Which is more diverse and cosmopolitan: Greater Seattle or Greater Boston? (largest, compare)

[GuitarHero45]

You can use the MSA or CSA as part of the criteria?

I'm referring to the diversity of immigrants, languages, ethnicities, subcultures, etc.

[MDfinest]

Greater Boston- They've got Africans (largest Cape Verdean community in America), AA's, Caribbeans (Haitians, Jamaicans, etc), lots of ethnic Europeans (largest Portuguese and Irish community in America if I'm not mistaken, Italians, Greeks, etc), Asians (Mostly Southeast Asian though) and a huge Puerto Rican community as well as a growing Dominican community. Also a huge Central American community as well. Brazilians are also well represented out there also.

I'd say Greater Boston wins in this one.

Seattle might be diverse but they don't have the huge Caribbean, Latino, African and European communities that Greater Boston has.

[supermanpansy]

Greater Boston and it isn't really that close. Boston is cosmopolitan. Seattle just has a nice downtown, but I never got that cosmopolitan feel to it. Seattle is like a nice downtown with a leafy, sleepy vibe to it.

[Koji7]

Seattle is becoming more diverse but it has a long way to go to be on Boston’s level.

[mhays25]

Probably Boston, but it's a mixed-bag.

Boston is much bigger (CSA especially), its volume of international tourism is much larger, it has huge a huge volume of STEM fields that tend to be highly international, and it has a much larger flow of foreign students.

Seattle is about 55% the size, which is where the bag gets mixed. Many factors such as STEM jobs and naturalized citizens compare ok on a per-capita basis. Much of its STEM jobs are in the CBD or the CBD fringes (starting with HQ1), vs. mostly a mile away, it feels more integrated with other industries. A lot of people move to Seattle from around the US, which is another type of diversity.

Also, here's CSAs, selected percentages of population, 2017 ACS:
--White non-Hispanic: Seattle 65.9%, Boston 73.9%.....read that a couple times.
--Hispanic: Seattle 10.1%, Boston 10.9%
--Asian: Seattle 14.7%, Boston 7.0%
--African American: Seattle 7.2%, Boston 8.4%
--American Indian: Seattle 2.6%, Boston 0.8%.

[the resident09]

Originally Posted by MDfinest

Greater Boston- They've got Africans (largest Cape Verdean community in America), AA's, Caribbeans (Haitians, Jamaicans, etc), lots of ethnic Europeans (largest Portuguese and Irish community in America if I'm not mistaken, Italians, Greeks, etc), Asians (Mostly Southeast Asian though) and a huge Puerto Rican community as well as a growing Dominican community. Also a huge Central American community as well. Brazilians are also well represented out there also.

I'd say Greater Boston wins in this one.

Seattle might be diverse but they don't have the huge Caribbean, Latino, African and European communities that Greater Boston has.

Precisely, Greater Boston without a doubt.

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by mhays25

Probably Boston, but it's a mixed-bag.

Boston is much bigger (CSA especially), its volume of international tourism is much larger, it has huge a huge volume of STEM fields that tend to be highly international, and it has a much larger flow of foreign students.

Seattle is about 55% the size, which is where the bag gets mixed. Many factors such as STEM jobs and naturalized citizens compare ok on a per-capita basis. Much of its STEM jobs are in the CBD or the CBD fringes (starting with HQ1), vs. mostly a mile away, it feels more integrated with other industries. A lot of people move to Seattle from around the US, which is another type of diversity.

Also, here's CSAs, selected percentages of population, 2017 ACS:
--White non-Hispanic: Seattle 65.9%, Boston 73.9%.....read that a couple times.
--Hispanic: Seattle 10.1%, Boston 10.9%
--Asian: Seattle 14.7%, Boston 7.0%
--African American: Seattle 7.2%, Boston 8.4%
--American Indian: Seattle 2.6%, Boston 0.8%.

Does Seattle have any large White Immigrant Groups Greater Boston has a large Lusophone Community that tends to identify as White. Although Brazilians are a mixed bag.

Boston has a much more diverse Hispanics community than almost any other place. Outside of the Northeast and S Florida Hispanic and Mexican are nearly synonymous. That’s not true in Boston.


Also at the City and MSA level Boston is way more diverse. The CSA is diluted by people in small towns 60 miles away like Athol and Chatham.

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by mhays25

Probably Boston, but it's a mixed-bag.

Boston is much bigger (CSA especially), its volume of international tourism is much larger, it has huge a huge volume of STEM fields that tend to be highly international, and it has a much larger flow of foreign students.

Seattle is about 55% the size, which is where the bag gets mixed. Many factors such as STEM jobs and naturalized citizens compare ok on a per-capita basis. Much of its STEM jobs are in the CBD or the CBD fringes (starting with HQ1), vs. mostly a mile away, it feels more integrated with other industries. A lot of people move to Seattle from around the US, which is another type of diversity.

Also, here's CSAs, selected percentages of population, 2017 ACS:
--White non-Hispanic: Seattle 65.9%, Boston 73.9%.....read that a couple times.
--Hispanic: Seattle 10.1%, Boston 10.9%
--Asian: Seattle 14.7%, Boston 7.0%
--African American: Seattle 7.2%, Boston 8.4%
--American Indian: Seattle 2.6%, Boston 0.8%.

Those Boston numbers include two all white New Hampshire exurban counties though, keep it to just MA and it more like Seattle. The inner core of metro Boston is hugely diverse. IMO it's not even close because the NH counties are strictly commuters and not part of the culture or feel of the area rlly.

[mhays25]

In both cases the diversity tends to be centralized.

As for the question about European immigrant groups in Seattle, not really. Our numbers can be decent by Western-US standards but aren't like Boston's.

[CXT2000]

I know when people refer to which city/metro is more diverse they go by % of race per area, but how about the total number of ethnic groups? IMO, that's more accurate to see which city/metro is more diverse. How many ethnic groups are in Seattle? and how many in Boston?