Most Diverse Urban Areas in the US: Ranked - Methodology Explained (best, compared)

[As Above So Below...]

This thread has actually been a long time in the making. I have thought long and hard about a way to rank urban areas by diversity. I have wanted to find a way to do so without bias and with data that is sound and whose methodology is sound. Below is what I decided to use to rank these urban areas, the methodology and what I decided to leave out and why.

Areas Examined
Four areas will be looked at: 1) Racial Diversity, 2) Nationality and Immigrant Diversity, 3) Linguistic Diversity, 4) Integration. Racial Diversity will be four categories: Non-Hispanic White, Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, and Hispanic of any Race. While I am aware “Hispanic” is not a race, but it is being judged against racial categories largely because of how the data is divided within data.census.gov but also how residential patterns form between Hispanics and other racial groups.

Methodology
The source for this data is data.census.gov for Racial, Nationality, Immigrant, and Linguistic Diversity, and Brown University's Diversity Project for the Integration data. The data used will be by Contiguous Urban Area so as to capture what a person would be most likely to experience when visiting a particular city except for the integration data which is only available by metro area.

To measure Racial Diversity, Simpson's Diversity Index will be used. The value of "1/d" will be multiplied by 10 to determine the total racial diversity value of the Urban area. For bonus points on this ranking, the concentration percentage of the lowest represented group will be added to the total points from the Simpson's Diversity Index ranking.

Nationality and Immigrant Diversity will be measured to account for both total number and per capita immigration. For each country that has over 25,000 people in an Urban Area, that urban area will gain one point. Each country that contributes at least 0.5% to the total population of the Urban Area will contribute one point to that Urban Area as well. This is to balance the scales between larger urban areas and smaller ones.

Linguistic Diversity will be measured the same way as Nationality and Immigrant Diversity. Total number and per capita diversity will be measured with each over 25,000 and each over 0.5% of the total population given one point to that Urban Area.

To score integration, the Dissimilarity Indexes of six metrics will be looked at: White-Black, White-Hispanic, White-Asian, Black-Hispanic, Black-Asian, and Asian-Hispanic. Since the scoring and points system of this ranking is positive but the lower the Dissimilarity score the more integrated, the Dissimilarity index of each of those parameters will be subtracted from 600 and divided by 25 to determine the number of points each urban area gets. The division by 25 is necessary to keep the point system similar across all categories.

Ranking System
The Urban Areas will be ranked from top to bottom based on their total score. The higher the score, the more diverse the Urban Area. There will be a total score for all four categories explored and there will be a total score totaling all three categories to rank each one in order of total diversity.

Disclaimer-What I did not Include
There are limitations to this data based on what data.census.gov provides. However, these limitations are limited mostly to the Linguistical side. It is thorough on Race and Nationality.

A consideration was given to additional breakdowns on Ancestry, but the problem is that that section of data.census.gov focuses almost solely on non-Hispanic white breakdowns. Looking at residential patterns, white Americans function more as one block as opposed to English Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans, etc. segregating into their own neighborhoods. Only with foreign born groups do we see such segregation and that data is accounted for in the linguistic and immigrant diversity sections. The non-European "White" groups (Arab, Brazilian, Afghan, and Persian) are also accounted for in the linguistic and immigrant diversity sections. This is also true for the non-White sections of the ancestry breakdowns (Sub-Saharan African).

A consideration was given to ranking places by regions represented, but it honestly felt extremely redundant given the other points covered.

A consideration to incorporate other aspects into this ranking like LGBTQ population and Religious Diversity. The problem is that there is not data consistent with the parameters set for the other topics and the data I could find did not have a sound methodology.

Anyway, the rankings are in the post below.

[As Above So Below...]

