Census Data Shows Neighborhood Integration Slowing

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 15, 2010 2:45PM

Early census data that's now starting to come to light shows that integration of America's neighborhoods is regressing slightly. As for Chicago? Well, we're still hyper-segregated.

A study by the American Community Survey of census data found that 81 percent of African-Americans would have to move to have equal distribution across the city as whites. That's a slight decrease, but still higher than the survey's national figures. For Hispanics, the percentage actually went up in Chicago, from 47 percent a decade ago to 49 percent.

The study also showed that Asians tend to live in segregated communities, which jibes with Brown University sociology professor John Logan's analysis that immigrants tend to cluster together in ethnic communities. We won't know the full extent of the slowdown in integration until the full census results are released next year.