American Neighborhood Change in the 21st Century: Gentrification and Decline

Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity | University of Minnesota Law School
April 2019

This is a detailed analysis of neighborhood economic expansion and decline across the United States. It develops a new method for measuring how American regions, cities, and neighborhoods are growing, shrinking, and getting poorer or richer over time. It quantifies, on a nationwide and local basis, the degree of economic growth, low-income displacement, low-income concentration, and neighborhood abandonment. It compares these trends across different geographies, in order to produce a comprehensive look at America’s evolving cities.

The research includes an interactive nationwide map as well as metro-level downloadable reports for America’s 50 largest regions. Each report includes comprehensive tables about the effects of changes on population subgroups within the metro, as well as its central cities and suburbs. The reports also include finely detailed maps depicting change at a census-tract scale.

View the Research