Mapping Diversity in Boston

How do we define diversity in the City?

Boston Planning & Development Agency Research Division

The Boston Planning and Development Agency has created a mapping tool to visualize multidimensional diversity throughout the city. In the tool, each geography is given a Diversity Index score to indicate its diversity across a certain dimension in comparison to other geographies.

What is a Diversity Index?

This tool uses the  USA Today Diversity Index  developed by  Meyers and McIntosh (1999)  as a generalized and comparable measure of diversity across different dimensions. This index has a range of 0 to 1 representing the probability that two people chosen at random from the population will differ along a chosen dimension.

A population with a score of 0 would mean that everybody is the same whereas a score of 1 would mean every person is different from every other individual in that dimension.

The actual equation used is:

Diversity index equation: one minus the summation of p i from i equals 0 to n

for n variables

The same population or group of people can have wildly different diversity scores depending on the dimension chosen and which variables are chosen to represent that dimension.

Educational Diversity example graphic with a diversity index score of 0.5

Educational Diversity Example Diagram

Consider a neighborhood with 100 people. Of that population, 50 did not graduate high school and 50 did graduate, with a resulting Diversity Index score of 0.5 based on high school graduation.

This population represents a maximally diverse population for two variables -- the probability that two people chosen at random are different is exactly 50%.

If we were to add another category to this measurement, e.g. splitting the educational attainment into having just a high school diploma and obtaining a Bachelor's degree or higher, the same group of people would receive a different score.

Educational Attainment Diversity Diagram expanded

Continuing the earlier example, suppose that 20 people have a Bachelor's degree or higher in addition to obtaining a high school diploma.

If we now measure diversity by educational attainment with three variables instead of two, the same group of people are now considered to be more diverse than before (with a new score of 0.62).

You can see the same mutability using real data for diversity by Educational Attainment in the map below.

Educational Attainment Diversity in Boston by Less than High School/High School or Higher (Left) and by 5 Levels of Educational Attainment (Right)

The map on the left shows educational attainment diversity defined by high school graduation. The map on the right shows the same educational attainment data but the diversity score is by 5 Levels of Educational Attainment (Less than high school, High School/GED or equivalent, Some college/Associate’s Degree, Bachelor’s Degree, and Master’s Degree or Higher).

The color scale represents quintiles within each grouping instead of an exact range of values. That is, the light sage green color on both maps represents the 20% least diverse tracts in Boston but the real index values for that same green color are 0.043 or below for the left map and 0.65 or below for the right map.

In the tool, you will have the option to view diversity across the city with a map showing scaled colors (like the one above) or a map showing the raw data (actual diversity index score).

Diversity will be measured across...

While the original USA Today Diversity Index only looked at Race and Ethnicity, this tool investigates diversity across multiple dimensions and categorizations, listed below.

Race & Ethnicity

○ Race and Ethnicity (Hispanic as a separate category) ○ Race with Hispanic Ethnicity Distinction ○ Race with Detailed Multiracial Categories

Region of Birth

○ By Nativity ○ By U.S. Region ○ By Boston’s Top 10 Countries of Birth ○ By the United States’ Top 10 Countries of Birth

Household Income

○ 6 Income Brackets ○ Below/Above Boston’s Median Household Income ○ 3 Income Brackets

Language Spoken at Home (5+)

○ All 10 Languages with available data ○ Primarily speaks English at home/Does not primarily speak English at home ○ Top 5 Languages in Boston with available data.

Educational Attainment (25+)

○ 5 Levels of Educational Attainment ○ Less than High School/High School or Higher ○ Less than a Bachelor’s Degree/Bachelor’s Degree or higher

Age

○ By Broad Age Brackets ○ By adulthood status ○ By Decade

More information about each of these categorizations can be found by clicking the Category Breakdown button in the tool.

Categorizations for each dimension have been provided in the tool. Each categorization within the same dimension has the same source data but presents different ways to group or categorize people within that dimension. Different categorizations may be useful or relevant depending on the context.

Looking at Diversity in Boston

...by Neighborhood

The city of Boston has 24 neighborhoods, each with its own unique character. Below, you can explore some interesting neighborhood findings.

