Residential Segregation

Residential Segregation

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About

The Residential Segregation refers to the unequal spatial distribution of racial and ethnic groups across neighborhoods1,2,3. Shaped by historical and contemporary processes such as redlining, discriminatory housing policies, and unequal investment, residential segregation influences access to resources, environmental quality, and opportunities4,5,6. It remains a key structural factor shaping social and health inequalities across places2.

The Residential Segregation dimension is constructed using two indicators:

Why is the Racial Segregation Important to the Structural Racism and Discrimination (SRD) Index?

Residential segregation is a foundational mechanism through which structural racism operates across space7. By organizing populations into racially distinct neighborhoods, segregation shapes long-term patterns of disinvestment and advantage, influencing access to quality housing, education, employment opportunities, healthcare, and environmental conditions2,8,9. These spatial inequalities are not incidental but are the cumulative result of policies such as redlining, exclusionary zoning, and discriminatory lending practices10.

Importantly, residential segregation amplifies and reinforces other dimensions of structural racism captured in the SRD Index. Segregated neighborhoods are more likely to experience concentrated poverty, environmental hazards, limited political power, and reduced public investment, creating feedback loops that sustain racial and socioeconomic disadvantage over time11,12. As a result, residential segregation serves as a core spatial expression of structural racism, making it a critical dimension for understanding how discrimination becomes embedded in place-based inequalities.

How is the Residential Segregation Calculated?

The Residential Segregation dimension is calculated using two indicators: Racial Concentration and Racial Diversity. Each indicator is first computed as a racial gap measure and then standardized to ensure comparability across counties.

STEP 1: Indicator standardization

The racial concentration and racial diversity indicators are converted into Z scores after adjusting for outliers using top and bottom coding, following the SRD Index methodology.

STEP 2: Reversing the Z-scores

The Z-scores for the Racial Concentration are reversed so that a higher Z-scores of the reversed Racial Concentration contribute to higher values or scores of the SRD index.

The Z-scores for the Racial Diversity were not reversed. A higher Z-score of Racial diversity contributes to a higher value or score of the SRD index.

STEP 3: Dimension score calculation

The Residential Segregation Z score is calculated by taking the average of the two indicator Z scores:

Residential Segregation Z score = (Z1 + Z2) / 2

where Z₁ represents racial concentration and Z₂ represents racial diversity

STEP 4: Ranking

The Residential Segregation Z scores are then converted into rank scores, where a higher score indicates a greater impact of racism and discrimination within this dimension.

References

  1. Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1987). Trends in the residential segregation of Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians: 1970-1980. American sociological review, 802-825.
  2. Williams, D. R., & Collins, C. (2001). Racial residential segregation: a fundamental cause of racial disparities in health. Public health reports, 116(5), 404.
  3. Charles, C. Z. (2003). The dynamics of racial residential segregation. Annual review of sociology, 29(1), 167-207.
  4. Swope, C. B., Hernández, D., & Cushing, L. J. (2022). The relationship of historical redlining with present-day neighborhood environmental and health outcomes: a scoping review and conceptual model. Journal of Urban Health, 99(6), 959-983.
  5. Egede, L. E., Walker, R. J., Campbell, J. A., Linde, S., Hawks, L. C., & Burgess, K. M. (2023). Modern day consequences of historic redlining: finding a path forward. Journal of general internal medicine, 38(6), 1534-1537.
  6. Stokes, D. (2024). From Redlining to Greenlining. UCLA L. Rev., 71, 628.
  7. Menendian, S., Gailes, A., & Gambhir, S. (2021). The roots of structural racism: Twenty-first century racial residential segregation in the United States. Berkeley: University of California, Othering and Belonging Institute. Accessed August, 13, 2021.
  8. Boustan, L. P. (2013). Racial residential segregation in American cities (No. w19045). National Bureau of Economic Research.
  9. Massey, D. S. (2001). Residential segregation and neighborhood conditions in US metropolitan areas. America becoming: Racial trends and their consequences, 1(1), 391-434.
  10. Faber, J. (2021). Contemporary echoes of segregationist policy: Spatial marking and the persistence of inequality. Urban Studies, 58(5), 1067-1086.
  11. Richardson, R. (2021). Racial segregation and the data-driven society: How our failure to reckon with root causes perpetuates separate and unequal realities. Berkeley Tech. LJ, 36, 1051.
  12. Squires, G. D., & Kubrin, C. E. (2005). Privileged places: Race, uneven development and the geography of opportunity in urban America. Urban Studies, 42(1), 47-68.