Residential Segregation in Greater Boston: Shifting Patterns by Race and Income

By Jessica Martin, Research Consultant. Aja Kennedy, Luc Schuster, Boston Indicators.

August 19, 2025

This report from Boston Indicators looks beyond broad diversity data to give a better sense of the persistence of racial and income-based segregation in Greater Boston, and how it has changed over the past four decades. The report looks at both data around dissimilarity (how different individual areas are from one another) and  isolation (how often/well people from different groups interact with each other) to better get at the elements of segregation, and tracks how those measures have changed over time. 

The findings? While the region is making progress in racial segregation as it grows more diverse, the growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest residents is exacerbated but growing income-based segregation. Download the full report to learn more, and get a glimpse at the town-by-town data below.