the longest song of any opera in history.
He scored the most rebounds of any basketball game last year.

Here are some other ways to say the original sentence:

New York City has more Asian-Americans than any other city in the United States.
New York City's Asian-American population is larger than that of any other city in the United States.

Answer 2

He scored the highest points of all players in the team. He scored the highest points of any player in the team (any also implies all or every). Here, we are comparing his points to the points of all other players, not his points to all other players.

I think the above statement is clear to the PO. Similarly, the following statement should also be clear to him.

"Asian Americans in New York city represent the largest Asian American population of any city in the United States".

The comparison of Asian American population in New York is with the Asian American population of any city in the United States, not the Asian American population in New York with any city in the United States.