MANHATTAN residents ac count for nearly a quarter of the state’s income-tax collections, a figure that makes it clearer than ever that the city is the economic engine of the entire state.

Figures from the state Department of Taxation & Finance show the state collected $25.8 billion in 2004, the last year for which data has been compiled, and $6 billion, or 23 percent, came from Manhattan alone.

Overall, nearly 37 percent of the state income-tax burden was borne by city residents, who filed about 25 percent of all returns.

E.J. McMahon, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said New Yorkers reaping huge gains on Wall Street and the booming real estate market account for the city’s disproportionate share of the income tax bill.

“The state has become more and more dependent on income taxes that are paid by high-income individuals,” he said.

The figures bear that out.

Only 2.9 percent of the returns showed adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 or more. But the rich incurred more than 52 percent of the state’s total income-tax liability.

The state imposed a surcharge on those earning $500,000 or more from 2003 through 2005.

But McMahon said it’s the concentration of wealth in the city that’s the driving force behind the numbers, not the surcharge.

He also pointed out that state revenues plummeted after 9/11 not because incomes dropped sharply across the board but because “the wealthy took a bath” on Wall Street.

Another bear market and “you’d see revenues nosedive [again],” he warned.

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