Analyzing segregation in mature and developing suburbs in the United States

Abstract

Over the past several decades, researchers have investigated segregation, differentiating between central cities and suburbs. However, suburbs have become more differentiated. Using Census 2000, Census 2010, and American Community Survey (ACS) data for 2007–2011, this article analyzes segregation in the 100 most populous metropolitan statistical areas in the United States, differentiating between central cities, mature suburbs, and developing suburbs. For each subgeography, we consider the racial and ethnic proportions, the dissimilarity index for each combination of racial and ethnic groups, and the isolation index for each racial and ethnic group. We find that Black–White and Latino–White dissimilarity levels in mature suburbs are closer to the corresponding levels in central cities. From 2000 to 2010, Black–White segregation indices decreased for all subgeographies in all regions and Latino–White segregation indices increased for all subgeographies in Census Region South. The findings for the dissimilarity indices suggest that finer-grained analyses of segregation could yield insights on local-level processes that may influence segregation in the 3 types of places and could suggest policy interventions to address segregation’s persistence.