Gentrification and Decline: About The Web Map Data

Tracts are categorized based on changes within low-income and non-low-income population between 2000 and 2016. Low-income individuals are defined as those below 200 percent of the federal poverty line. There are two types of changes depicted on the interactive map, which are the two most common categories of strong neighborhood change identified in the larger report:

• Economically expanding neighborhoods experiencing low-income displacement. These are neighborhoods where the low-income share of population has fallen more than 5 percent since 2000 (indicating that an area has grown less poor overall), the absolute number of non-low-income residents has grown more than 10 percent since 2000 (indicating that middle-income residents see the area as an attractive place to live), and the absolute number of low-income residents has fallen since 2000 (indicating displacement).
• Economically declining neighborhoods experiencing low-income concentration. These are neighborhoods where the low-income share of population has grown more than 5 percent since 2000 (indicating that an area has more less poor overall) and the absolute number of non-low-income residents has fallen more than 10 percent since 2000 (indicating that middle-income residents do not see the area as an attractive place to live), and the absolute number of low-income residents has grown since 2000 (indicating concentration).

For a more detailed discussion of why this methodology was adopted, see the full report.