US2010

SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL

Census 2010 data revealed that the nation's growing racial and ethnic diversity has only slowly translated into increased neighborhood integration for African Americans, while Hispanics and Asians remain as segregated in 2010 as they were in 1980.

But do separate neighborhoods translate into unequal ones?

Social analysts have begun the process of answering this question - thanks to new data from the American Community Survey. In December 2010 the Census Bureau released information at the census tract level, pooling the interviews done during 2005-2009 in order to have a sufficient sample size for this purpose. These data include economic and social indicators categorized by race and ethnicity at the tract level (a census tract is an area including about 4500 persons).

The following web pages provide information on differences in neighborhood characteristics for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics and Asians. Data for these groups are provided for a number of social and economic indicators including median household and average per capita income; rates of poverty and unemployment; education and occupational status, housing vacancy and homeownership; immigration status and percentage of persons speaking a language other than English at home; as well as for the degree of isolation and integration of each group. You can view this information for any metropolitan region. Click here for more details about data sources and measures.

We include data for 1990, 2000, and 2005-2009. To facilitate comparisons between neighborhoods we provide a ratio of each minority group value to the white group value for every indicator. Links to information concerning the possible sources of inequality - income class, race or nativity - are provided on each metro region page.

Metropolitan Regions

The Census Bureau uses a standard set of definitions of the area included in each "metropolitan statistical area" (MSA) or "metropolitan division.” In most cases they include a principal city (or sometimes two or more principal cities) and the ring of surrounding suburbs. At the top of the page for each metro area, we have listed the counties and the city or cities that the census has designated as principal cities for this area.

A metropolitan division is a subdivision of an MSA, including a county or counties with a population core of at least 2.5 million. Metropolitan divisions are created in MSAs with very large populations (like the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA MSA), and it may be preferable in most cases to analyze the metropolitan divisions separately.

All MSAs and Metropolitan Divisions are included in alphabetical order on the “Select a Metropolitan Region” menu. The “Select a Metro Division” menu lists the 11 MSAs that have been subdivided and shows the Metropolitan Divisions within them.

The series of web pages for each category is organized in the following manner: