Is Your Neighborhood Improving or Declining?

Around 36.5 Americans live in areas which have seen economic decline and larger numbers of residents living on low incomes. According to a new report from the University of Minnesota most metropolitan areas in America have witnessed economic decline since 2000. While a limited number of cities such as Washington D.C. and Los Angeles have experienced gentrification most metropolitan areas in America have seen an increase in the percentage of the low income population.

If you want to know if your neighborhood is declining or becoming more gentrified then you can refer to the University's new interactive map which visualizes which census tract areas are becoming poorer and which are becoming richer overall. The map shows the level of low income displacement or low-income contraction in each census tract in the USA. In other words it reveals which neighborhoods have seen a decrease in the number of people on low incomes (2000-2016) and which areas have seen an increase in the low income population. Low income is defined as "those below 200 percent of the federal poverty line".

The Low Income Displacement and Concentration in U.S. Census Tracts, 2000 to 2016 interactive map colors census tract areas by the change in the number of the low income population. If you click on a census tract you can view details on the percentage of the population who were low income in 2000 and the percentage in 2016. You can also view other details about the local population, such as the changes in the number of local residents with a 'Middle-High Income', the number on a 'Low Income', the number 'Below Poverty' and the number living in 'Extreme Poverty'. The demographic information provided also shows changes to the numbers of Asian, black, Hispanic & white residents, the local number of college graduates, and changes to the number of rental, vacant & owner properties.

The full report, American Neighborhood Change in the 21st Century: Gentrification and Decline outlines some of the main patterns revealed by the map. For example, the data reveals that nonwhite Americans are far more likely to live in economically declining areas than white Americans. The data also shows that white flight is strongly linked with neighborhood change. In economically expanding areas between 2000-2016 the white population grew by 44%. In economically declining areas the white population fell by 22% over the same period of time.