Boston's Neighborhoods

Fenway

Fenway has very low diversity across all categorizations for Age. Nearby universities such as Boston University or Northeastern University contribute to a very high student population, with almost 80% of residents between the ages of 18 and 34.

Out of all the neighborhoods, Fenway is the most diverse in terms of Region of Birth by U.S. Region, as students from around the country come to Boston to study.

Dorchester

Dorchester ranks the most diverse across all Race & Ethnicity categorizations and remains in the top 10 of all neighborhoods for all other dimensions and categorizations, except for Region of Birth by U.S. Region.

Dorchester is home to immigrant and diasporic communities (Vietnamese, Dominican, or Cape Verdean, among others), which adds to the high diversity score of the neighborhood for certain racial or place of birth categorizations.

Dorchester has a low diversity score for Region of Birth by U.S. Region because Dorchester residents are mostly born in Massachusetts or born abroad.

Mattapan

Mattapan is one of the least diverse for Race & Ethnicity of all neighborhoods with rankings between 18th and 20th for all measured categorizations, but is the most diverse in terms of broad Household Income and Age distributions.

Mattapan also ranks last for Region of Birth by U.S. Region. Over 85% of residents are either born in Massachusetts or are foreign-born.

Chinatown

Chinatown is the most diverse for both Region of Birth by Nativity and for Language Spoken at Home - All Languages with Available data.

Chinatown is the neighborhood with the highest concentration of foreign-born persons, but it is considered the most diverse in this category because Chinatown has the most even distribution of native-born to foreign-born (49.2% to 50.8%).

For Language Spoken at Home, Chinatown is the most diverse because there are significant populations speaking Spanish and Arabic in addition to a large number of Chinese- and English- speaking individuals.

South Boston Waterfront

South Boston Waterfront (SBW) is considered the least diverse for all measures of Educational Attainment and Household Income, and is in the bottom five for Language Spoken at Home and Race & Ethnicity.

A notable exception is for Region of Birth by U.S. Regions, where the South Boston Waterfront ranks 8th most diverse neighborhood. Most other neighborhoods have a much higher proportional concentration of people born in Massachusetts as SBW residents have typically moved there from across the country for job opportunities. This also accounts for its low scores in Household Income diversity and Educational Attainment diversity as the people moving there are attracted by high-paying opportunities, and 89.5% of residents have a Bachelor's degree or higher.

...and by Census Tract

Census tracts are a geography (or a unit of measurement) that the Census Bureau uses to aggregate demographic data. These census tracts are the most up-to-date per the last Decennial Census in 2020.

Below, you can go through some notable or unique census tracts within the City.

Click the tract on the map to see a list of categorizations that each tract ranks as having 'High Diversity' (top 20% of all tracts in Boston) and/or 'Low Diversity' (bottom 20% of all tracts in Boston).

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Census Tracts in Boston →

Boston Census Tracts 2020 Outline

Census Tract 8.06

Allston

Of all census tracts in Boston, this tract is the least diverse for Educational Attainment by Less than High School/High School or Higher and is third to last by Less than a Bachelor's Degree/Bachelor's Degree or Higher. The tract also has very low Age diversity by all measured categories but is fairly diverse for Place of Birth by U.S. Region and Household Income for Below/Above Boston's Median Household Income.

According to the data, every person 25 years or older has at least a high school diploma and over 97% of that population have a Bachelor's degree or higher.

This tract’s proximity to nearby universities in Boston and in Cambridge may result in highly educated individuals from around the country living there to work or continue their education. 

Census Tract 921.01

Dorchester - Fields Corner

Fields Corner is a smaller community within Dorchester. The area contains both  Boston Little Saigon  (a cultural district designation) and  Fields Corner Main Streets District  (an organization to build up local small businesses).

This tract ranks in the top 20% most diverse across all categories for both Race & Ethnicity and Language Spoken at Home. Strong Vietnamese and Hispanic/Latino (particularly Dominican) communities contribute to these higher diversity scores.

Census Tract 909.01

Dorchester - UMass Boston

This tract is the most diverse for Language Spoken at Home. It's also one of the most diverse tracts for all categories in Race & Ethnicity.

