Bayou City bragging rights
Houston named a top 10 big city for ethnic diversity by new study
Houston prides itself on its diversity — and rightfully so. A new study ranks Houston as the country’s 10th most ethnically diverse large city.
Among 501 U.S. cities, Houston also ranks 28th overall and first in Texas, according to the study, released February 11 by personal finance website WalletHub.
To come up its ranking, WalletHub measured three key indicators of ethnic diversity: language, ethnicity and race, and birthplace. Houston ranks 25th for language diversity, 36th for ethnic and racial diversity, and 244th for birthplace diversity.
This finding differs from a study by Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research that found Houston was the most ethnically and racially diverse metro area in the U.S. as of 2010. Why the disparity? The WalletHub study looked at data for the city of Houston, while the Kinder Institute study examined data for the entire Houston metro area.
The new finding also differs from a broader WalletHub study published in April 2019. In that study, Houston was crowned the most diverse city in the U.S., based on socioeconomic, cultural, economic, household, and religious diversity. Ethnic diversity is only one component of that ranking.
“Houston is the most diverse city in the United States. But diversity alone is not enough — we must always strive to be more inclusive,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted in December 2019. “As your mayor, I know that diversity and inclusivity are what makes us strong. And I will always work to build one complete Houston.”
However you slice it, Houston leads the pack in Texas for ethnic and racial diversity. Here’s how other major cities in the Lone Star State fare in the new WalletHub study:
- Arlington, No. 38
- Plano, No. 46
- Dallas, No. 47
- Fort Worth, No. 62
- Austin, No. 73
- San Antonio, No. 136
While Austin and cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area don’t rank particularly high in the WalletHub study, Austin and DFW do show up on a recent list of the country’s most racially diverse metro areas.
DFW held the No. 11 spot in the Bloomberg news service’s 2018 ranking of racial diversity among the 100 largest U.S. metros, while Austin stood at No. 19. Houston bested both of those areas, though, landing at No. 5.
Austin and Dallas didn’t perform as well in a racial and ethnic index compiled by U.S. News & World Report.
The index shows the racial and ethnic diversity of Dallas actually slipped 3.4 percent from 2010 to 2018, with Austin’s diversity declining by 0.10 percent. The decrease was 2.6 percent in San Antonio and 1.2 percent in Houston, the index shows.
The diversity picture was brighter in other Texas cities included in the U.S. New & World Report index, which measured racial and ethnic diversity in U.S. cities with at least 300,000 residents. Arlington saw its racial and ethnic diversity rise 3.6 percent from 2010 to 2018, with Fort Worth at 1.8 percent.
