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I think there are problem some mid sized or even smaller areas that could be quite high on the list if included due to what you mentioned in terms of refugee resettlement and such.
Trenton-Princeton is 47/22/19/13, with a population of 380k. Good luck beating that if you're a metro <500k (hell, even 1m)
Ok. Here is the are the scores with the bonus points for smallest represented group taken out. I'm completely fine going this route if the feedback is this is a better representation. Its largely similar with Miami, Detroit, and San Jose leapfrogging a few others.
I plan on comparing to 2012 numbers so I can use either the original score I came up with or this one but I want to keep it consistent.
Most Diverse Urban Areas in the US Ranked in Order of Total Diversity - minus bonus points for smallest Racial Group
New York City: 137.9
Washington DC: 101.6
Los Angeles: 91.4
Houston: 88.5
San Francisco: 82.7
Miami/Fort Lauderdale: 77.5
Dallas/Fort Worth: 75.2
Sacramento: 74.2
San Jose: 74.1
Atlanta: 73.6
Chicago: 73.2
Seattle/Tacoma: 73.0
Boston: 72.1
San Diego: 68.4
Orlando: 67.3
Philadelphia: 57.7
Las Vegas: 57.5
Riverside/San Bernardino: 56.3
Charlotte: 55.0
Baltimore: 54.0
Tampa: 52.8
Austin: 52.5
Detroit: 52.2
Minneapolis/St. Paul: 51.9
Hartford: 50.6
Jacksonville: 50.4
Columbus: 49.6
Raleigh: 48.9
Phoenix: 48.4
Providence: 47.4
Portland: 46.9
Richmond: 46.6
Oklahoma City: 45.8
Denver: 45.7
Virginia Beach: 45.3
Nashville: 45.3
Salt Lake City: 44.5
Indianapolis: 42.6
San Antonio: 42.1
Milwaukee: 40.8
Kansas City: 40.3
Memphis: 40.2
Cleveland: 37.1
St. Louis: 36.7
Cincinnati: 34.6
El Paso: 33.9
Pittsburgh: 32.4
McAllen: 29.6
Im sorry, but I cant get on board with that. That isn't how diversity works. Its not a measure of how few white people exist in a place. Don't forget Arabs, Brazilians, Iranians, etc. are all considered "white".
Quote:
Originally Posted by As Above So Below...
What I would be adamantly opposed to is the idea that it should be replaced by giving points to places based on how non-white they are.
I hate the idea that diversity has somehow become a code for "not white".
Quote:
Originally Posted by As Above So Below...
I wasn't accusing you of that but I just hate that some view the term that way. White people are diverse among themselves and their diversity deserves to be counted just as it does for any race or ethnicity.
Thank you for taking this stand. I too strongly dislike the notion that diversity equals non-white. A city that is (for example) 50 percent black with the rest evenly divided between white, Asian, and Hispanic is no more diverse than a city that is 50 percent white with the rest evenly divided between black, Asian, and Hispanic.
Thank you for taking this stand. I too strongly dislike the notion that diversity equals non-white. A city that is (for example) 50 percent black with the rest evenly divided between white, Asian, and Hispanic is no more diverse than a city that is 50 percent white with the rest evenly divided between black, Asian, and Hispanic.
Yep...
Take this example:
(White/Black/Asian/Hispanic/Mixed)
56/9/10/16/5 (Arlington Co, VA)
11/59/4/21/4 (Prince George's Co, MD)
I would say Arlington is more diverse even though it is 56% White. On a street level it is actually even more evident anyway (although that's due to people in FFX heading to Arlington also). PG also has areas that are 90% Black, and few areas like Langley Park being 90% Hispanic.
(Yes, neither places are as diverse as Montgomery Co MD or Fairfax Co VA...but it is a good example of how non-White % =/= diversity)
Using another county...
66/10/6/12/5 (Frederick Co MD)
In this case, Frederick Co is probably less diverse than PG, but its non-white minority are also more evenly distributed. I do wonder how the Frederick UA would looks like, though.
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.
Quite impressive and much appreciated!
And get paid for doing stuff like this, at least some of the time.
Thank you for taking this stand. I too strongly dislike the notion that diversity equals non-white. A city that is (for example) 50 percent black with the rest evenly divided between white, Asian, and Hispanic is no more diverse than a city that is 50 percent white with the rest evenly divided between black, Asian, and Hispanic.
That's only because the American concept of diversity is based on exceptionally broad "racial" categories that, in reality, may be comprised of lots of ethnocultural groups and persons of varying national origins.
A city with a 100% Hispanic population that consists of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Peruvians, and Guatemalans is, in all likelihood, going to be more diverse than a city that's half (non-Hispanic) African American and half (non-Hispanic) White American--and that's not even considering the racial diversity of that Hispanic population.
I also think (and there is no real way to measure this) that it is worth considering a particular city's location as well when thinking about this topic. For example, while it varies you see a similar theme of diversity among cities on this list that make up mega regions like BosWash, the Texas Triangle, or the big cities in California.
What's interesting to me is that there are few cities that stand out significantly from their surrounding cities like Atlanta, Chicago, or Miami (although Orlando has been on the come up). It's at least some of the reason for how those cities are seen in their respective regions both as bastions of inclusiveness for people from smaller towns in close proximity...as well as Satan incarnate to those that find living in such a place abhorrent.
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.
SF is literally the whitest major city in America lmao.
SF is literally the whitest major city in America lmao.
Not sure what you're counting as "major" but Seattle & Portland are a fair bit whiter than SF (both on a city and metro level).
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