High-income Americans are more segregated than ever

Since 1970, middle-income neighborhoods have been disappearing. In 2009, only 42 percent of families lived in middle-income neighborhoods, compared with 65 percent four decades earlier, reports a new Cornell-Stanford study. More than one-third of families now live in either affluent or poor neighborhoods, double the proportion in 1970. The study, authored by Kendra Bischoff, assistant professor of sociology at Cornell, and Sean Reardon of Stanford University, is the result of analyzing 40 years of census data. It was just released by the U.S. Project, a program of research on changes in American society in the recent past. Increasing income inequality is one of the primary reasons for the growth of income segregation. "As income inequality has grown in the last four decades, America has become increasingly spatially divided by income," said Bischoff.