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Old 06-05-2014, 02:35 AM
 
Location: Central City, SLC
762 posts, read 2,113,356 times
Reputation: 782

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This forum tends to get a lot of questions about three things:
1) air pollution/inversion
2) religion/religious diversity/shunning of non-LDS residents
3) racial/ethnic diversity

The first one has a thread dedicated to it, and there's really nothing more to say than what's in there; the second one has been well-discussed on a number of good threads (and it will continue to be---it's a largely subjective discussion). But the third topic seems to only have anecdotal discussion and recommendations thrown around, even though there is hard data from the U.S. Census Bureau about exactly this topic.

So, given the relatively frequent interest in how many people of various racial groups live in a given area, I thought these stats would be helpful for people wondering where the most racial/ethnic diversity is along the Wasatch Front and Back. Please, however, read the disclaimer at the end (adapted from a similar post I recently made in another thread) about the limitations of the data thanks to the Census Bureau's aggregate categories.

Percentage of residents who are "White alone, not Hispanic" in Wasatch Front and Back counties, from most diverse to least diverse, according to 2010 U.S. Census data:
Salt Lake: 73.4%
Weber (Ogden/Clearfield): 77.6%
State of Utah overall: 79.9%
Utah (Provo/Orem): 83.8&
Tooele: 84.0%
Wasatch (Heber): 84.6%
Summit (Park City): 85.1%
Davis: 85.3%

Percentage of residents who are "White alone, not Hispanic" in Salt Lake County cities and townships, from most to least diverse, according to 2010 U.S. Census data:
West Valley City: 53.7%
South Salt Lake City: 56.5%
Kearns Township: 58.7%
Salt Lake City: 65.6%
Midvale: 68.3%
Magna Township: 70.3%
Taylorsville: 70.8%
Salt Lake County overall: 73.4%
West Jordan: 74.6%
Millcreek: 83.0%
Murray: 83.8%
Sandy: 86.0%
Draper: 86.3%
South Jordan: 88.0%
Cottonwood Heights: 88.2%
Holladay: 89.2%
Herriman: 89.6%
Riverton: 90.4%
Bluffdale: 92.9%
(Even though they're Census-recognized places, areas with fewer than 5,000 residents such as Alta, Emigration, Granite, Copperton etc. are not ranked in this analysis.)

*******************
The Census only aggregates data into 6 racial groups (White, Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Multiracial) and two ethnicity categories (Hispanic/Latino and Not Hispanic/Latino). Every person receives a designation for race AND ethnicity. So someone can be Asian Hispanic, for example, or American Indian Not Hispanic. Or Black Not Hispanic or Hawaiian Hispanic. Most reputable demographers consider someone to be "not a minority" only if they are both White AND Not Hispanic. Most people of Mexican descent would therefore be classified as "White, Hispanic" and are NOT a racial minority... but ARE an ethnic minority.

For our purposes of identifying racial/ethnic diversity, the percentage of each city's "White, Not Hispanic" residents works pretty well (at least as well as is possible on this scale). BUT... ask yourself: Where does someone from Iran, or India, or Saudi Arabia fit into these unfortunately narrow categories? In terms of general society, we tend to consider individuals who come from these countries (or whose ancestors are from these countries) as a "minority," as "not white." But to the Census... they, officially, should label themselves as "white." (This is an unfortunate artifact of who was once considered "Aryan," a term that is happily no longer used by reputable demographers.) In practice, people from these countries will be included in whichever box they chose to check on the Census form, so they're really probably included in a variety of categories.

All this to say: A given city's percentage "white" population probably includes several Indian or Middle Eastern households/individuals, people who the average person would consider a "minority," even if the Census stats do not. So it's not quite as WHITE in the percentage implies. But in terms of comparison to other areas in the valley, it's still an accurate representation of where the most racial/ethnic diversity is because ALL the cities have their Middle Eastern residents categorized wherever the residents placed themselves.

WHEW! Let's hope the US Census Bureau figures out some better categories and aggregation for the 2020 Census!

Last edited by CCSLC; 06-05-2014 at 02:52 AM..
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Old 06-05-2014, 06:06 AM
 
163 posts, read 316,913 times
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Another useful way to use the data is to compute a Diversity Index following the methodology used by USA Today.

They describe it as a number between zero and 100 that "represents the probability that two people chosen randomly from an area with have different racial or ethnic (Hispanic or non-Hispanic) backgrounds." Los Angeles has a diversity index of 85, meaning that if you pick two random people from LA, both be of the same race only 15% of the time.

