We are less integrated than we were.

I quote from a story on the PBS Newshour tonight:

A recent Pew Research Center report finds that Americans are more likely to live in economically segregated neighborhoods today than 30 years ago. Pew looked at census data from 30 metropolitan cities and found a rise in economic segregation in 27 of those cities. 

The report shows the number of people living in majority high-income neighborhoods has doubled in 30 years, from 9 percent to 18 percent. The number of those living in low-income neighborhoods has increased by 35 percent, from 23 percent to 28 percent. The middle or mixed-income class has shrunk from 85 percent in 1980 to 76 percent in 2010. The Pew research concludes that the increase in economic segregation is related to the rise in income inequality. 

View the Pew Research Center Map on 10 Most Populated Metro Areas and Their Residential Segregation By Income.

This is still another indication of the increasing social distance in the United States. Since we also tend to elect people to represent relatively compact districts, the changing patters that make neighborhoods more homogeneous implies that elected officials will be less likely to seek middle ground and more likely to take extreme positions typical of the extreme wing of the people they represent -- the activist, true believers.


One finding, not represented in the print version, is that we are less segregated by race and ethnicity, but more segregated by income and wealth. I find that hopeful.