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Hispanic White Population In Denver

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Denver and Colorado Springs are Colorado’s two largest cities with populations close to 600,000 and 416,000 respectively as of 2010. Both of these cities have seen significant population growth since 1980, however, the two cities have radically different racial makeups as a result of this growth. In Denver, the Hispanic population grew by nearly 100,000 people while the Non-Hispanic Black population was relatively stagnant over the 4 decades and the Non-Hispanic White population dipped from approximately 326,000 to nearly 288,000 for 2 decades before returning to over 313,000 in 2010. Over the same timeframe, Colorado Springs saw a marked growth in the Non-Hispanic White population from close to 180,000 people in 1980 to nearly 300,000 in 2010 …show more content…

It is the opposite in Denver. Despite significant populations of different racial groups in both cities, integration in terms of housing location is difficult to achieve. Using an index of dissimilarity, which compares the distribution of racial groups across census tracts, and an exposure index, which shows the likelihood of an average member of a racial group living in a census tract with a higher percentage of members from another racial group, I will compare the two cities in terms of how segregated (or integrated) they have become between 1980 and …show more content…

This index is particularly dependent on the size of each group relative to the other. Consequently, in a city with a large proportion of White people like Colorado Springs, all 3 racial groups analyzed have had a value between 60 and 80 over the time frame, however, for White’s exposure to Blacks or Hispanics, the value is close to 10 (Fig. 2). Comparing these figures, it shows people of color being relatively evenly spread out in Colorado Springs where a large proportion of the 3 racial groups live in an area with over 50% of the population in the census tract being White. In contrast, Denver shows a higher level of segregation between Whites and the people of color groups, especially Blacks and Hispanics (Fig. 3). In addition to this, there is greater integration among groups with the Hispanic population, however, this is in part the result of the different sizes of the Hispanic and White populations in the two cities and the values are still low when compared to the exposure index for people of color groups to the White

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