Some have stated that racial segregation in U.S. neighborhoods has declined over the last few decades, even though it is still very high, especially when looking at Chicago’s Southside neighborhood and Washington D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood. The next type of segregation that is on a rise is residential segregation by income, where metropolitan cities dominate the list as the nation’s most segregated regions, even though none of them are substantially integrated, and some are divided along the racial lines more than others.

24/7 Wall St. created an index based on the share of a city’s metro area population living in singular-race areas defined by their zip code (where more than 80% of that population is of a single race or ethnicity.) In areas with complete integrations, every zip code in the metropolitan area has the same racial/ethnic distribution as the whole population. 24/7 Wall Street only looked at metro areas with more than 1 million residents.

In areas that are predominately black, the occupants own less than 40% of housing units in five of the nine segregated cities. Comparatively, in all but one city, more than 70% of whites own their property.

24/7 Wall Street found the nine most segregated metropolitan areas by finding the percentage of the population living in segregated areas, the black poverty and unemployment rate and the white poverty and unemployment rate. See below.

  1. Kansas City, MO-KS

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 37.8%
  • Black poverty rate: 26.4%
  • White poverty rate: 8.3%
  • Black unemployment rate: 13.4%
  • White unemployment rate: 5.6%

  1. Birmingham – Hoover, AL

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 39.8%
  • Black poverty rate: 26.9%
  • White poverty rate: 10.4%
  • Black unemployment rate: 8.3%
  • White unemployment rate: 5.7%

  1. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 40.4%
  • Black poverty rate: 21.5%
  • White poverty rate: 6.8%
  • Black unemployment rate: 9.2%
  • White unemployment rate: 5.9%

  1. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 45.0%
  • Black poverty rate: 25.2%
  • White poverty rate: 10.5%
  • Black unemployment rate: 11.1%
  • White unemployment rate: 4.7%

  1. Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 48.6%%
  • Black poverty rate: 33.5%
  • White poverty rate: 10.3%
  • Black unemployment rate: 10.2%
  • White unemployment rate: 6.1%

  1. Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 51.1%
  • Black poverty rate: 31.1%
  • White poverty rate: 11.0%
  • Black unemployment rate: 13.2%
  • White unemployment rate: 6.4%

  1. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 51.4%
  • Black poverty rate: 38.4%
  • White poverty rate: 7.6%
  • Black unemployment rate: 16.3%
  • White unemployment rate: 5.9%

  1. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 51.9%
  • Black poverty rate: 33.3%
  • White poverty rate: 10.6%
  • Black unemployment rate: 15.1%
  • White unemployment rate: 7.6%

  1. Cleveland-Elyria, OH

  • Percentage of population living in segregated areas: 55.1%
  • Black poverty rate: 33.6%
  • White poverty rate: 9.3%
  • Black unemployment rate: 20.2%
  • White unemployment rate: 5.4%

(Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)