I’m calming my pre-Election Day jitters by downloading new Census data. I’ve been curious about the racial composition of the Northwest, so I crunched the numbers for the largest cities and towns in the region.
Turns out, the most racially diverse places are not the biggest cities, but rather suburbs (particularly in the Puget Sound region) and, in some cases, towns east of the Cascade Mountains. Consider the share of the population that identifies as “white alone” (meaning white and no other race) and Renton, Washington is easily the most diverse locale in the region.
I also took a look at the presence of specific racial groups in Northwest cities. The Puget Sound region holds the top five cities in the region for prevalence of people self-identifying as “Asian alone.” Bellevue, Washington is the clear leader, though Renton also ranks highly.
Similarly, Black northwesterners are also more prevalent in Puget Sound cities than anywhere else. Renton and Kent, Washington tie for the largest shares, with Tacoma not far behind. I thought it was interesting that neither Seattle nor Portland—each of which has a vibrant legacy of African American culture—is really very close.
By contrast, Native Americans are far more prevalent (as a share of total population) east of the Cascades. Montana is far and away the most significantly comprised of people identifying themselves as American Indian.
Finally, I examined the presence of Hispanic northwesterners, a category that by official Census definition can overlap with other racial identifications. No other city comes close to Yakima, Washington in terms of the presence of people of Hispanic origin, though there are also significant concentrations in the Portland suburbs.
Notes: All data for the first four tables are calculated from figures in the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, “Table B02001,” single-year estimates for 2009. Data for the Hispanic origin table are calculated from figures in “Table B03003.” ACS figures are the most accurate and recent available, but there are some significant limitations to these data. They are statistical estimates, but I did not include margins of error. Data in the first four tables refer to survey respondents who identified themselves as only one race, and these tables exclude the five other categories that the survey tracks: “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Alone,” “Some other race alone,” “Two or more races,” “Two races including some other race,” and “Two races excluding some other race, and three or more races.” I excluded Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders because there are so few in Northwest cities. (Only Kent, Washington, with 1.8%, has more than 1%.) Figures for Hispanic origin are not reported in the same manner as figures for the other racial categories.
joshuadf
One issue with this is that Seattle is so much larger than Renton (both geographically and in population). It’s no secret that certain Seattle neighborhoods are nearly all white, but I bet other tracts are just as diverse as Renton. It brings to my mind this “How do parents pick schools?” from Steven Glazerman: “according to my estimates each group (white, black, Asian/Hmong, and Native American) had a bliss point that was over 30% or 40% but well under 100%. In other words, everyone had both an own-race preference, but also a taste for diversity.” http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post.cgi?id=7252It would be interesting to see if there are correlations between racial and housing diversity (such as pricing and unit size) with the new “HUD 2009 HOUSING SURVEY OF SEATTLE-TACOMA METROPOLITAN AREA” too.http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/states/washington/news/HUDNo.2010-10-15
Lee Gordon
These are interesting and “revelatory” numbers. The Pacific Northwest is a region of dichotomy; if you are in an urban setting West of the Cascade Mountain Range, it’s probable you would like to think of your community as “progressive”. If you are East of the Cascades, you likely don’t care much about progressive attitudes despite the fact that your neighbors may be from South of the border. However, further examination should yield that there are MANY Western neighborhoods to which JOSHUADF refers, those whose residents are nearly all white or at least contain negligible levels of diversity. Neighborhoods with lower concentrations are defined, STIGMATIZED, and covertly “de-recommended”. I am a native of this passive-aggressive region; I have never understood why it is held up as some sort of beacon of diversity, when overall it does not “walk the talk”. Show me one truly successful African-american business and I’ll eat all my words.
Barbara Breckenfeld
I have two comments to make here.First, I live in Mountlake Terrace, a small, diverse suburban city tucked between Shoreline and Lynnwood. Within walking distance of my house are 2 mosques, and numerous churches. I am aware of African, African-American, Hispanic, Filipino, and Indian or Pakistani families in my neighborhood. I’m sure there are more that I am not aware of.So much for the myth that the ‘suburbs are white and middle class.’ At this point it is more affordable to live in the suburbs than in Seattle or King County.Second, I offer these ‘truly successful African-American businesses’ that are also local: DKA Architecture, in business for 25 years and Garry Struthers & Associates in business since 1988 – both are multi-million dollar professional service firms. I know both founders (one has been my client) and they truly are successful businessmen. There are several associations within the African-American community both local and national in which black business owners network and support one another. It works!Another successful local black-owned business is Ezell’s Chicken, now over 20 years old.My conclusion is that it may be necessary to go beyond stereotypes and proactively look to see how diverse we are, and where we are diverse. Our society is still racist, but I believe it is less so than 20 or 30 years ago.
Eric de Place
Barbara,Good insight about Mountlake Terrace. The Census-based analysis that I conducted is only able to account for large municipalities, so smaller “suburbs” like MT (many which may be quite diverse!) go overlooked here.