The Most Diverse Neighborhoods On the East Coast

Population and Social Characteristics

Black history month celebration of diversity and African culture pride as a multi cultural celebration. — Lightspring / Shutterstock.com

Published: March 14, 2024 2:50 pm

Living in a diverse neighborhood doesn’t just mean having more restaurants of different cuisines … as yummy as that may sound. It also means having the ability to experience a myriad of cultures, music, languages, sports, or fashion. While diversity can indeed mean people of different religion, age, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and so on, if we only consider race and ethnicities, the overall racial and ethnic diversity of the United States has increased since 2010, according to 2020 Census analyses.

To better represent diversity, the Census developed an index that measures the chance that two people chosen at random will be from different race and ethnicity groups.

24/7 Wall St. used the idea to determine more specifically the diversity of neighborhoods on the East Coast. Reviewing five-year data on race and ethnicity from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey, neighborhoods were ranked based on the probability that two residents picked at random will be of different race or ethnicity. Racial and ethnic groups include white, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino, some other race alone, and two or more races.

Not surprising, considering New York City is the country’s largest metropolitan area and attracts people of all backgrounds, New York state is home to 18 of the most diverse neighborhoods on the East Coast, followed by six in Florida and five each in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Ten of the neighborhoods are in New York City alone, including five in Queens, three in Staten Island, and one each in Brooklyn and Manhattan. (Not just on the East Coast, also see: America’s Most Diverse Neighborhoods.)

Many of the New York City neighborhoods also have home values well above $500,000, though the most diverse neighborhood and the third most diverse neighborhood on the East Coast — those in Schenectady, New York — have considerably lower home values of less than $165,000, based on Zillow data. The U.S. typical home value in November 2023 was $342,099.

Full Methodology

To determine the most diverse neighborhoods on the East Coast, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed five-year data on race and ethnicity from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey. Neighborhoods were ranked based on the probability that two residents picked at random will be of different race or ethnicity. Racial and ethnic groups include white, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, Hispanic or Latino, some other race alone, and two or more races. The probability that any two residents picked at random will belong to a different racial or ethnic category is equivalent to the sum of the squares of each group’s share of the population, subtracted from 1. The same method is used in the USA Today Diversity Index as well as the racial and ethnic diversity index of the Disseminating Diversity Working Group of the Census Bureau.

Data on population by race and ethnicity were aggregated from the census tract level to the neighborhood level using 2022 census tract boundary definitions from the U.S. Census Bureau and 2017 neighborhood boundary definitions from Zillow. Census tracts with at least 50% spatial overlap within the neighborhood boundary were included in population aggregation. Data on estimated median home value is the November 2023 Zillow Home Value Index, a measure of typical home values for homes in the 35th to 65th percentile range.