Neighborhood types, 2020

In the statistical study of neighborhoods in Chicago, 2020, cluster analysis of the three dimensions underlying the 34 variables yielded ten neighborhood types. For each neighborhood type, the following list includes:

[a] the neighborhood-type number;
[b] the T-scores on the three dimensions; and
[c] a short name derived mechanically from the scores on the three dimensions. A simple descriptive phrase (like “Welloff” or “NonEng”) indicates a standard deviation from the mean of .5 to 1; the same phrase preceded by V (e.g., “VWelloff” for very well-off) indicates a standard deviation from the mean of between 1 and 1.5; repeated “V”‘s are used for additional half-standard deviations from the mean.

The ten neighborhood types are:

1. 1.(65.83 70.31 45.65). VVWelloff VVVUrban. Well-off, extremely urban neighborhoods. Prosperous inner-city areas with mostly “professional” populations. The North Side Lakefront and the neigborhoods around the Loop, with small outliers in Hyde Park, Evanston, and Oak Park. Relatively few non-English speakers. Extends a little further west and north in a few places than the comparable neighborhood type in 2010.
2. (51.97 68.46 51.78). VVUrban. Somewhat less well-off very urban areas, mostly found on the edges of the more thoroughly gentrified tracts of type 1. Generally, more non-English speakers than in type 1.
3. (66.33 39.07 44.67). VVWelloff VSuburban Native. Well-off suburban neighborhoods with few non-English speakers. Old-line wealthy suburbs, largely in northern Cook County and in parts of DuPage County.
4. (62.11 48.46 47.73). VWelloff. Prosperous neighborhoods, mostly in suburban areas, with few non-English speakers. Mostly on the edges of tracts of type 3. Also includes some small areas having mostly single-family homes (or a substantial amount of density-lowering parkland) in central Chicago.
5. (49.71 46.48 48.98). Neutral. None of the dimension scores is even half a standard deviation from the mean. Mostly inner-suburban (or outer-city) areas, especially in on the Northwest and Southwest Sides.
6. (53.85 40.79 43.56). Suburban Native. Suburban neighborhoods with few non-English speakers. Very common. Forms a rough ring around the more distinctive inner suburbs.
7. (33.98 62.69 41.79). VVPoor VUrban Native. The core, generally impoverished African-American neighborhoods of the South and West Sides and Gary, Indiana.
8. (37.62 51.19 44.42).VPoor Native. Generally, African-American neighborhoods in the outer parts of Chicago as well as in Gary, Maywood, and a few older central places like Joliet and Waukegan.
9. (41.37 53.83 74.91). Poor VVVNonEng. More than two standard deviations above the mean on dimension 3. The core Hispanic areas: Little Village and parts of Humboldt Park. Also includes enclaves in old central places like Waukegan, Elgin, Aurora. and Joliet as well as numerous small areas throughout the suburbs (some of which were not as apparent in the 2020 analysis).
10. (46.49 50.23 63.09). NonEng. Mostly urban or inner-suburban areas that have many (but not an overwhelming number of) non-English speakers. Includes many tracts on the Northwest Side of Chicago and in widely scattered suburbs where there are substantial numbers of relatively recent immigrants from Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Also includes Chinatown. There are many more suburban tracts in this category in 2020 than there were in the roughly similar category in 2010. This presumably reflects continued immigration.