There are many terms and measure that describe how people within similar geographic areas live relative to each other: economic mobility, economic inequality, and economic segregation are a few.
When opening a new study published by Atlantic Cities I expected to find Florida at the top of the list for most economically segregated. I was wrong.
In fact, four of the top ten least economically segregated cities in the U.S. belong to our state. The Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area leads the nation in having the least economic segregation; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater ranks at No. 3 least segregated; Jacksonville at No. 5; and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach at No. 6.
The study, led by the Martin Prosperity Institute, measured the distribution of poverty across more than 70,000 Census tracts in more than 350 metro areas in 2010. Through this, a measure of “dissimilarity” was developed to mark how evenly distributed the poor are compared to the rest of the population. In other words, the study measured the “spatial concentration of poverty.”
Interestingly, the study only found slight correlation between economic segregation and economic inequality.
