Racial inequality in the US is perpetuated in part by continued neighborhood segregation. Historically, people of color have been more likely to live in high-poverty neighborhoods, with limited access to education, healthcare, and professional opportunities. A recent study published in PNAS shows that there has been a decline in racially linked neighborhood segregation over the last 30 years, but there’s been an even larger decline in racially linked poverty.

The authors of this study used census data from 1980 to 2010 to compare the decline in the neighborhood poverty rates between black neighborhoods and other neighborhoods. They defined “neighborhood poverty rate” as the percentage of people in a neighborhood who were living below the poverty line.

In their comparisons, the authors found that the difference in the poverty rates between black and non-black neighborhoods declined by 40 percent over the 20-year study period. In other words, individual neighborhoods are less likely to show large income disparities. Though black Americans are still more likely to live in neighborhoods with high poverty rates, the difference in poverty levels between black neighborhoods and neighborhoods of mostly non-black residents has been narrowing. (The difference in neighborhood poverty rates between black and Hispanic or Asian neighborhoods has also declined, but not as much.)

In the same 20-year period, the authors saw some black residents move away from segregated impoverished neighborhoods and into affluent neighborhoods, and in fact, they were the only major racial group moving away from poor neighborhoods between 1980 and 2010.

When comparing neighborhood poverty and neighborhood segregation, the poverty rates between black and white neighborhoods has equalized, but these neighborhoods still remain highly segregated by ethnicity. This discrepancy is due to the fact that the change in the ethnic composition of the non-black population in the US has affected financial inequality more than it has affected racial segregation.

This study challenges three widely held beliefs about racial stratification in American neighborhoods. It seems to show that the end of black segregation is not close at hand—though black Americans have more economic power, their neighborhoods are still highly segregated. It also indicates that black Americans have become less segregated largely because Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans have grown to be a buffer between them and whites. Finally, the reduction in black segregation is not the most significant change in neighborhood racial stratification between 1980 to 2010—instead, the most significant change was the steady narrowing of the poverty differences.

These findings regarding the mismatch of differences in neighborhood poverty rates and neighborhood segregation status highlight a serious concern regarding wealth equality, since inequality persists in part due to differences in housing assets. Since housing is a high-cost asset, there may be challenges to intergenerational transfers of housing, particularly for black residents, who are more likely to be renting. This means that it may be more difficult for future generations of black Americans to escape poverty-ridden neighborhoods for ones with higher economic security.

PNAS, 2016. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1607220113 (About DOIs).