Final Comments

In this study I have shown that popular measures of residential segregation – the dissimilarity index (D), the gini index (G), the separation index (S), Theil’s index (H), and Hutchens’ index (R), a measure closely related to Atkinson’s index (A) – can be cast as group differences of means on residential outcomes (y) scored from area group proportions (p). This approach yields identical results as previous approaches to calculating index scores, so nothing is lost when adopting this formulation – all past research findings can be reproduced and replicated. Importantly, however, many benefits accrue from adopting the new approach to assessing segregation.