New census provides fascinating portrait of modern America

Racial integration between black and white people in the U.S. is at its highest level for a century, new figures reveal.

The 2009 national census found that a new generation of upwardly mobile black families is flocking to America's fastest-growing cities, with a decline in black-white segregation in the last decade.

But while the study showed a more even spread between blacks and whites, Hispanic people are becoming more marginalised and tuing away from majority white neighbourhoods to form their own districts.

The figures also revealed a huge gulf in wealth across a nation tackling fiscal crisis, with poverty levels as low as four per cent in some counties but rising to 40 per cent in others.

According to the census data released on Tuesday, the average white person now lives in a neighborhood that is 79 per cent white, compared to 81 per cent in 2000.

The average black person lives in a 46 per cent black neighbourhood, down from 49 per cent.

However, for Hispanics in the U.S., their average neighborhood last year was 45 percent Hispanic, up slightly from 44 percent.

A changing nation: A graphic shows the poverty rate and median household income across the U.S.

'The political implications of these trends are great in the long run — majority black districts will become harder to sustain, while more majority Hispanic districts will emerge, especially for state and local positions,' said John Logan, a sociologist at Brown University.

While less Hispanic-white segregation was noted in large metropolitan citres such as Seattle, Las Vegas and Jacksonville, Florida, the data showed the emergence of Hispanic ghettos in smaller neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago.

The increased segregation of Hispanic could be put down to a large influx of Hispanic immigrants, who band together in Spanish-speaking communities upon arrival in the U.S. and remain among families of similar ethnic backgrounds to create a supportive social structure.

The data regarding the segregation of blacks, whites and Hispanics could be put down to increasingly prosperous middle-class blacks moving to developing metropolitan areas with a high quality of life and job opportunities, said William H. Frey, a demographer at Brookings Institution who reviewed the census data.

'In contrast, the faster national growth of Hispanics has led to increased neighborhood segregation,' he added said.

But while the census suggest a rise in racial integration between black and white people, Mr Logan stressed the U.S. remains fundamentally divided on racial and economic lines.

'Whites are still on average a large majority in the places where they live, and blacks and Hispanics are the majority or near-majority in their neighborhoods,' he said.

'They suggest that all the talk about a post-racial society means nothing at the level of neighborhood.'

Poverty persists: The census found poverty rates as high as 40 per cent in some U.S. counties

The figures come from previous censuses and the 2009 American Community Survey, which samples three million households.

For places with fewer than 20,000 people, the ACS figures from 2005-2009 were averaged to help compensate for otherwise large margins of error.

Due to incomplete 2009 data, the analysis of racial segregation omits seven metro areas: Sarasota, Florida; Greenville, South Carolina; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Jackson, Mississippi; McAllen, Texas; Portland, Maine, and Poughkeepsie, New York.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338920/New-census-provides-fascinating-portrait-mode-America.html#ixzz18ErcnsS4