Migration patterns and the growth of high-poverty neighborhoods, 1970-1990

Using geocoded data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this article examines why the number of high-poverty neighborhoods in American cities has increased since 1970. The main findings are (1) the migration of the nonpoor away from moderately poor neighborhoods has been a key process in forming new high-poverty neighborhoods, although in the early 1980s increasing poverty rates were also important; and (2) African-Americans have moved into predominately white neighborhoods at a pace sufficient to increase their numbers there, but neighborhoods with increasing black populations tend to lose white population rapidly. Implications for theories of poor neighborhoods are discussed.