Blacks Take Over Suburbs

This report focuses on the major demographic forces transforming the nation and large metropolitan areas in the 2000s. In this sense, it previews what we will learn from the results of the 2010 Census, as well as supplements those results in important ways. It includes chapters that correspond to nine of the most important subjects tracked by the Census Bureau in its annual American Community Survey, along with the policy implications of the findings.

The State of Metropolitan America uses data from these subject areas to show that our nation faces five "new realities," currently redefining the country. In each of these five areas, the nation reached critical milestones in the 2000s that make those underlying realities too large to ignore any longer. And large metropolitan areas—the collections of cities, suburbs, and rural areas that house two-thirds of America’s population—lay squarely on the front lines of those trends.

The report also introduces an emerging metropolitan typology, containing seven distinct categories. These new classifications are based upon metrics of population growth, diversity, and educational attainment as compared to national averages.
 

Video Clips » 

State of Metropolitan America: Chapters »
State of Metropolitan America Index Page » 
Interactive Indicator Map »

 

BROOKINGS 1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Phone 202.797.6000   |   E-mail Brookings