Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation in the United States: 1980-2000

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We examine trends in five dimensions of segregation for African Americans, Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and American Indians and Alaska Natives: evenness, exposure, concentration, centralization, and clustering. The trend for African Americans is clearest— declines in segregation over the 1980 to 2000 period, regardless of the dimension considered. Nevertheless, segregation is still higher for African Americans than for the other groups across all measures. Latinos are generally the next most highly segregated group, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders and then American Indians and Alaska Natives. Asians and Pacific Islanders and Hispanics both tended to experience increases in segregation over the period, though not across all dimensions. Increases were generally larger for Asians and Pacific Islanders than for Hispanics. The story of American Indian and Alaska Native residential segregation is mixed, with declines across some dimensions of segregation and increases in others.

Page Last Revised - October 8, 2021