The Manhattan Institute just released a new study by economists Ed Glaeser and Jacob Vigdor called “The End of the Segregated Century.” It cheerfully notes that segregation is at its lowest level since 1910 and that all-white neighborhoods “are virtually extinct.”

Their report seems accurate enough in describing the changes and is consistent, in many respects, with other research. Yet, in focusing exclusively on change, the report fails to convey that segregation is still quite high throughout much of America. Moreover, the summary and discussion are misleading in their insinuation that “the end of segregation” has failed as a “driving force” behind increasing socio-economic equality between races.

First, let me deal with the extent of segregation. It’s great that the percentage of blacks living in totally or nearly all-black neighborhoods has fallen dramatically since the height of Jim Crow, when racial covenants restricted blacks from living in certain neighborhoods, anti-black violence was common, and finance and real estate market discrimination were formalized.

Today, however, 51 percent of the entire U.S. metropolitan black population still lives in 50 metropolitan areas where segregation is high, according to the dissimilarity index data provided by John Logan of Brown University (a score above 60 is considered high--and means that 60 percent of blacks would have to switch neighborhoods with whites to achieve balance). This is down from 86 percent of blacks in 1980, living in 194 metropolitan areas, but it means that most blacks still live in highly-segregated metropolitan areas, mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. Moreover, the share of metro black residents living in at least moderately segregated metros (an index of 40 or above) is 95 percent.

Drilling down to the neighborhood level using the isolation and exposure indices, one sees that the average black person in 2010 lived in a neighborhood that is just 35 percent white and 45 percent black, despite living in a metropolitan area that is, on average, 59 percent white and 20 percent black.