Data for the Metropolitan Statistical Area
This page presents data for: the total population.
The following tables show values for various measures of income segregation in each decade since 1970. For reference, the average value of the measure across the 117 largest metropolitan regions in the study and its standard deviation are also given. Users who are unfamiliar with a given measure can use this comparison to assess the levels of income segregation and the segregation trend for any single metro.
For more detail on data sources and the meaning of each measure, click here.
Proportion of families living in poor neighborhoods (pnpoor). This is the proportion of families living in neighborhoods where the median income is less than 2/3 of the metropolitan area median income. In other words, these are neighborhoods where more than half the families have incomes less than 2/3 of the metropolitan area median family income.
Proportion of families living in affluent neighborhoods (pnaffl). This is the proportion of families living in neighborhoods where the median income is more than 1.5 times the metropolitan area median income. In other words, these are neighborhoods where more than half the families have incomes at least one-and-a-half times greater than the metropolitan area median family income.
Proportion of families living in poor or affluent neighborhoods (pnextr). This is the sum of the above two measures.
Rank-Order Information Theory Index (h). This is a measure that describes how much less income variation there is within the average neighborhood than there is in the metropolitan area as a whole. It ranges from a minimum of 0, meaning there is no income segregation (each neighborhood has the same income range as the entire metropolitan area), to a maximum of 1, meaning there is complete income segregation (no family lives in the same neighborhood as any other family with a different income than their own; there is no variation in income within any given neighborhood).
Segregation of Poverty (h10). This is a measure that describes how separate the lowest-earning 10 percent of families are from the other (higher-earning) 90% of families. Like h, it ranges from a minimum of 0, meaning low-income families are not segregated from non-poor families (exactly 10% of families in each neighborhood have incomes below the 10th percentile of the metropolitan area income distribution), to a maximum of 1, meaning low-income families are completely segregated from non-poor families (no poor family lives in the same neighborhood as any non-poor family).
Segregation of Affluence (h90). This is a measure that describes how separate the highest-earning 10 percent of families are from the other (lower-earning) 90% of families. Like h, it ranges from a minimum of 0, meaning high-income families are not segregated from lower-income families (exactly 10% of families in each neighborhood have incomes above the 90th percentile of the metropolitan area income distribution), to a maximum of 1, meaning high-income families are completely segregated from non-high-income families (no high-income family lives in the same neighborhood as any lower-income family).
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