#About this project
This project uses local census data compiled by The Washington Post to explore the increasing share of Americans living in racially mixed city and suburban neighborhoods.
The Post's estimates, compiled from national block-level data for each decennial census since 1990, describes the changing race mix for neighborhood-level census tracts and regional metropolitan areas. All the numbers apply to area boundaries in effect for the 2020 census. This offers a consistent view of population changes over time for current areas. For example, 1990 numbers for tracts and metro areas are estimates of historic populations in those areas as defined in 2020, even though different boundaries may have been in effect in 1990.
You can explore The Post's tract-level data here,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/racial-makeup-census-diversity/
and county-level data here,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/census-maps-race-population-demographics/
and The Washington Post census coverage here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/census-2020/
The rise of racially mixed neighborhoods reflects two national population trends over the last three decades. The growth in White population slowed, and then in the 2020 it declined. Deaths of Whites now outnumber births, according to census bureau estimates. The opposite is true for non-Whites. Births are the largest factor in non-White population growth. Non-Whites also outnumber Whites in immigration from other countries.
Despite the overall White population decline, racially mixed neighborhoods still account for a minority of people in small town areas, and in rural areas only for about a third. But across large metropolitan suburbs and medium metros, the share of people in racially mixed neighborhoods jumped by double digits to 59 percent.
Mixed race neighborhoods refer to census tracts, which have a typical population of about 3,800. Mixed tracts are less than 80 percent White and less than 80 percent non-White. Tracts that are more than 80 percent are referred to as predominantly White or predominantly non-White.
Some 9,700 tracts transitioned from predominantly White in 2010 to racially mixed in 2020. Those neighborhoods, home to more than 40 million people, lost almost 300,000 in White population, while gaining 4.3 million non-Whites. The Hispanic population increased in 98 percent of these tracts, Asians in 84 percent, and Blacks in 81 percent.
Besides marking increased neighborhood diversity, crossing the racially mixed threshhold by dropping below 80 percent White also signaled that more such change likely lies ahead, based on the historic data. In tracts that first became mixed in the 2000 and 2010 census, non-White population has continued to grow on average by double digits since. For neighborhoods that first became mixed in 2010, the 2020 census now average 37 percent non-White, and in those that became mixed in 2000 now on average are majority nonwhite.
The neighborhoods that transitioned from White to mixed over the last three decades often reflect growth patterns and ring major cities like Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Minneapolis.
There are some exceptions to these trends, especially in neighborhoods dotting dozens of inner cities, like Denver, New Orleans, The District and Los Angeles. There, urban redevelopment has come with increasing White populations, and declines in non-whites, especially Blacks.