Blacks and Hispanics are significantly more likely than whites and Asians to live in high-poverty neighborhoods—neighborhoods that are often characterized by poor schools, limited social services, high crime rates, and weak social institutions. Racial differences in neighborhood poverty contribute to the persistence of racial inequality in America because, as recent research indicates, poor neighborhoods diminish the life chances (as well as the quality of life) of residents. It is important, then, to determine how quickly and in what direction racial differences in neighborhood poverty have been changing in America. Based on census data on poverty rates and median incomes for more than 57,000 neighborhoods (census tracts) in metropolitan America in 1980 and 2010, Glenn Firebaugh, a Penn State Population Research Institute (PRI) research associate, and Chad Farrell and Francesco Acciai, PhD graduates of Penn State, investigated the direction and pace of change in racial neighborhood inequality from 1980 to 2010. Their research findings indicate significant narrowing of neighborhood economic environments for non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, Hispanics, and Asians between 1980 and 2010.
Racial Neighborhood Inequality Is Very Large but Is Declining in America
Neighborhood conditions have historically been particularly harsh for African Americans, a legacy of disadvantage that continues today as blacks, on average, live in neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates and lowest median incomes. However, gaps between groups have narrowed. In 1980, blacks lived in the poorest neighborhoods by far, followed by Hispanics, then Asians, and then whites. By 2010, the neighborhood economic gap between blacks and Hispanics had diminished greatly, and if current trends continue, Hispanics will live in the poorest neighborhoods in the near future. The gap between whites and Asians also narrowed from 1980 to 2010. In 1980, Asians lived in the most typical neighborhoods in America in terms of poverty rate and median income, whereas whites lived in better-than-average neighborhoods. Rather than residing in average American neighborhoods as they did in 1980, Asian-Americans in 2010 lived in wealthier-than-average neighborhoods that are similar economically to the neighborhoods in which whites live.
Why Did Racial Neighborhood Inequality Decline Between 1980 and 2010?
Firebaugh and Farrell found that, on average, blacks lived in less-poor neighborhoods in 2010 than in 1980, whereas whites, Hispanics, and Asians lived in poorer neighborhoods in 2010 than in 1980. However, the rate of increase in neighborhood poverty was smaller for Hispanics and Asians than for whites; so, in terms of poverty reduction, all three minority groups improved relative to whites, reducing the degree of white–non-white inequality in neighborhood economic conditions. The reduction in the Hispanic-black gap—due to the decline in neighborhood poverty rates for blacks and the uptick in those rates for Hispanics—is also notable because the two groups are much closer now than they were in 1980.
Today, the neighborhood poverty divide in America is largely between blacks and Hispanics, on the one hand, and whites and Asians, on the other hand. To measure that divide, Firebaugh and Farrell calculated the neighborhood poverty rate (proportion of residents who are poor) in the average neighborhood where whites live, where blacks live, where Hispanics live, and where Asians live. The racial divide is very large.
In a second study focusing on blacks relative to other Americans, Firebaugh and Acciai find that from 1980 to 2010 the gap in black-nonblack neighborhood poverty declined much faster than the decline in black segregation. By disaggregating black-nonblack neighborhood differences into their black-white, black-Hispanic, and black-Asian components, they discover that the black neighborhood poverty disadvantage declined faster than black segregation primarily because the black-white gap in neighborhood poverty declined much faster than black-white segregation.
Conclusion
The racial gap in neighborhood poverty rates narrowed from 1980 to 2010 in metropolitan America. For blacks in particular, the narrowing of the poverty gap exceeded the decline in residential segregation. Nonetheless, despite this narrowing of racial differences in neighborhood poverty, blacks and Hispanics continue to be much more likely than whites and Asians to live in neighborhoods where poverty rates are high.
References
Glenn Firebaugh and Chad Farrell. (2016). “Still Large, but Narrowing: The Sizable Decline in Racial Neighborhood Inequality in Metropolitan America, 1980-2010.” Demography 53 (February): 139-164.
Glenn Firebaugh and Francesco Acciai. (2016). “For Blacks in America, the Gap in Neighborhood Poverty has Declined Faster than Segregation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Early edition, November 7, 2016, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1607220113.