CensusScope -- Segregation: Dissimilarity Indices

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	Dissimilarity Indices

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CensusScope is a product of the Social Science Data Analysis Network.

Chicago, IL

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SEGREGATION: DISSIMILARITY INDICES

The dissimilarity index measures the relative separation or integration of groups across all neighborhoods of a city or metropolitan area. If a city's white-black dissimilarity index were 65, that would mean that 65% of white people would need to move to another neighborhood to make whites and blacks evenly distributed across all neighborhoods.

Dissimilarity Indices
	Dissimilarity Index		Percent of
	With Whites*	Population**	Total Population
White*	--	4,798,533	58.00%
Black*	83.6	1,541,641	18.64%
American Indian*	63.8	10,585	0.13%
Asian*	50.9	378,172	4.57%
Native Hawaiian*	87.7	2,219	0.03%
Other*	70.3	10,410	0.13%
Two or More Races*	44.7	114,624	1.39%
White/Black*	62.4	16,824	0.20%
White/American Indian*	57.4	10,931	0.13%
White/Asian*	47.5	23,104	0.28%
White/Other*	65.6	34,795	0.42%
Other Combinations*	--	28,970	0.35%
Hispanic	64.8	1,416,584	17.12%
Total Population	--	8,272,768	100.00%

* Non-Hispanic only.

* When a group's population is small, its dissimilarity index may be high even if the group's members are evenly distributed throughout the area. Thus, when a group's population is less than 1,000, exercise caution in interpreting its dissimilarity indices.

Source: William H. Frey and Dowell Myers' analysis of Census 2000; and the Social Science Data Analysis Network (SSDAN).

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