- RegionState
- Regional LayerWhite – Black segregation
- School LayerPercent White
- Year2020
- Between schools
- Between districts
- Between neighborhoods
- Of students
- Of residents
- State
- Metro Area
- County
- School District
- Census Tract
- Percent White
- Percent Black
- Percent Hispanic
- Percent Asian
- Percent non-White
- Percent free lunch eligible
- White – BlackN/A
- White – HispanicN/A
- White – AsianN/A
- White – Non-WhiteN/A
- Free lunch eligible – Non-free lunch eligibleN/A
- Percent WhiteN/A
- Percent BlackN/A
- Percent HispanicN/A
- Percent AsianN/A
- Percent non-WhiteN/A
- Percent free lunch eligibleN/A
The map offers two layers with a selection of different geographic units. The first layer displays states, metro areas, counties, and school districts. Choose the geography type for this first layer from the “Region” menu in the left column, or from the “Shown by …” menu in the upper left.
The second layer displays individual schools as dots. This layer can be turned on and off via the “Show schools on map” toggle in the legend at lower right, or in the “School Layer” menu in the left column.
The Segregation Explorer offers several ways of looking at segregation in the U.S:
- Student Segregation between schools and between districts. Segregation is shown between pairings of racial or economic groups such as “White - Black” and “Nonpoor - Poor.” The level of segregation ranges between 0 and 1, with 1 being the most segregated.
- Residential Segregation (coming soon)
- Racial & Economic Composition, which reflects the percentage of the selected racial or economic group within a geography or individual school.
The type of measure can be chosen via the “Shown by …” menu in the upper left, or the Regional Layer and School Layer menus in the left column.
Not all measures can be shown for every geography type. For example, when school districts are selected, Segregation Between Districts is unavailable because a larger geographic unit (such as states or counties) is required for this measure. Similarly, only Racial & Economic Composition metrics are available for individual schools.
Student segregation is shown as a green color scale. The deeper the green, the higher the level of segregation.
Racial & economic composition is shown as a yellow-orange color scale. The deeper the orange, the higher the percentage of the given group’s population.
Colorblind users: we have made efforts to ensure accessibility for the most common forms of colorblindness. For less common forms (such as Tritanopia), colors may be less distinguishable; however, the data is still accessible in the map legend and other displays.
You can navigate to your desired location (within any of the 50 U.S. states) via the navigation controls in the map, or type a location name into the Search Bar in the upper right corner of the Explorer.
Hovering (or on a touch device, tapping) on a location in the map will show an overview of that location’s data. Clicking (or tapping) on the location will open a Location Panel that shows a full view of all available data.
The Segregation Explorer contains decades’ worth of data. The year can be changed via the “Shown by …” menu in the upper left, or the “Year” menu in the left column.
You can also select any individual location and see a chart of its trend in segregation or racial & economic composition over time.
To learn more about the concepts presented here and how to use this Explorer tool, please see our FAQ. You can also see a list of News) articles about this data, view our research papers, and learn about our methods for compiling and validating the data.
