Neighborhood Racial Integration in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1970-2000: Is it Stable or Just a Passing Phase?

Samantha Friedman, Northeastern University

Between 1980 and 2000, the level of residential segregation, or dissimilarity score, between whites and blacks declined by 8.8 percentage points, going from 73.9 to 65.1. Although the current average level of segregation is considered to be in the high range of segregation scores, it is evident that some progress has been made with respect to residential integration between whites and blacks. However, the extent to which racially integrated neighborhoods exist and remain stable over time is not well researched. One recent study finds that more than 50 percent of integrated neighborhoods remain stable over time, but the focus is only on a decade-long period (Ellen 2000). The goal of this paper is to build upon the work that Ellen has done and explicitly document the extent to which racially integrated neighborhoods remain stable between 1970 and 2000 and examine the correlates of this stability.