The Institute on Race and Poverty (IRP) examined 1980-2000 neighborhood-level data—Census tracts or block-groups—for fifteen major U.S. metropolitan regions.
Maps of the 15 study regions are available for download in the righthand column.
IRP's analysis shows that:
• By 2000, roughly half of African American populations and more than 60 percent of Latinos lived in suburban areas in these metros. African Americans and Latinos are suburbanizing but at rates slower than whites.
• However, African Americans and Latinos who reside in the suburbs are much more likely than suburban whites to live in fiscally stressed jurisdictions with below average public resources and greater than average public service needs.
• There were moderate increases in the racial diversity of both suburban and central city neighborhoods in the fifteen metropolitan regions.
• However, many neighborhoods that are integrated at a point in time are actually in transition to a new, less diverse state.
• Pro-integrative policies must be regional in scope or the operations of metropolitan housing markets will undermine efforts to stabilize neighborhoods, and frustrate efforts to ensure that children and families have access to education and housing that is not determined by race and ethnicity.
The fifteen study region analyzed in this research are Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, St. Louis, San Diego and Washington D.C.
To read more about IRP's findings, please download the "Minority Suburbanization and Racial Change" document (see upper-righthand corner).
This research was conducted on behalf of the Detroit Branch NAACP and was made possible by The Ford Foundation.
