Minority Suburbanization and Continued "White Flight" in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Assessing Findings from the 1990 Census

This paper provides an overview of minority suburbanization and continued "white flight" for 314 metropolitan areas (MSAs/PMSAs/NECMAs) as defined as of June 30, 1990. It addresses these questions: Which minorities -- Blacks, Hispanics or Asians -- are suburbanizing faster in the 1980s? How do these patterns differ across metropolitan areas of different types? To what degree does "white flight" respond to city-minority presence in metropolitan wide minority growth? For the Black population, 1980s suburbanization patterns are contrasted with those of the previous two decades. The paper also evaluates how 1980-90 minority and majority (non-Hispanic White) suburbanization has affected the racial and ethnic compositions of the nation's suburbs. It identifies metropolitan suburbs with greatest increases in Black, Hispanic and Asian representation, as well as those most and least segregated from their central cities.