Census Tract 612.03

South Boston

This tract is the absolute least diverse for Household Income by 6 Income Brackets and Below/Above Boston's Median Household Income as well as the second-to-least diverse by 3 Income Brackets. The median household income of $246,750 for this tract is three times Boston's median for the same metric, so the lack of diversity exists because of the skew towards higher-earning households.

But how does Boston compare?

Geographic location and historical events create each city’s distinct character. In comparing Boston to other cities in the United States, we can see how unique Boston is compared to the rest of the country. 

Boston, Massachusetts

New York, New York

Washington D.C., District of Columbia

Detroit, Michigan

Atlanta, Georgia

Houston, Texas

Los Angeles, California

San Francisco, California

Seattle, Washington

Boston, Massachusetts

Surprisingly, Boston does not rank the most diverse for Region of Birth By Boston's Top 10 Countries of Birth nor by Language Spoken at Home for Top 5 languages in Boston with available data.

Other cities like San Francisco or San Jose have more equal distributions of Spanish and Vietnamese speakers. However, Boston has the largest percentage of French, Haitian or Creole speakers of all comparable cities.

Boston  ranks the highest among comparison cities for Educational Attainment diversity  measured by Less than a Bachelor's Degree/Bachelor's Degree or Higher. This is because approximately 50 percent of Boston residents aged 25 or older have a Bachelor’s degree or higher.

New York, New York

Unsurprisingly, New York ranks very highly diverse for all Race & Ethnicity, Region of Birth, and Language Spoken at Home categories.

New York is also ranked as most diverse for Age by Decade, which might indicate very stable population growth and maintenance for the city.

Washington D.C., District of Columbia

D.C. is considered to not be very diverse in terms of Educational Attainment because of the concentration of highly educated individuals.

The nation's capital is also not very diverse for Language Spoken at Home -- 83% of residents only speak English.

Detroit, Michigan

Detroit ranks the least diverse in almost all measured dimensions and categories. Notable exceptions are for Educational Attainment for Less than High School/High School or Higher (due to the general higher levels of education in most other comparable cities) and the categorizations for Age.

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is not very diverse for all categories within Language Spoken at Home.

The city also has low Region of Birth diversity with the notable exception of by U.S. region, indicative of the fact that Atlanta experiences a lot of domestic migration and less international immigration. Recent migration trends such as the  New Great Migration  have added to Atlanta's population growth and high national regional diversity.

Houston, Texas

Houston ranks consistently as highly diverse for all categories in Age, Language Spoken at Home, and Educational Attainment (except for Less than a Bachelor's Degree/Bachelor's Degree or Higher).

A higher Spanish-speaking population (around 38%) contributes to Houston being more diverse in that category.

For Educational Attainment, there exists a higher proportion of individuals without a high school diploma are almost a quarter for persons aged 25 or older.

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles is diverse in terms of Race & Ethnicity in all categories except for Race and Ethnicity (Hispanic as a separate category). Since the city is almost half Hispanic or Latino, then definitionally it cannot be considered to be as diverse as other cities with more uniform distributions along race and ethnicity. However, when individuals who identify as Hispanic or Latino are distributed along their racial identities, Los Angeles ranks as more diverse than most other comparable cities.

San Francisco, California

San Francisco ranks as least diverse in terms of Household Income (specifically using 6 income brackets). Over 50% of households in San Francisco have an income of $125,000 or more.

San Francisco is more diverse than Boston for all Region of Birth (except by U.S. region), and Language Spoken at Home categories.

Seattle, Washington

Seattle ranks as least diverse for almost all categorizations of Educational Attainment. Approximately two-thirds of Seattle residents 25 years or older have a Bachelor's degree or higher, the highest of all comparable cities.

Of all comparable cities, Seattle is the most diverse for Region of Birth diversity By U.S. Region.

The Interactive Diversity Map Tool

All analysis comes from the   Interactive Diversity Map Tool   developed by the Boston Planning and Development Agency Research Division. Please visit the tool to explore additional insights into diversity in Boston.

Diversity Map Tool

Data source: 2017-2021 5 year American Community Survey

for n variables

Educational Diversity Example Diagram

Educational Attainment Diversity Diagram expanded