Study: Relatively few black or white families are relocating to an otherwise growing number of diverse neighborhoods in the United States

A team of sociologists examined the mobility patterns of black and white families that moved house between 1977 and 2005 within their own metropolitan areas. Of the 9,940 moves undertaken by black families, 43.7% were to predominately black neighborhoods, the researchers found. Among the 8,823 white families who moved, the proportion going to white areas was 56.8%. Only 17.7% of blacks relocated to multi-ethnic districts - those with populations at least 10% black, at least 10% Asian or Hispanic, and at least 40% white. Among whites, the figure was 5.6%. "We pay a lot of attention to this proliferation of multi-ethnic neighborhoods, but they are still only a small part of the overall inter-neighborhood mobility picture for blacks and whites," said lead author Kyle Crowder, a sociology professor at the University of Washington.