Minorities are a significant presence in many of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. Central Cities Minorities make up a disproportionately large share of residents in the central cities that form the core of metropolitan areas. The percentage has been increasing. Between 1980 and 1998, the minority share of central-city populations climbed from 35 percent to 47 percent. The growing minority share of central city populations is reflected in the shifting makeup of local governments and has contributed to a new generation of minority politicians.
Several factors help explain the high concentration of minorities in central cities.
First, cities are the ports of entry for Asian, Hispanic, and other minority immigrants. Second, large industrial cities where segregated neighborhoods were the rule absorbed most of the millions of southern blacks who moved north after 1910. Third, discriminatory real estate practices and de facto segregation restrained the movement of minorities to the suburbs at the same time that non-Hispanic whites were moving out of central cities. Fourth, minorities are disproportionately poor and many cannot afford housing in the suburbs. While economies are booming in some central cities, they are in decline in others.