Racial Demographics in New York City

Mapping race across New York City

library(tidyverse)
library(tidycensus)
library(scales)
library(viridis)
library(dplyr)
library(sf)

Methods

Purpose: Understand concentrations of population by race in New York City

Data sources:

• 2020 Decennial Census: For Bronx, Kings, Queens, New York, and Richmond counties: Total Population; Total Hispanic or Latino, Total White alone, not Hispanic or Latino; Total Black alone, not Hispanic or Latino; Total Asian alone, not Hispanic or Latino

• NYC Open Data: Borough boundary shapefile

Methods:

• Hispanic population calculated as portion of total population
• Black population calculated as portion of total population
• Asian population calculated as portion of total population
• White population calculated as portion of total population
• Removed all census tracks with no residents

raw_NYC_race_2020 = get_decennial(geography = "tract", 
                              variables=c(total_pop = "P1_001N",
                                          hispanic = "P2_002N",
                                          white = "P2_005N",
                                          black = "P2_006N",
                                          asian = "P2_008N"),
                              state='NY',
                              county=c("Bronx", "Kings", "New York", "Queens", "Richmond"),
                              geometry = TRUE, 
                              year = 2020,
                              output = "wide")

NYC_race_2020 <- raw_NYC_race_2020 %>% 
  mutate(pct_hispanic = round(hispanic/total_pop, 3),
         pct_white = round(white/total_pop, 3),
         pct_black = round(black/total_pop, 3),
         pct_asian = round(asian/total_pop, 3)) %>% 
  separate(NAME, into = c("tract", "county", "state"), sep = ", ") 

Results

county_race_summary <- NYC_race_2020 %>%
  group_by(county) %>%
  summarize(
    total_population = sum(total_pop, na.rm = TRUE),
    total_hispanic = sum(hispanic, na.rm = TRUE),
    total_white = sum(white, na.rm = TRUE),
    total_black = sum(black, na.rm = TRUE),
    total_asian = sum(asian, na.rm = TRUE),
    pct_hispanic = paste0(round((total_hispanic / total_population) * 100, 1), "%"),
    pct_white = paste0(round((total_white / total_population) * 100, 1), "%"),
    pct_black = paste0(round((total_black / total_population) * 100, 1), "%"),
    pct_asian = paste0(round((total_asian / total_population) * 100, 1), "%"),
    .groups = "drop"
  )

print(county_race_summary)

Simple feature collection with 5 features and 10 fields
Geometry type: GEOMETRY
Dimension:     XY
Bounding box:  xmin: -74.25563 ymin: 40.4961 xmax: -73.70036 ymax: 40.91771
Geodetic CRS:  NAD83

The data shows that New York City neighborhoods are still meaningfully segregated by race.

At the borough level, the Bronx is predominantly Hispanic (54%) and Black (29%), while Manhattan is predominantly white (47%) and Hispanic (24%). Staten Island has a high portion of white residents (56%), while Queens is more diverse, with 28% Hispanic, 27% Asian, 23% White, and 16% Black. Finally, Brooklyn has large concentrations of White residents (35%) and Black residents (27%), with a smaller, but still meaningful portion of Hispanic (19%) and Asian (14%) residents.

st_crs(NYC_race_2020)
st_crs(boros)
nyc_race_2263 <- st_transform(NYC_race_2020, 2263)
boros_2263 <- st_transform(boros, 2263)

# Map Hispanic Population by cenus track
ggplot(data = nyc_race_2263, mapping = aes(fill = pct_hispanic))  + 
  geom_sf(color = "#ffffff", 
          lwd = 0) + # removes the census tract outline
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_distiller(palette = "Blues",
                       breaks=c(0, .2, .4, .6, .8, 1),
                       direction = 1,
                       na.value = "transparent",
                       name="Percent Hispanic (%)",
                       labels=percent_format(accuracy = 1L)) +
  labs(
    title = "Hispanic or Latinx population in NYC by Census Tract",
    caption = "Source: Decennial Census, 2020"
  ) + 
  geom_sf(data = boros_2263, color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .2)

# Map Black population by census tract
ggplot(data = nyc_race_2263, mapping = aes(fill = pct_black))  + 
  geom_sf(color = "#ffffff", 
          lwd = 0) + # removes the census tract outline
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_distiller(palette = "Greens",
                       breaks=c(0, .2, .4, .6, .8, 1),
                       direction = 1,
                       na.value = "transparent",
                       name="Percent Black (%)",
                       labels=percent_format(accuracy = 1L)) +
  labs(
    title = "Black population in NYC by Census Tract",
    caption = "Source: Decennial Census, 2020"
  ) + 
  geom_sf(data = boros_2263, color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .2)

# Map Asian population by census tract
ggplot(data = nyc_race_2263, mapping = aes(fill = pct_asian))  + 
  geom_sf(color = "#ffffff", 
          lwd = 0) + # removes the census tract outline
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_distiller(palette = "Purples",
                       breaks=c(0, .2, .4, .6, .8, 1),
                       direction = 1,
                       na.value = "transparent",
                       name="Percent Asian (%)",
                       labels=percent_format(accuracy = 1L)) +
  labs(
    title = "Asian population in NYC by Census Tract",
    caption = "Source: Decennial Census, 2020"
  ) + 
  geom_sf(data = boros_2263, color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .2)

# Map White population by census tract
ggplot(data = nyc_race_2263, mapping = aes(fill = pct_white))  + 
  geom_sf(color = "#ffffff", 
          lwd = 0) + # removes the census tract outline
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_distiller(palette = "Reds",
                       breaks=c(0, .2, .4, .6, .8, 1),
                       direction = 1,
                       na.value = "transparent",
                       name="Percent White (%)",
                       labels=percent_format(accuracy = 1L)) +
  labs(
    title = "White population in NYC by Census Tract",
    caption = "Source: Decennial Census, 2020"
  ) + 
  geom_sf(data = boros_2263, color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .2)