It would be really interesting to calculate or locate that index for Salt Lake and vicinity.

Last edited by elcee499; 06-05-2014 at 06:14 AM.. Reason: content error
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Old 06-05-2014, 08:38 AM
 
Location: SLC
3,054 posts, read 2,176,060 times
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Very nice post! Thank you! It will be helpful to a lot of people - particularly as most of the other information out there is anecdotal variety.

Since you are so well informed - I will raise a few questions that are interesting: Is there data on the financial / income diversity of the various areas. What is the lowest granularity at which the data is available? Where is a good place to get at the data?

Thanks again!
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Old 06-05-2014, 10:59 AM
 
Location: Philippines
1,961 posts, read 4,376,106 times
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This got me thinking - so I did a quick google search and went to the census.gov site. A few things:

1) I found an article from 2012 that states that in the 2020 census, "Arab" will be an option for ethnicity:

2) The arab american population in the US is rather small - about .5% of the total US population.

The Census bureau has been collecting this data, at least according to census.gov

http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr10-20.pdf

3) The arab american institate collects some data as well,
Detailed State Profiles | The Arab American Institute
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Old 06-05-2014, 11:17 AM
 
Location: Connectucut shore but on a hill
2,617 posts, read 7,007,886 times
Reputation: 3344
Quote:
Originally Posted by kavm View Post
Very nice post! Thank you! It will be helpful to a lot of people - particularly as most of the other information out there is anecdotal variety.

Since you are so well informed - I will raise a few questions that are interesting: Is there data on the financial / income diversity of the various areas. What is the lowest granularity at which the data is available? Where is a good place to get at the data?

Thanks again!
Check the drop-down above the map. The amount of information is unbelievable.
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Old 06-05-2014, 04:15 PM
 
Location: Central City, SLC
762 posts, read 2,113,356 times
Reputation: 782
Quote:
Originally Posted by kavm View Post
Is there data on the financial / income diversity of the various areas. What is the lowest granularity at which the data is available? Where is a good place to get at the data?
Yes, there is financial, home ownership, tenure, family size, education data, and more. Some data is available to the block group level (which is a subdivision of a census tract), but more personal data (like financial) tends to be only available to the census tract level... which is still pretty small! As far as I know, all data is available at least to the tract level.

The easiest place to get the data is probably the Bureau's QuickFacts site.

Quote:
Originally Posted by elcee499 View Post
Another useful way to use the data is to compute a Diversity Index following the methodology used by USA Today.

It would be really interesting to calculate or locate that index for Salt Lake and vicinity.
Yes! In grad school I calculated a Diversity Index for Salt Lake County, but it was with Census 2000 data. If I can find it, I will update the data for 2010 and post the results.

And I'm glad the Census Bureau is adding an additional category. They should probably also make some adjustments to Hispanic/Latino, too. As it stands, who is Hispanic/Latin? Those who speak Spanish at home or as a first language? People from the Iberian Peninsula? Are Brazilians? Cubans? It's a mess!
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Old 06-06-2014, 06:44 PM
 
Location: SLC
3,054 posts, read 2,176,060 times
Reputation: 8860
Thank you to both kletter1mann and CCSLC! It is quite fascinating information they have got. Their typical grouping (zip code) does seem to blend a great deal.

They must have close to 100% participation rate. I recently had to fill out a survey for the US Department of Commerce. I could hardly believe that, although randomly selected, it was my legal obligation to fill it out promptly.

Anyway, very informative thread!
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Old 06-07-2014, 12:31 AM
 
Location: Central City, SLC
762 posts, read 2,113,356 times
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With follow-up visits, the a Census reportedly does get over 90% participation on the short form. Not sure about the source kletter1mann mentioned.

Quick clarification: Census data is generally NOT based on ZIP codes, but on census tracts.
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Old 06-07-2014, 06:56 AM
 
92,709 posts, read 122,997,895 times
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This should help and you can get a range of information down to the census block group level: Salt Lake County, UT

Here is an example: Census Block Group 111400-6 in Salt Lake County, Utah

Even at the census block level, you can get info like this: Census Block 111400-6-010 in Salt Lake County, Utah
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Old 06-07-2014, 08:21 AM
 
Location: SLC
3,054 posts, read 2,176,060 times
Reputation: 8860
Thank you! Got a better view of neighborhoods I am more familiar with.
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