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is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 12,236 at the 2000 census.
Hampton Bays is located at (40.873940, -72.521167), about 81 miles (130 km) to the east of Manhattan (New York, NY).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 21.7 square miles (56.2 km²), of which, 12.0 square miles (31.2 km²) of it is land and 9.6 square miles (25.0 km²) of it (44.46%) is water. Hampton Bays is crucial to Eastern Long Island. The hamlet is surrounded by three bays, the Great Peconic Bay to the north, and Shinnecock and Tiana Bays to the south. The two southern bays are a part of a greater bay system, called the Great South Bay system, which stretches from approximately Southampton Village to Jamaica Bay in New York City. The Shinnecock Canal, a man-made canal located in the eastern part of the hamlet, connects the Great Peconic Bay with the Shinnecock Bay. Shinnecock Inlet, which leads from the Shinnecock Bay to the Atlantic Ocean, is the eastern most inlet, making it very popular for commercial fishing. The inlet itself, which separates the barrier beaches of Hampton Bays with those of neighboring Southampton, was created in the New England Hurricane of 1938 when the forces of the hurricane washed over that area of barrier beach, connecting the waters of the Atlantic with the bay.
In terms of political boundaries, the Atlantic Ocean forms an international boundary to the south; other water boundaries are to the east and north (Southampton, NY is to the east via the Shinnecock Inlet, and the Towns of Southold and Riverhead to the north via Peconic Bay. The hamlet's land borders include East Quogue, NY to the west and Flanders (Northampton), NY to the north. Southampton, NY also shares a land border east of the Shinnecock Canal. This area of Southampton (town) is better known to locals as Shinnecock Hills (not to be confused with the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, also located in that area). Both Flanders and East Quogue also fall within the Town of Southampton.