Ethnic Diversity Grows, With Little Neighborhood Integration.

New census figures show little change in community integration despite growing ethnic diversity in the nation. The average white person continues to live in a neighborhood that looks very different from those neighborhoods where the average black, Hispanic, and Asian live. For example, the average white person in metropolitan American lives in a neighborhood that is almost 83% white and only 7% black. In contrast, a typical black individual lives in a neighborhood that is only 33% white and as much as 54% black. Diversity is experienced very differently in the daily lives of whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.

This pattern has not been ameliorated in the last decade. Despite a substantial shift of minorities from cities to suburbs, these groups have not gained access to largely white neighborhoods. “Residential segregation, particularly among blacks and whites, remains high in cities and in suburbs around the country,” says John Logan, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at State University of New York, Albany. Researchers at the Mumford Center have completed analysis of new U.S. Census Bureau data concerning racial and ethnic segregation for the entire nation. “In the metropolitan areas where most blacks, Hispanics and Asians live, we see little if any change in segregation levels from 1990,” he says.

Neighborhood integration has remained a goal of public policy and popular opinion because it is seen as proof of the American ideal of equal opportunity. But in fact, the growth of minority populations and the absence of improvement in segregated living patterns has meant that Hispanics and Asians now live in more isolated settings than they did in 1990, with a smaller proportion of white residents in their neighborhoods.

These data provide the most up-to-date evidence about residential segregation in the early 21st Century. As of today, results for the country’s 331 metropolitan areas are available at the Mumford Center’s website at http://mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/download.html