The Black Population in Urbanized Areas, 1960

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the socioeconomic profile of blacks residing in the central cities and the urban fringes of the 213 urbanized areas during 1960. The tremendous growth of the population in urbanized areas since 1945 has resulted in an increased need for statistical descriptions of the demographic characteristics of their populations. The urbanized areas have increased in population to a much greater extent than has the national population. From 1950 to 1960, the American civilian population increased 19%. By contrast, the population in urbanized areas increased 38% (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1961a, 1961b). During the same period, the urban fringes increased 82% and the central cities 20%. In contrast to the urban fringes, the central cities nevertheless contain a higher proportion of the black population. Of the employed black population in the urbanized areas, 86% lived in the central cities. Unfortunately, little work has been conducted using all urbanized areas as unit of analysis on a national level (for a summary of the works dealing with the suburban phenomenon, see Pinkerton, 1969). One reason for this omission is that data are available for Standard Metropolitan Statistical