Mapping the Cultural Impact of Gentrification

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has released an interactive map which visualizes the gentrification of American cities over the last 50 years. Cities are constantly evolving. But behind many urban developments lies a deeper story of community transformation - one that often comes with a negative cost for the original residents.

The Displaced by Design interactive map is a groundbreaking tool that helps make sense of this complex process, offering a data-rich lens into five decades of gentrification and its impacts on American neighborhoods. The map visualizes 50 years of neighborhood change across U.S. urban areas, from 1970 to 2020, allowing users to explore how socioeconomic and demographic shifts have reshaped communities, often at the expense of long-standing, marginalized populations.

The map tracks neighborhood-level changes in:

• Race and ethnicity of residents
• Median income
• Home values
• Educational attainment

One of the key takeaways from the map is how the changes wrought by gentrification go beyond property values and demographics. They can also transform the cultural fabric of communities. This transformation is often seen most among the black population. 

From 1980 to 2020, 523 majority-Black neighborhoods experienced gentrification. A third underwent complete racial turnover, and nearly a quarter became racially mixed. This trend represents a loss of 261,000 Black residents from formerly majority-Black neighborhoods. The NCRC reports that "displacement rates could range higher, with a decrease of half a million Black people in all gentrifying neighborhoods."

Using the map you can zoom into cities across the United States to explore the historical data and demographic shifts over time. Buttons in the map sidebar allow you to see how income, housing prices, or racial composition evolved from 1970–2020 in your selected city.

The map has been released to complement the NCRC's full report Displaced by Design: Fifty years of gentrification and Black cultural displacement in US cities.