The Neighborhood Diversity Index: A Complementary Measure of Racial Residential Settlement

Abstract

This article proposes another research approach available to researchers for studying racial and ethnic integration. The measure, called the Neighborhood Diversity (ND) index, allows researchers to include multiple racial and ethnic categories while adhering to a comparable understanding of integration. The value of the ND index is illustrated through an examination of residential settlement by race in Chicago neighborhoods in 1980 and 1990. Despite the limitations of the measure, the ND index provides an important tool for measuring and categorizing increasingly multiethnic and multiracial populations, and for broadening our understanding of neighborhood integration and transition.