About

Historically, discrimination in housing policies kept Black families from building wealth, creating long-term disadvantages. Segregated neighborhoods still limit access to education, transportation, and healthy food. Black people are more likely to be uninsured and face poorer Healthcare Resources, while the prison population remains disproportionately Black. The Structural Racism and Discrimination (SRD) Score is a composite value that incorporates the multidimensionality of racially discriminatory laws and policies. It reveals the impact of a long history of racist and discriminatory laws and policies on the Black community in the United States. The SRD Index gives each county a score that highlights areas most impacted by discriminatory laws. A higher score means a higher impact of discrimination.

How is SRD Score Calculated?

The composite SRD score is constructed using five dimensions: Residential Segregation, Housing, Income, Healthcare Resources, and Crime and Incarceration.

STEP 1: Adding dimensions

The Z score values of the 5 dimensions are added to calculate the multidimensional SRD Z score. We assigned equal weights to each of the 5 dimensions.

STEP 2: Converting to Rank Scores

The SRD Z scores are converted to rank scores where a higher score indicates a higher impact of SRD. Each county has a national SRD and a state SRD score The national SRD score is a percentile rank of each county in the U.S. from 0 to 100. The state SRD score is a decile rank of each county of a state from 0 to 10. SRD scores are not calculated for counties with fewer than 100 Black individuals.

How to Interpret the SRD Scores?

with a higher score means Black people in this county experience a higher impact of structural racism and discrimination compared to other counties. Use the national score to compare trends to other counties in the U.S.

The state score is a decile rank of each county of a state from 0 to 10. A county with a higher score means Black people in this county experience a higher impact of structural racism and discrimination compared to other counties in that state. Use the state score to compare trends to other counties in a state.

How to cite the SRD Index Scores?

Debarchana Ghosh, Sabina Bhandari, and Cheryl Knott. A Measure for Place-Based Structural Racism and Discrimination Over Time: Version 1.0 SRD Index. 2025. https://structuralracism.research.uconn.edu/