Racial and Social Equity in Seattle

Equity mapping is a way of using GIS technology to make connections between areas of opportunity (places with good job availability, good access to education and healthcare etc.) and disadvantaged communities.

Usually data from the Census and American Community Survey are used to develop an index that makes an assessment on the census tract level.

Why is this important?

This tool allows local leaders to make informed decisions about investment and development opportunities as it helps visualize which communities are the most disadvantaged and require the most immediate attention for improvements.

One example of equity mapping is The Racial and Social Equity Composite Index for Seattle

What is this index?

The Racial and Social Equity Composite index was developed to identify which neighborhoods consist of relatively large proportions of disadvantaged residents, based on an assessment of racial and ethnic demographics, as well as socioeconomic and health disadvantages.

It references data including the 2011-2015 Five-Year American Community Survey Estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, and Centers for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) among others.

How is it determined?

The following three indexes were created to determine the level of disadvantage, and subsequently aggregated to produce a composite index score:

The map above shows the Racial and Social Equity Composite Index values for each census tract in Seattle. Each census tract can be hovered over to view each of the index scores in the three categories before they are aggregated.

What does this tell us?

It is evident that North and South Seattle have greater numbers of neighborhoods that have a high index while Central Seattle has a much lower index.

These areas, especially the South, have a much higher population of POC and the other index values are much higher compared to other parts of Seattle.

In the Racial and Social Equity Composite Index, the factors of racial and ethnic demographics and poverty levels stood out noticably as the most disadvantaged census tracts were consistently disadvantaged in terms of race and socioeconomics.

The following maps were made to show which areas had the highest percentage of POC and the highest levels of poverty.

The following assessments were made based on the 2011-2015 Five-Year American Community Survey Estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The map above shows the percentage of POC population for each census tract in Seattle. Each census tract can be hovered over to view the percentage and a chart showing the overall racial and ethnic demographics.

What does this tell us?

There are more POC living towards the south of Seattle, with a dominant Asian and Black demographic in tracts with extremely high POC presence. For instance, in Census Tract 110.92 where 92.2% of the population are POC, with a vast majority of the population consisting of Asian and Black identities.

The map above has two layers. The default layer shows the median household income per census tract in Seattle. Each census tract can be hovered over to view the income and a chart showing the population per household income level.

The second layer shows the percentage of the population in poverty per census tract in Seattle. Each census tract can be hovered over to view the percentage, as well as other details regarding poverty statistics.

What does this tell us?

Comparing the two layers, it is evident that South Seattle has, on average, lower median household incomes and higher percentages of the population in poverty.

Census Tract 110.01 in particular has an extremely high percentage of poverty at 44.3% of the population living in poverty, with one of the lowest median household incomes of $24725.

It can be concluded that there is a concentration of disadvantaged census tracts in the south and more census tracts in that region have extreme values for both racial and economic factors. There is a much greater percentage of POC in the total population, and a much higher rate of poverty and lower median household incomes in these region.

However, it is also important to note that the data gathered around University District has a similar pattern to the disadvantaged areas in the south but is not necessarily reflective of actual poverty as the area houses students, many of whom may not be financially independent yet.

What is done well?

The use of a composite index to aggregate different types of disadvantage is excellent because doing so provides a well rounded assessment which allows for comparison between disadvantaged census tracts to assess which factors require more attention for those areas.

What are the issues?

While this assessment provides a general idea of the level of disadvantage on a census tract level, it does not reflect population densities, nor does it show variation within census tracts. Therefore, extremely disadvantaged neighborhoods are averaged out if the census tract as a whole is not so disadvantaged.