Strong links between trends in racial residential segregation and racial disparities in early death rates were found in research on 220 metropolitan areas nationwide between 1980 and 2020.
The study is the first known to examine the association between changes in racial segregation over time and long-term trends in mortality among Black and White people ages 65 or younger. Both baseline levels of racial residential segregation and ongoing changes in segregation accurately predicted trajectories in the racial disparity in death rates from 12 common causes among people younger than age 65.
Regardless of baseline levels in 1980, increases in levels of segregation between 1980 and 2000 boosted the likelihood that a Metropolitan statistical area would be characterized by greater racial health disparities between 2001 and 2018, almost tripling that likelihood in some cases.
See: “Reducing Inequitable Health Outcomes Requires Reducing Residential Segregation” by Kim Thurler on the Tufts University TuftsNow website (November 28, 2023).
