A newer version of this project is available. See below for other available versions.

Historic Redlining Scores for 2010 and 2020 US Census Tracts

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Helen C.S. Meier, University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center; Bruce C. Mitchell, National Community Reinvestment Coalition

Version:  View help for Version V2

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  HRS2010-Shapefiles 10/15/2021 12:55:PM
  HRS2020-Shapefiles 10/15/2021 12:59:PM
HRS2010B.sav application/x-spss-sav 831.9 KB 10/15/2021 08:22:AM
HRS2020B.sav application/x-spss-sav 871.8 KB 10/15/2021 08:22:AM
Historic Redlining Score 2010B.xlsx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet 453 KB 10/15/2021 08:20:AM
Historic Redlining Score 2020B.xlsx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet 479.6 KB 10/15/2021 08:20:AM

Project Citation: 

Meier, Helen C.S., and Mitchell, Bruce C. . Historic Redlining Scores for 2010 and 2020 US Census Tracts. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-10-15. https://doi.org/10.3886/E141121V2

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary
The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) was a U.S. federal agency that graded mortgage investment risk of neighborhoods across the U.S. between 1935 and 1940. HOLC residential security maps standardized neighborhood risk appraisal methods that included race and ethnicity, pioneering the institutional logic of residential “redlining.” The Mapping Inequality Project digitized the HOLC mortgage security risk maps from the 1930s. We overlaid the HOLC maps with 2010 and 2020 census tracts for 142 cities across the U.S. using ArcGIS and determined the proportion of HOLC residential security grades contained within the boundaries. We assigned a numerical value to each HOLC risk category as follows: 1 for “A” grade, 2 for “B” grade, 3 for “C” grade, and 4 for “D” grade. We calculated a historic redlining score from the summed proportion of HOLC residential security grades multiplied by a weighting factor based on area within each census tract. A higher score means greater redlining of the census tract. Continuous historic redlining score, assessing the degree of “redlining,” as well as 4 equal interval divisions of redlining, can be linked to existing data sources by census tract identifier allowing for one form of structural racism in the housing market to be assessed with a variety of outcomes. The 2010 files are set to census 2010 tract boundaries. The 2020 files use the new census 2020 tract boundaries, reflecting the increase in the number of tracts from 12,888 in 2010, to 13,488 in 2020. Use the 2010 HRS with decennial census 2010 or ACS 2010-2019 data. As of publication (10/15/2020) decennial census 2020 data for the P1 (population) and H1 (housing) files are available from census. 
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources Greater Milwaukee Foundation (Shaw Scientist Award)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Structural racism; redlining
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States Metro Areas

Methodology

Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit census tract

Related Publications

Download this project

Published Versions

V3 [2023-09-25]

V2 [2021-10-15]

V1 [2021-05-26]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This material is distributed exactly as received from the data depositor. As of April 2026, depositors are required to submit study materials in accessible formats. ICPSR has not reviewed, checked, or processed this material. For additional information about the study, please contact the investigator(s) directly. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR's Accessibility Center.