Most Diverse Urban Areas in the US Ranked in Order of Total Diversity
New York City: 149.8
Washington DC: 113.8
Houston: 97.7
Los Angeles: 97.6
San Francisco: 90.2
Dallas/Fort Worth: 83.0
Sacramento: 82.1
Atlanta: 80.9
Chicago: 80.6
Boston: 80.1
Miami/Fort Lauderdale: 80.0
Seattle/Tacoma: 79.5
San Jose: 76.4
San Diego: 73.1
Orlando: 72.3
Las Vegas: 72.0
Philadelphia: 64.3
Riverside/San Bernardino: 63.9
Baltimore: 60.6
Charlotte: 60.2
Austin: 59.9
Minneapolis/St. Paul: 59.1
Detroit: 57.2
Raleigh: 56.9
Tampa: 56.6
Hartford: 56.3
Columbus: 55.2
Jacksonville: 54.9
Phoenix: 52.8
Richmond: 51.5
Providence: 50.9
Denver: 50.2
Portland: 50.1
Virginia Beach: 49.8
Oklahoma City: 49.6
Nashville: 49.3
Indianapolis: 47.0
Salt Lake City: 46.2
Milwaukee: 45.9
San Antonio: 45.1
Kansas City: 43.9
Memphis: 42.8
St. Louis: 40.1
Cleveland: 40.1
Cincinnati: 38.0
El Paso: 35.0
Pittsburgh: 34.6
McAllen: 29.2

Its important to remember that the numbers will always be fluid because people constantly move, are born, and die. So when you see a clump of places with similar numbers, its important to think of them having similar levels of diversity.

[CamThomas]

Thanks! DC ahead of Houston is a mild surprise

[KinBueno]

Originally Posted by CamThomas

Thanks! DC ahead of Houston is a mild surprise

DC is more well rounded than people give it credit for.
Like Houston it has a well rounded Latin American population but it also has one of the more well rounded African population.

[the resident09]

As Above So Below, thanks again for the data very well put together.

Originally Posted by CamThomas

Thanks! DC ahead of Houston is a mild surprise

Nah not really. If you've been following the most recent posts he's been making in the other thread DC's in a lot of ways making a strong case for 2nd best overall diversity as a region after NYC.

DC vs Houston:

-DC one of only 3 cities (NYC, Vegas) with all four major racial categories above 10% by both MSA and Urban Area.
-Percentage foreign born by UA- Washington DC: 26.5% Houston: 26.3%
-Foreign born population above 25k by number of nations Urban Area, DC: 14 HOU: 13.
-Immigrant diversity by UA, DC 3rd HOU 5th.
-DC highest racial diversity index by UA (Houston 3rd)
-DC only 2nd to NYC in the language metric
-# of categories of foreign language speakers by UA DC: 15, HOU: 9
-DC less segregated on paper than Houston MSA; using OP's metric in Demographics thread
-Immigrants broken down by regions of the world DC CSA:9, Houston CSA:8
-Most Diverse CSA by Immigrant Nationality: DC 2nd to NYC (Houston 4th).

https://www.city-data.com/forum/city...ad-2023-a.html

That's a literal sweep for DC in all categories and across MSA, CSA and Urban Areas. I'm pretty sure if there were a religious break down DC would be ahead there also. Houston I think has a very strong case for top 3 and I think has grown more impressive over the past decade. LA would be the other competitor for top 3.

[testa50]

Very interesting list. It would be really cool to go back to 2010 if comparable data exists, and see the list changing over time.

[Arcenal813]

Not surprised by the Florida results.

[chadnewt]

Great work!

Interesting how well the list correlates to population size and cultural prominence. 7th place Sacramento breaks the trend with its ranking.

Which years' data are used in the calc?

[siula]

Seems accurate. I would only put Boston ahead of Dallas. Atlanta, Sacramento and Dallas don’t have nearly the same diversity in their white/European population as Boston. And Chicago’s black population is not diverse like Boston’s either.

[TheTimidBlueBars]

Ouch. I knew Pittsburgh wasn't the most diverse place ever, but being behind El Paso is rough.

Mildly surprised NYC is #1 and not San Francisco or LA. I'd have thought "white" people (including of course everyone from Russians to Egyptians to Irish to Haredi Jews) would be dominant in the NYC area.

Honestly a bit surprised Chicago is so high. I thought it was fairly white on a metro area level (compared to a lot of larger coastal and Sunbelt cities at least), even if not on a city level. In particular the Asian population is lower than a lot of places. Although I hear that's changing in the far southwest burbs (Naperville, Aurora, Plainfield, Oswego) with the rapid growth of the South Asian community out there.