Beyond the Census Tract: Patterns and Determinants of Racial Segregation at Multiple Geographic Scales

TLDR

The census‑tract based residential segregation literature rests on problematic assumptions about geographic scale and proximity. The study develops a tract‑free method that uses spatial concepts to analyze racial segregation across egocentric local environments of varying size. Using 2000 census data from the 100 largest U.S. metros, the authors compute a spatially modified information‑theory index H for black‑white, Hispanic‑white, Asian‑white, and multi‑group segregation across scales, and identify structural characteristics that differentiate micro‑ from macro‑segregation and decompose their effects into short‑ and long‑distance components.

Abstract

The census tract-based residential segregation literature rests on problematic assumptions about geographic scale and proximity. We pursue a new tract-free approach that combines explicitly spatial concepts and methods to examine racial segregation across egocentric local environments of varying size. Using 2000 census data for the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, we compute a spatially modified version of the information theory index H to describe patterns of black-white, Hispanic-white, Asian-white, and multi-group segregation at different scales. The metropolitan structural characteristics that best distinguish micro-segregation from macro-segregation for each group combination are identified, and their effects are decomposed into portions due to racial variation occurring over short and long distances. A comparison of our results to those from tract-based analyses confirms the value of the new approach.