Sorry, Boise: You’re one of the least diverse cities in America. Here’s how you ranked
Boise is one of the least diverse cities in America, according to a new online study.
Online financial services website WalletHub looked at the 501 most populous cities in America and measured them by their diversity of ethnicity, language and birthplace.
Boise came in at No. 377 in overall diversity. It fared even worse for ethnodiversity, ranking 403rd, but somewhat better for linguistic diversity (314th) and birthplace diversity (136th).
Ada County is approximately 92 percent white, including Hispanic and Latino, and nearly 85 percent white excluding those categories. A little more than 8 percent of Ada County residents are Hispanic or Latino, nearly 3 percent are Asian and 1 percent are black or African American. Nearly 3 percent of residents identify as two or more races.
All other racial demographics make up less than 1 percent of Ada County.
Closely behind Boise was Spokane, Washington, which ranked No. 388.
Other cities in the Pacific Northwest ranked much more highly for diversity.
Cities in the Puget Sound area scored well — Kent came in at No. 10, Renton at No. 20, Federal Way at No. 24, Bellevue at No. 42, Everett at No. 131, Tacoma at No. 133 and Seattle at No. 138.
Elsewhere in Washington, Yakima ranked 114th in the nation and Vancouver came in at No. 209. Across the Columbia River, Portland came in at No. 181.
So what is America’s most diverse city?
WalletHub says it’s Jersey City, New Jersey; that city also is listed as having the greatest linguistic diversity. Oakland took top honors for greatest ethnodiversity, while Arlington, Virginia, was listed as having the greatest birthplace diversity.
As for the least diverse city, WalletHub found it to be Hialeah, Florida, a city that also was rated by WalletHub to be America’s most stressed out city.
The full report can be found here.
This story was originally published February 28, 2019 at 7:00 AM.
