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Latest from the Research Division: Measuring Diversity in a Changing City

Dec 13, 2013

researchcover-(1).PNGThe Research Division recently released a report titled, “Measuring Diversity in a Changing City.” Over the last several decades Boston has experienced significant changes in its demographic makeup. Most notably, in 1980 nearly 70% of Boston was white.  Today, that percentage is 47%.  In each of the last two Censuses, Boston was a "majority-minority" city. While these changes say a lot about the changing face of Boston's overall population, it says little about shifts in neighborhood diversity. In particular, what about diversity in neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods of Boston and how persistent are population concentrations in these areas?     
 
In this report, we expand the concept of "diversity" to include income, age, language, educational attainment, and place of birth.  We compare Boston census tracts in 2000 and 2010 to understand how diversity has shifted over the last 10 years within the city and all of the neighborhoods. We also explore diversity trends at the more granular census tract level to locate the most and least diverse pockets within the city.
 
 Some key highlights include:
 
  • Boston in general is a more diverse place today than it was in 2000, except when it comes to age and educational attainment. This is due to the significant increase of young adults and college educated residents between 2000 and 2010.
  • Certain pockets within the city demonstrated shifts towards greater diversity, including tracts within West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain (except the tract closest to Jamaica Pond) and Dorchester.
  • Other pockets of the city saw a decrease in diversity, such as sections of South Boston, Back Bay and Charlestown.
  • There are areas within the city that are heterogeneous in some ways but homogeneous in others. For example, there are areas of South Boston that are less diverse on language spoken at home and region of birth, but are more diverse on educational attainment and household income.
 
While occurring at different rates throughout the city, Boston and its neighborhoods are increasingly becoming more diverse places.

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