Segregation now taking new form.

• Position: Population Trends

Racial segregation in the U.S. is declining among neighborhoods, but a study indicates that segregation is manifesting itself in other ways--not disappearing. "We just can't get too excited by recent declines in neighborhood segregation," says lead author Daniel Lichter, professor in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

"The truth is, neighborhood segregation still remains high in America, and our study also shows that segregation is increasingly occurring at different scales of geography."

While segregation from neighborhood to neighborhood is decreasing (microsegregation) within metropolitan areas, segregation from suburban communities (e.g., towns, villages, and cities) to other suburban communities within the same metropolitan areas and from major metropolitan cities to their suburban communities is increasing (macrosegregation).

In other words, instead of people of different races living in distinct neighborhoods in the same major metropolitan cities and suburban communities, these major cities and suburban communities are becoming increasingly racially homogenous.

"Let's look at the community of Ferguson, Mo., for example," notes Lichter, director of the Cornell Population Center. "Whites have left Ferguson, mostly for white suburban communities even farther from the urban core that is St. Louis. The racial composition of Ferguson went from about 25% black to 67% black in a 20-year period. Though one would be correct in saying that segregation decreased between...