The Neighborhood Diversity Index: A Complementary Measure of Racial Residential Settlement

Abstract

This article proposes another research approach available to researchers for studying racial and ethnic integration. The measure, called the Neighborhood Diversity (ND) index, allows researchers to include multiple racial and ethnic categories while adhering to a comparable understanding of integration. The value of the ND index is illustrated through an examination of residential settlement by race in Chicago neighborhoods in 1980 and Despite the limitations of the measure, the ND index provides an important tool for measuring and categorizing increasingly multiethnic and multiracial populations, and for broadening our understanding of neighborhood integration and transition.

Measures of Geographically Uneven Subpopulation Group Change and Local Group Transitions: Examples from Los Angeles

“…As the following discussion will make clear, it is scaling by higher order quantities that gives segregation statistics the power that is missing from transition studies per se; Smiths approach is thus a step in the direction of robust transition statistics. A related development is Maly's (2000) neighborhood diversity index, which expresses static multiethnic neighborhood composition as a single continuous measure scaled by cityvvlde composition.…”

“…Total standardized transition does not express which group or groups are succeeding, or being succeeded, but rather the overall change dynamics of relative local concentration for all groups simultaneously. In this sense TST is a dynamic version of Maly's (2000) static neighborhood diversity index, which it closely resembles.…”

Are the walls giving way to fences? Is racial integration within Kwadukuza municipality leading to income-based class segregation?

“…The Entropy Index, also known as Theil's H or the Information Theory Index, was introduced by Henri Theil in 1972 and is also a measure of evenness that assesses how evenly different groups are distributed across a certain spatial area (Iceland, 2004). Unfortunately the disadvantage is that it assumes an equal distribution of all racial groups across the geographical area (Maly, 2000).…”

“…As a result of the above, Maly (2000) proposed the Neighbourhood Diversity Index as an alternative to the Entropy Index. The Neighbourhood Diversity Index assumes that integration at lower levels is influenced by the context and history of the larger area.…”

“…The advantage of this index is that it considers integration in the local context. It is extremely useful when comparing integration within individual city levels, however, because it depends on the population of low level spatial units in relation to the population of the bigger city unit, it will not be comparable across cities as the population proportions of cities are different (Maly, 2000). The Neighbourhood Diversity Index also makes it possible to identify differences in class composition and is most useful in comparing racial change within suburbs in one particular city.…”