The Most Segregated (& Integrated) Cities in the Bay Area

The report concludes that “despite its reputation as a progressive and inclusive region, the Bay Area is — like the rest of the country — highly segregated.

This report from May 2019 applies the Divergence Index to identify the most segregated (and integrated) cities. There is one caveat, however. For each city, there are two forms of segregation that the report considers: segregation of the residents from the larger region (inter-municipal segregation) and the segregation of people between neighborhoods within the city (intra-municipal segregation). Cities in the Bay Area are ranked in the publication according to these two measures.

Given the seriousness of the problem of racial segregation as a cause of racial inequality, the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley launched a series of briefs that help illuminate these patterns and demystify the reality of segregation in the San Francisco Bay Area.