Racial and Ethnic Diversity—Why Not Measure It? Diversity in Large Urban Areas in the U.S., 1980-2010

An index of diversity is developed and used to measure the racial and ethnic diversity for 4 groups—white, African American, Latino, and Asian and Pacific Islander—for 59 large urban areas in the United States for the census years from 1980 to 2010. Examination of the percentages of the populations in the groups shows large declines for whites and large increases for Latinos and Asians. Levels of diversity increase over time, with the entire distribution of the urban areas by diversity moving up consistently. All but 2 of the urban areas saw increases in their levels of diversity from 1980 to 2010. Levels of diversity are shown to be related to the size of the urban area and to the rate of population growth over time. The change in diversity is also related to the rate of population growth. An appendix lists the values for the diversity index for each of the 59 urban areas for each census year from 1980 to 2010.