The movement of millions of phones shows that Americans experience less racial isolation once they get out of their neighborhoods
The persistent segregation of American cities is no secret. Even as the U.S. becomes more diverse, many urban neighborhoods remain divided along racial and ethnic lines. The average White resident of a major metropolitan area lives in a neighborhood that’s more than 70 percent White; the average Black, Latino, or Hispanic resident lives in a neighborhood that’s more than two-thirds people of color.
Less obvious, however, is how these divisions translate into daily life, when people leave their homes to work, study, shop, and relax. Census data makes it easy to track residential segregation. But it’s been difficult for researchers to make detailed observations of people’s social interactions as they go about their daily routines, particularly on a large scale.
Or at least it was before everyone started carrying around a portable tracking device.
In one of the first studies of its kind, researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford University used geolocation data from a sample of nearly 18 million cell phones to estimate how much racial separation Americans experience in their everyday lives. Analyzing people’s movements in more than 360 metro areas, they found that most urban and suburban residents are exposed to a more diverse range of people when they leave their neighborhoods, lowering the overall level of segregation they experience.
By measuring people’s “experienced isolation” as they move between more and less integrated spaces, the study adds a new dimension to the picture of America’s racial dynamics. It also finds experienced and residential isolation to be highly correlated: People in cities with more racially mixed neighborhoods are exposed to more members of other races in their daily activities, and vice versa.
This piece originally appeared in Stanford Business Insights from Stanford Graduate School of Business. To receive business ideas and insights from Stanford GSB click here: (To sign up: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/about/emails)