Levels of diversity and integration among the towns and cities of Greater Boston (Worcester: income, vs)

[Boston Shudra]

So first a little background...

Back in the City vs City forum, in a thread where Boston was being compared to Atlanta, one poster was really harping on metro-level population stats. In response, I decided to assemble a hybrid between Boston's MSA and CSA definitions to use in the comparison because I don't really like either definition for comparing Boston's metro area to other ones nationally. The MSA doesn't include towns that are close to Boston like the directional -boroughs, Mansfield, Taunton, etc. However, the CSA includes far-flung towns like Gardner, MA, Meredith, NH, and Charlestown, RI that no one in their right mind would consider "Greater Boston".

So I used data from the census to put together an agglomerations of towns that I considered to be a relatively commute-able distance if not to DT Boston, then at least to 128. The towns I included are within this rough outline:

Seabrook, NH -> Londonderry, NH -> Nashua, NH -> Fitchburg -> Worcester -> Providence, RI -> Westport -> Plymouth -> Seabrook, NH.

The Atlanta thread ended up getting shut down because of trolls, but I revived my definition recently in a "DC vs Boston" thread. This time, I wanted to look at the racial demographics of all the towns in the area.

I figured I'd post a breakdown of the area's demographic data so that we can get a full idea of where diversity exists in the metro area, where it doesn't, and where it might be growing. That information can then lead to other conversations about integration and the distribution of wealth and poverty, etc.

For the purpose of clarity, I decided to separate the towns of my definition of "Greater Boston" into four categories: small towns with less than 10,000 people, medium-small towns with populations between 10,000 and 20,000, medium-large towns with populations between 20,000 and 35,000, and large towns with populations greater than 35,000. There were about 50 towns in each category give or take 5-10.

*NOTE: when I say "white" I mean "non-Hispanic white" just to avoid any added complication due to overlap.

Small towns and cities




Medium-small towns and cities




Medium-large towns and cities




Large towns and cities

[Boston Shudra]

Here are a series of bar graphs that show how many towns and cities (with increasing population) have x% of each of the four census-defined racial demographics. The one thing about these graphs is that there are 3 towns in the area (Central Falls, Lawrence, and Chelsea) where Latino people make up >45% of the city's population. These towns are not shone on the graphs because they are outliers and including them makes the rest of the graph harder to read.

All Towns










Towns with at least 10,000 people










Towns with at least 20,000 people










Towns with at least 35,000 people

[masssachoicetts]

Wow great! Thank you for your contribution.. it is really appreciated!

[simplexsimon]

Was there a question?

[yellowstatus]

Boston is filled with binomial distributions

[ben young]

What was the question ?

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by simplexsimon

Was there a question?

You realize you are on a site called City Data (emphasis mine) right?

[BostonBornMassMade]

Originally Posted by iAMtheVVALRUS

So first a little background...

Back in the City vs City forum, in a thread where Boston was being compared to Atlanta, one poster was really harping on metro-level population stats. In response, I decided to assemble a hybrid between Boston's MSA and CSA definitions to use in the comparison because I don't really like either definition for comparing Boston's metro area to other ones nationally. The MSA doesn't include towns that are close to Boston like the directional -boroughs, Mansfield, Taunton, etc. However, the CSA includes far-flung towns like Gardner, MA, Meredith, NH, and Charlestown, RI that no one in their right mind would consider "Greater Boston".

So I used data from the census to put together an agglomerations of towns that I considered to be a relatively commute-able distance if not to DT Boston, then at least to 128. The towns I included are within this rough outline:

Seabrook, NH -> Londonderry, NH -> Nashua, NH -> Fitchburg -> Worcester -> Providence, RI -> Westport -> Plymouth -> Seabrook, NH.

The Atlanta thread ended up getting shut down because of trolls, but I revived my definition recently in a "DC vs Boston" thread. This time, I wanted to look at the racial demographics of all the towns in the area.

I figured I'd post a breakdown of the area's demographic data so that we can get a full idea of where diversity exists in the metro area, where it doesn't, and where it might be growing. That information can then lead to other conversations about integration and the distribution of wealth and poverty, etc.

For the purpose of clarity, I decided to separate the towns of my definition of "Greater Boston" into four categories: small towns with less than 10,000 people, medium-small towns with populations between 10,000 and 20,000, medium-large towns with populations between 20,000 and 35,000, and large towns with populations greater than 35,000. There were about 50 towns in each category give or take 5-10.

*NOTE: when I say "white" I mean "non-Hispanic white" just to avoid any added complication due to overlap.

Small towns and cities




Medium-small towns and cities




Medium-large towns and cities




Large towns and cities

Truly impressive and interesting. Terrific job, thank you.

[Shrewsburried]

I appreciate the data-dive ... thanks.

This said, I'm trying to figure out where 243 Asians are hiding in Hollis, NH.

[bugelrex]

Is there a conclusion or anything to conclude from the data?

Tracking income levels may be more relevent?