Mapping the Hard to Count

Jill Wilson of the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program looked at a USA Today map to calculate the percent of each metropolitan area's population that lives in a "hard-to-count" neighborhood.

"Among the top 20 hard-to-count metros, only three (Albany, GA, Yakima, WA, and New York, NY) are not in a state bordering Mexico. The top sixteen are in TX, CA, NM, or AZ, though not all are border metros, with a cluster in California’s “inland empire.” Three metros (McAllen, Laredo, and Brownsville, TX) have more than half of their population in hard-to-count neighborhoods, and another seven have at least one third. Among metros with at least 1 million people, Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, and Houston rank highest, with at least one in five residents living in a hard-to-count neighborhood.

These places have their work cut out for them."