The average decline in segregation was 5.5 percent. The decline in segregation comes about from the racial integration of formerly entirely white census tracts. The West is the most integrated region of the country, followed by the South. The Northeast and Midwest are still quite segregated. Segregation declined most sharply in places that were growing quickly, in places where the percentage of blacks in the population was changing, and in places where blacks made up a small portion of the population in 1990.
Segregation remains extreme in the largest metropolitan areas.
The African-American experience is turning out to be quite different in the sunbelt than in the rust belt.