Data and Code for: Racial Residential Segregation in the United States

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) John M. Parman, William & Mary and NBER; Trevon D. Logan, Ohio State University and NBER

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
figure-replication-files			01/09/2025 01:41:PM

Project Citation:

Parman, John M., and Logan, Trevon D. Data and Code for: Racial Residential Segregation in the United States. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2025. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-07-31. https://doi.org/10.3886/E211545V1

Project Description

Summary: Residential segregation is a central factor in explaining socioeconomic gaps across race and ethnicity in the United States. Place of residence directly impacts access to schools, jobs, and healthcare. There is an ever-evolving literature across the social sciences disciplines documenting the general patterns in residential segregation as well as the causes and consequences of those patterns. This article reviews key parts of that literature. We provide an overview of the measurement of segregation and the general evolution of segregation patterns over time and at different scales. We then review the literatures on both segregation's determinants and its impact on a range of socioeconomic outcomes. We highlight the potential for new insights to be gained from new approaches to quantifying segregation and new frameworks such as stratification for understanding its complex roots.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: residential segregation; racial segregation

JEL Classification:
      J10 Demographic Economics: General
      N30 Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: General, International, or Comparative
      N91 Regional and Urban History: U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
      N92 Regional and Urban History: U.S.; Canada: 1913-

Geographic Coverage: United States

Time Period(s): 1865 – 2020

Data Type(s): aggregate data; census/enumeration data

Methodology

Data Source: All data sources used in this analysis were drawn from prior studies or existing public data sources. In particular, we use, and include in the replication package, the following publicly available data sources:

Hypothetical 2020 Congressional District Boundaries from the 538 Atlas of Redistricting Project.

United States Census Bureau block-level 2020 redistricting data giving population by race.

Census-tract-level segregation indices for 2000 and 2020 metropolitan areas from the Diversity and Disparities Project.

Household income data from the Federal Census and American Community Survey, accessed through IPUMS NHGIS.

County-level segregation estimates for 1880 and 1940 from Logan and Parman (2017).

The data above are included for replication purposes only. For any other purposes, users should download data directly from the original source (details are provided in the README file which includes more detailed descriptions of each data source and links to the source).

The study also uses city-level segregation estimates from Cutler, Glaeser and Vigdor (2023) (ICPSR 38765). These data are restricted to ICPSR members and therefore not included in this replication package. The README file contains a link to the ICPSR data repository.

Geographic Unit: state, county, metropolitan statistical area, enumeration district

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Published Versions

V1 [2025-07-31]

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