Metropolitan Housing Segregation in 1980

Abstract

Metropolitan patterns of black/white housing segregation are analyzed through the 1980 census data for the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Using the index of dissimilarity as an indicator of segregation, it was found that there was no change in central city segregation, and only a modest decline in suburban segregation. Analysis of segregation within incorporated places revealed that most of the area's population lived in racially homogeneous or internally segregated communities, and that virtually all racially mixed suburbs away from the major sector of black population were highly segregated. It was found that most of the suburbs that did have low segregation indices were experiencing rapid black population growth, and thus may have been experiencing racial turnover. It is concluded that patterns of segregation which have historically existed in the central city are now being repeated in the suburbs.