Ethnic and Racial Segregation in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 1980-2000

United States metropolitan area data for three ethnic groups—African-Americans, Asians, and Hispanics—are used to explore the dimensions of residential segregation at the 1980, 1990, and 2000 censuses at the census tract scale. Although set within Massey and Denton’s five-dimensional conceptual schema, the study was unable to replicate their identification of five empirical dimensions that correspond with the conceptual set. Instead, separate analyses for each ethnic group at each of the three censuses suggested two superdimensions: separation and location. These apply across all three groups and three censuses, although the degree of separation varies considerably among the three groups.