Racial Residential Segregation: Measurement and Trends

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

The existence of racial residential segregation in United States cities means that blacks often lack the access to schools, parks, and other opportunities enjoyed by whites. Some argue that residential segregation and the geographical isolation of blacks from whites in large metropolises has contributed to the emergence of an underclass, and to racial differences in earnings, schooling, and single parenting. Using the decennial censuses, the only source of information about residential segregation, researchers have done much to understand the causes and consequences of this form of racial and ethnic inequality. This project extends such research using data on the distribution of racial and ethnic groups down to the city block from the 2000 Census. It produces three papers based on computing multiple indices of residential segregation for American cities. One describes segregation levels in 2000 and their correlates. Another explores and measures the implications of the new race categories for the analysis of segregation, and a third tests hypotheses about changes in segregation since 1980. The findings from this project describe baseline information about the levels of racial residential segregation in American metropolises in 2000, how the new multi-race census question confounds the measurement of segregation, and how residential segregation has changed in the recent past. Moreover, the analysis tests several hypotheses in the literature by examining how levels and changes in city size, housing stock, size of minority populations, economic status of minority groups, and industry employment affect segregation. The results have important implications for housing and discrimination policies, and for theories of racial inequality and urban change.