Measuring Changing Ethnic Separations in England: A Spatial Discontinuity Approach

Abstract

This paper investigates claims of decreased segregation yet also a declining number of White British residents in English cities during the period from 2001 to 2011. It does so by supplementing a traditional measure of segregation—the dissimilarity index—with a related measure comparing differences between adjoining or closely located small areas. It discusses the methodological basis for the measure and uses it in conjunction with the original index and a measure of spatial clustering to consider both the amount and spatial configuration of ‘segregation’ between various ethnic groups in English local authorities. Further analysis identifies neighbouring places with the greatest difference in their ethnic compositions in 2001 and shows that, in the main, those differences had decreased by 2011. The explanation for the reduction is seen as partly due to processes of migration/diffusion by ‘minority’ groups but also as a consequence of the reduction in the White British population locally. There is some suggestion that whilst preexisting differences diminish, they are replaced by greater differences between neighbouring locations elsewhere.