Race Distribution in NYC

Mapping the proportion of Black, white, asian, hispanic and latino people in NYC.

library(tidyverse)
library(tidycensus)
library(sf)
library(scales)
library(viridisLite)
library(RColorBrewer)

Methods

The borough boundaries are represented with a shapefile downloaded from NYC Open Data. The data is from the 2020 decennial. This data includes:

The total population The number of people who are hispanic or latino The number of people who are Black The number of people who are asian *The number of people who are white

The percent of each racial category in each tract was calculated, and the areas with no residents are left blank.

#create raw table
race_NY_raw <- get_decennial(geography= "tract",
  variables = c(total_pop = "P1_001N",
                hisp_latin = "P2_002N",
                black_alone = "P1_004N",
                asian_alone = "P1_006N",
                white_alone = "P1_003N"),
  year = 2020,
  state = "NY",
  county = c("Kings","New York","Bronx","Queens","Richmond"),
  geometry = T,
  output = "wide")

#Making the data pretty
race_NY <- race_NY_raw|>
  mutate(percent_hisp_latin = hisp_latin/total_pop,
         percent_black = black_alone/total_pop,
         percent_asian = asian_alone/total_pop,
         percent_white = white_alone/total_pop)|>
  select(GEOID, NAME, total_pop, percent_hisp_latin, percent_black, percent_asian, 
         percent_white, geometry)

## import borough shapefiles from NYC Open Data
boros <- st_read("~/Desktop/Stuff & Things/School/Grad School/DUE Methods 1/part2/data/raw/geo/Borough Boundaries.geojson")

###Results

ggplot(data = race_NY, mapping = aes(fill = percent_hisp_latin))  + 
  geom_sf(color = "#fff") +
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_distiller(breaks=c(0, .20, .40, .60, .80, 1.00),
                       palette = "YlOrRd",
                       direction = 1,
                       na.value = "transparent",
                       name="Percent Hispanic or Latino",
                       labels=percent_format(accuracy = 1L)) +
  labs(
    title = "Hispanic or Latino Population in NYC",
    caption = "Source: Decennial, 2020")+ 
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Brooklyn"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Manhattan"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Bronx"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Staten Island"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Queens"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)

The map above shows that there are large concentrations of Hispanic and Latino populations in the South Bronx, Bushwick, Brownsville and Cyprus Hills.

ggplot(data = race_NY, mapping = aes(fill = percent_black))  + 
  geom_sf(color = "#fff") +
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_distiller(breaks=c(0, .20, .40, .60, .80, 1.00),
                       palette = "RdPu",
                       direction = 1,
                       na.value = "transparent",
                       name="Percent Black",
                       labels=percent_format(accuracy = 1L)) +
  labs(
    title = "Black Population in NYC",
    caption = "Source: Decennial, 2020")+ 
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Brooklyn"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Manhattan"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Bronx"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Staten Island"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Queens"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)

This map shows higher concentrations of Black populations in North Bronx, East Queens and North Brooklyn.

ggplot(data = race_NY, mapping = aes(fill = percent_asian))  + 
  geom_sf(color = "#fff") +
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_distiller(breaks=c(0, .20, .40, .60, .80, 1.00),
                       palette = "YlGn",
                       direction = 1,
                       na.value = "transparent",
                       name="Percent Asian",
                       labels=percent_format(accuracy = 1L)) +
  labs(
    title = "Asian Population in NYC",
    caption = "Source: Decennial, 2020")+ 
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Brooklyn"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Manhattan"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Bronx"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Staten Island"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Queens"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)

This map shows that the highest concentration of the asian population is in North Queens and South Brooklyn.

ggplot(data = race_NY, mapping = aes(fill = percent_white))  + 
  geom_sf(color = "#fff") +
  theme_void() +
  scale_fill_distiller(breaks=c(0, .20, .40, .60, .80, 1.00),
                       palette = "Blues",
                       direction = 1,
                       na.value = "transparent",
                       name="Percent White",
                       labels=percent_format(accuracy = 1L)) +
  labs(
    title = "White Population in NYC",
    caption = "Source: Decennial, 2020")+ 
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Brooklyn"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Manhattan"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Bronx"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Staten Island"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)+
  geom_sf(data = boros |> filter(boro_name == "Queens"), 
          color = "black", fill = NA, lwd = .25)

This map shows that the white population is all across New York City, but tend to avoid Northeast Brooklyn, East Queens and the Bronx.