Policymakers and advocates have spent decades trying to respond to the reality and consequences of racial residential segregation. Recently, there has been a growing effort to confront rising levels of economic segregation as well. While substantial evidence exists on the harms of segregation for people with lower incomes or racial and ethnic minorities, its effect on regional outcomes has been less clear. Urban’s report addresses these questions and concerns by analyzing the 100 most populous commuting zones (which are similar to metropolitan areas) between 1990 and 2010. We found that one pattern holds across all of our measurements: economic segregation impedes the economic progress of a region’s residents, but particularly its black residents. This research has three main takeaways:
- The country is changing in terms of spatial patterns but remains starkly segregated by race and income.
- There is a real cost to segregation, which varies by race and ethnicity.
- Chicago continues to struggle as a highly segregated metropolitan area, with major effects for all residents.
- Higher levels of economic segregation are associated with lower median and per capita income for blacks, while higher levels of black-white segregation are associated with lower black per capita income. Neither economic segregation nor racial segregation is significantly related to white or Latino median or per capita income.
- Higher levels of black-white segregation are also associated with lower levels of four-year college degree attainment for both blacks and whites, as well as higher homicide rates.
- Black per capita incomes would increase 12.4 percent (or $2,455).
- Educational attainment rates for both black and white residents would increase 2 percent each, with 83,000 more adults completing a college degree (78 percent of these new graduates would be white; 22 percent would be black).
- Finally, the city’s highly documented homicide rate would drop 30 percent (e.g., the 553 homicides in 2010 would fall to 386, a decrease of 167 homicides).
Authors
- Published in
- United States of America
- Rights Holder
- Urban Institute