Gentrification & White Privilege in Boston

Gentrification in Boston - green tracts have seen rises in number of graduates & rental costs

The Boston Neighborhood Change Interactive Map is a new interactive visualization tool for exploring demographic, social, and economic changes in the city of Boston. The map uses a range of historical census and American Community Survey data to provide a number of insights into how the city of Boston is changing over time.

There are so many data views available on the Boston Neighborhood Change Interactive Map that you might find it easiest to start with the Recommended Maps section. This section provides you with a choice of maps which have combined different data sets to create insights into societal change in Boston. For example the 'Gentrification' map combines property and education data to show you the neighborhoods where both the number of graduates has risen and the cost of renting has risen.


tracts in green have over 90% white population & household income over $100,000

The gentrification map provides a good example of how different data sets can be combined on one map and how you can set filters to create conditional views of the data. Another example might be to visualize white privilege by showing all neighborhoods where over 90% of the population are white and household income is over $100,000.

It is this ability to combine different data sets and to visualize the changes in that data over time which makes the Boston Neighborhood Change Interactive Map such a useful tool for exploring many aspects of how life in Boston is changing (and to show where it isn't).