Is there a major city in the US that isn’t diverse?

45 comments

1. Not really, but Seattle or Portland come to mind as large US cities that are less diverse

2. I live in Austin, and it’s not nearly as diverse as other cities or as it likes to think it is.

3. Salt Lake City? I’m not sure if that counts as “major.”

4. Yes. Atlanta is almost all black. Remember diverse isn’t minority, it’s variety.

5. The thing about a word like “diverse” is it doesn’t inherently mean anything. What is you standard for “diverse”?

   Every city is more diverse than say Hangzhou, where almost everybody is Han Chinese.

   Most cities are less diverse than say New York, LA, or Houston. There’s not necessarily a cutoff where “diverse” becomes not diverse.

   Also, what should be included? Race? Ethnicity? Class? Sexuality? Thought? These things are hard to define.

   Almost every city has some kind of diversity, and it only really makes sense in comparison with other places.

6. I always feel the need to ask how we’re defining “diverse”.

7. If you want to see the most diverse neighborhood in America, come to Anchorage.

   https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/12/us/most-diverse-place-in-america/index.html

8. In 2023 every major US City ethnically and culturally very diverse. Many decades ago some cities like Boston, MA were all white.

9. Chicago is very diverse, but is also known to be pretty segregated

10. Nashville. There’s minority populations there but they mostly keep to themselves

11. One can argue that many major cities along the US/Mexico border aren’t very diverse.

12. Some are more diverse than others but they’re all pretty diverse.

    Portland, Pittsburgh, and Minneapolis come to mind as more relatively homogeneous major cities. El Paso and San Antonio as well, as rather homogeneously Latino American cities.

13. El Paso, Texas has 90% Hispanic population. El Paso is known for its delicious Mexican cuisine.

14. Cleveland

15. Most of the is not that diverse. Americans think diverse means having around Americans of different skin complexions, in reality diversity means having people of different cultures, speaking different languages around.

    The Us is hardly diverse outside major cities like NYC.

16. Billings Montana is 83% white. Burlington, VT is 83% white. Cold and close to Canada make things pretty homogeneous except for Michigan.

17. Portland, although not major.

18. I grew up in Baltimore city and as an adult moved to pittsburgh. I was really surprised by how white it was. I mean, there are POC but it feels really segregated here which is really odd to me

19. NYC

20. PNW is very white. Seattle is 65%. Portland is 70% white which is very high for urban. Salt Lake City is like 72%. Most cities are around 50% white and then a mix of the rest.

21. El Paso

22. Can you tell me what your standard for “diverse” is? I think every US city will be more diverse than Osaka or most European cities, but not every city is as diverse as a place like Sao Paulo or New york.

23. El paso, tx based on internet 90.2% is white of those 82.00% are Hispanic

24. Anywhere in Montana.

25. I like this post alot because everyone has a different definition of diverse based on thier own experiences.

26. Portland? Seemed very white – but maybe its definitely not major

27. Depends on what you mean by diverse. I mean the Kansas City Metro is about 2 million people.

    *The 5 largest ethnic groups in Kansas City, MO are White (Non-Hispanic) (55.5%), Black or African American (Non-Hispanic) (26.3%), White (Hispanic) (4.22%), Two+ (Non-Hispanic) (4.04%), and Other (Hispanic) (3.7%).*

    but there is literally a particular street that is considered a “dividing line” between the white and black side.

    Hispanics live in a different section and Asians also have a little pocket

    There is one small area where, really, all the borders come together that I would call diverse

28. What do you consider major? Spokane is in the top 100 by size and really is not diverse.

29. Newark is roughly 90% Black. I walked down Market Street in the middle of the day, a thousand people, I’m the only white dude.

    The other 10% are Portuguese and they lived in the next neighborhood over.

30. I grew up in the city of Detroit and it is not very diverse. I was like Eminem but I have no talent. Lol

31. Miami is mostly Latino

32. Colorado has several large (maybe not major) cities which are very white.
    Fort Collins: 82%
    Boulder: 88%
    Lakewood: 83%
    Colorado Springs: 71%
    Smaller cities/suburbs are very white too.
    Grand Junction: 92%
    Littleton: 89%
    Loveland: 93%
    Broomfield: 86%
    Longmont: 83%
    Pueblo, Colorado is 95% Hispanic/White.

33. Miami.. it’s all Hispanic people to the point there’s hardly anyone else

34. Assuming you count it as a major city, Jackson, Mississippi is over 80 percent Black. Similarly, El Paso is more than 80 percent Hispanic. And Boise (assuming you count it) is over 80 percent White.

    I can’t think of any other decent caused US cities that have less diversity than those ones.

35. Portland is the only place I’ve been in recent memory where there were white people working at the airport Starbucks.

36. Portland. Both of them.

37. I’d say anything west of Chicago really. I mean compared to other counties they’re still very diverse but compared to the rest of the US, the west coast & most states in the middle are much less diverse.

    Although tbf large parts of the South also aren’t that diverse, like Alabama or Mississippi or even Georgia are very much just a 40/60 split between African American & white give or take.

38. Boston compared to other big east coast cities isnt that diverse. It has a Chinatown, a few black neighborhoods, some Domincan and Hatian populations, more Jews than… like… the south, but overall, its pretty much Irish and Italian.

    Lowell is actually way more diverse ethnically.

39. According to the 2010 census, Maine has the highest percentage of non-Hispanic whites of any state, at 94.4% of the total population. In 2011, 89.0% of all births in the state were to non-Hispanic white parents.[51] Maine also has the second-highest residential senior population.[52]

    Take your pick of cities in Maine, though I don’t know if you could consider any of them to be ‘major’.

40. What counts as a major city?

41. Any “major” city in northern New England. I’m looking at Burlington, Portsmouth, Manchester, Portland.

42. Portland is very white.

43. Portland, OR is notably very white

44. Off of the top of my head:

    * Detroit/Baltimore/Memphis (mostly Black)
    * San Francisco/Seattle/Portland/Denver/Kansas City/Minneapolis (mostly White)
    * Honolulu (mostly Asian)

    This is all in terms of the demographics of residents.

45. Denver