While it's no surprise to many that Chicago lands in the top 10 of America's most racially-segregated cities, finding out that our city lands at number one is disconcerting.
According to a new study by the University of Virginia, Chicago steals first place by a hefty margin. Atlanta comes in second, our northern cousin Milwaukee comes in third, followed by Philadelphia, St. Louis, Washington and Baltimore.
Here's what Chicago looks like overall.
To be fair, the study uses 2010 Census data to map neighborhood diversity. It's highly likely that this data is becoming outdated, especially with gentrification and rent-hikes in neighborhoods like Logan Square.
Still, the map does illustrate some interesting trends.
No one probably needed to inform you, but Chicago's South Side is almost universally black. The 2010 Census data places the Washington Park neighborhood at 97 percent black and neighboring Woodlawn at 87 percent black. Twenty years previous, the Census found only 69 white people in Washington Park, and even less Latinos.
Wedged between these two areas is the significantly more integrated, and majority-white, Hyde Park neighborhood. Hyde Park is also home to the University of Chicago, and it doesn't take a lot of guesswork to understand that much of the white population is transitory. In fact, we don't have to guess. Only 5 percent of UoC's student body is comprised of blacks, while a whopping 50 percent of students are white. The next largest ethnic group is Asian, which is evident with a closer look at the map.
While segregated, Chicago remains extremely diverse as a whole, with the city being almost evenly divided between whites, non-Hispanic blacks and Latinos. The study's diversity index ranks Chicago seventh in the nation in terms of overall diversity. It's only when you zoom down to the neighborhood level that segregation becomes apparent.
For a more in-depth treatment, check out FiveThirtyEight's breakdown and analysis of the numbers.