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Nice data and prelude to the data, as usual man. I wasn't able to access the link; are the squared percentages added together and then the sum of squared percentages is subtracted from 1 to get the index of racial diversity?
Yep
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Nostalgia Critic
They define racial diversity as places that have few Whites. The fewer the percentage of Whites, the higher the index.
Nope. East Los Angeles, which is 99.7% Hispanic, would have a diversity ranking of .006 and is the LEAST diverse place in California.
The index is based on the possibility that two different GROUPS will be of two races of each other. It doesn't take into consideration what each group is because all groups are ceteris paribus (all are considered and weighted the same)
Quote:
Originally Posted by waronxmas
Not all surprised at the order. I am also not surprised, though it is worth pointing out, how much Boston deviates from the rest of the cities.
The top 10 are all within a few percentage points of each other, so chest bumping about "my city is far more diverse than yours" is a bit silly. Then there is Boston half as diverse as the rest of the top cities. That's just not a fluke or a minor deviation.
Well, one could make the argument about "ethnic diversity", but at the end of the day, the average American city has become extremely diverse.
Like it or not, America as a whole is changing. We have to move beyond our exterior differences and try to fix issues that are deeper than our skin colors. If there's any lesson I could put out of this thread, its that one. At the end of the day, we are all just people trying to survive.
I'm not about to go all Houston-homer and start imploding threads with "Houston is the second most diverse metro!!!". But this is probably the best numbers-based GENERAL ranking of diversity that you will find. (I mean they didn't go all specific in terms of the different nationalities, but hey, anybody can give it a try if they want to)
Already did that some time ago Unfortunately, data isn't available for the 2010 census YET for the more specific nationality data, but should be up soon
Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI CSA
69.3% Non-Hispanic White
21.2% Black
3.8% Hispanic
3.3% Asian and Pacific Islander
2.3% Two or More Races Diversity Index:.472
Too bad they only do it by metro area, instead of individual cities. I wonder what kind of index the actual city limits of Detroit, Gary, and East St. Louis would get, 3 cities that are overwhelmingly Black within it's city limits.
Not all surprised at the order. I am also not surprised, though it is worth pointing out, how much Boston deviates from the rest of the cities.
The top 10 are all within a few percentage points of each other, so chest bumping about "my city is far more diverse than yours" is a bit silly. Then there is Boston half as diverse as the rest of the top cities. That's just not a fluke or a minor deviation.
It certainly does stand out, and yes, there is no doubt Boston is the least racially diverse major US city, depending on what counts as major. (I believe Portland is a higher white %) The area is still fairly diverse, or at least closer to the pack, when it comes to various nationalities. Why is Boston "whiter" than most US cities?
-The geography/climate/Puritan values of New England did not support large-scale slavery, and the region had a far smaller black population in colonial times than even NY and Pennsylvania.
-In the early 1900s huge numbers of black peoples moved north to cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. Some came to Boston, but less than elsewhere because it was further.
-Boston is the closest major US to every European country and recieves immigrants from them all, with especially close ties to the UK and Ireland. Boston has had numerous periods of huge European immigration and still does even today.
-Boston and a few other cities (Lawrence, Lowell, Providence, Brockton) in the CSA are actually very diverse, but many of the other small-towns-turned-suburb still are overwhelmingly white. Irish and Italians make up large portions of the population and further out in the CSA, in NH and central MA there are towns that are still mostly Yankee. Towns are very independent in New England and the system is well set-up for towns to decide their own fate. A result puts much of the more recent immigrant groups in a select group of densely populated former mill towns surrounded by sparsely populated suburbs in former farm towns
When I posted the thread that shows something similar to what this thread does but only in map form instead, I check out Portland and it's pretty startling: the city now has fewer census tracts where non-whites made up the largest group, which bucks the trend of almost every other city in the country.
In 2000, there were four census tracts where blacks were the largest ethnic group and one where Hispanics were. In 2010, there are three Hispanic-led tracts and zero black-led ones. This in on the MSA level, mind you. Salem OR's MSA actually has six tracts that are Hispanic-led--twice the number of Portland's whole metro!
Houston overtaking Los Angeles in this ranking (even though of course they were very close in 2000..) is illustrative of one phenomenon: African Americans leaving LA at the same time that many moved to Houston.
LA really needs to figure out a way to get blacks to move back.
Also, NYC is still the most diverse metro in the US if you actually go by ethnicity/nationality and not racial categories.. Bay Area/LA would be second/third (not sure which one would be higher). Houston probably 4th. The US is much more hung up about "race" than the rest of the world.
Location: Cleveland bound with MPLS in the rear-view
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It is almost certainly ranking cities with less whites as most "diverse". Chicago has a very diverse white population (amongst the highest in the country) yet it's really not being portrayed by these rankings.
Houston overtaking Los Angeles in this ranking (even though of course they were very close in 2000..) is illustrative of one phenomenon: African Americans leaving LA at the same time that many moved to Houston.
LA really needs to figure out a way to get blacks to move back.
Also, NYC is still the most diverse metro in the US if you actually go by ethnicity/nationality and not racial categories.. Bay Area/LA would be second/third (not sure which one would be higher). Houston probably 4th. The US is much more hung up about "race" than the rest of the world.
From reading CD; a few blacks have stated that the black population in LA is treated as insignificant or as if they're a non-factor. From my experience with blacks from LA; none really speak about it and mostly just say it's too expensive there.
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