Author Description

Whether greater racial and ethnic diversity in the United States is being accompanied by greater integration remains unclear. This analysis examines segregation in the multiethnic context over the 1980 to 2000 period by using the multi-race entropy index, which simultaneously takes the presence of many groups into account while also looking at the segregation of each group separately. Results indicate that segregation has been decreasing, mainly due to declines in Black segregation and White segregation with little change or slight increases in Asian and Pacific Islander and Hispanic segregation. Diversity tends to have little effect on segregation overall, though it does reduce African American segregation in particular. Metropolitan areas with greater growth in Hispanic and Asian and Pacific Islander populations experience greater growth in Hispanic and Asian and Pacific Islander segregation, respectively, suggesting that this population growth likely buttresses ethnic enclaves.