Fascinating maps show where the most and least diverse parts of the US are

The United States is sometimes billed as a melting pot of racial and ethnic diversity.But a new mapcreated by astrophysicistTomasz Stepinski shows how much racial segregation persists in manyAmerican towns, cities, and suburbs.Using census data and NASA satellite maps,Stepinski created a detailed map that shows racial compositionlevels in nearly every neighborhood in the US.Six categories of race ' non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, and other ' are represented by six different colors on the map (as indicated on the key to the right).If an area has a high densityof a particular race and low overall diversity, it is shaded a dark tone of that color (from the left column in the key to the right). If an area has a high density of a certain race but medium overall diversity, it's shaded in a less dark shade (from the right column in the key). For example, neighborhoods with a high density of white residents and low overall diversity are shaded orange. Places with a high density of Hispanic residents are dark purple. The lighter the shade, the less densely populated that group is.Areas with high racial diversity levels overall are shaded gray.The interactive map chronicles data from 1990 to 2010, so users can zoom in and see how areas have changed over time. Stepinski presented his workon April 27 at the annual Population Association of America conference in Chicago.Here is the state of diversity in seven UScities as of 2010, according toStepinski's map.SEE ALSO:26 photos that show the US-Mexico border's evolution over 100 yearsChicago ' one of America's most racially segregated cities ' is highly siloed by neighborhood. There are distinct pockets of Hispanic and black residents living downtown, while first-ring suburbs have mostly white residents.As CityLab notes, decades of racial discriminatory housing policies(some of which still persist today) contributed to segregation in Chicago. For example, following WWII, the Federal Housing Administrationexplicitlydenied home loans forblack people in Chicago and other cities across the US.New York City's neighborhoods are also pretty segregated by race. Manhattan has a fairly high density of white residents, while the most dense populations of black, Hispanic, and Asian New Yorkers are found in upper Manhattan, the Bronx, and parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Jersey City (located west of Manhattan) does not appear to be as segregated.Gaithersburg, Maryland and other areas north of Washington, DC are fairly racially diverse, as indicated by the dark grey shading.See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Click here to read full news..