denton: Relative Clustering based on Massey & Denton (1988)

In ndi: Neighborhood Deprivation Indices

Relative Clustering based on Massey & Denton (1988)

Description

Compute the aspatial Relative Clustering (Massey & Denton) of a selected racial or ethnic subgroup(s) and U.S. geographies.

Usage

denton(
  geo_large = "county",
  geo_small = "tract",
  year = 2020,
  subgroup,
  subgroup_ref,
  crs = "ESRI:102008",
  omit_NAs = TRUE,
  quiet = FALSE,
  ...
)

Arguments

geo_large	Character string specifying the larger geographical unit of the data. The default is counties geo_large = 'county'.
geo_small	Character string specifying the smaller geographical unit of the data. The default is census tracts geo_small = 'tract'.
year	Numeric. The year to compute the estimate. The default is 2020, and the years 2009 onward are currently available.
subgroup	Character string specifying the racial or ethnic subgroup(s) as the comparison population. See Details for available choices.
subgroup_ref	Character string specifying the racial or ethnic subgroup(s) as the reference population. See Details for available choices.
crs	Numeric or character string specifying the coordinate reference system to compute the distance-based metric. The default is Albers North America crs = 'ESRI:102008'.
omit_NAs	Logical. If FALSE, will compute index for a larger geographical unit only if all of its smaller geographical units have values. The default is TRUE.
quiet	Logical. If TRUE, will display messages about potential missing census information. The default is FALSE.
...	Arguments passed to get_acs to select state, county, and other arguments for census characteristics

Details

This function will compute the aspatial Relative Clustering (RCL) of selected racial or ethnic subgroups and U.S. geographies for a specified geographical extent (e.g., the entire U.S. or a single state) based on Massey & Denton (1988) \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1093/sf/67.2.281")}. This function provides the computation of RCL for any of the U.S. Census Bureau race or ethnicity subgroups (including Hispanic and non-Hispanic individuals).

The function uses the get_acs function to obtain U.S. Census Bureau 5-year American Community Survey characteristics used for the computation. The yearly estimates are available for 2009 onward when ACS-5 data are available (2010 onward for geo_large = 'cbsa' and 2011 onward for geo_large = 'place', geo_large = 'csa', or geo_large = 'metro') but may be available from other U.S. Census Bureau surveys. The twenty racial or ethnic subgroups (U.S. Census Bureau definitions) are:

• B03002_002: not Hispanic or Latino 'NHoL'

• B03002_003: not Hispanic or Latino, white alone 'NHoLW'

• B03002_004: not Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American alone 'NHoLB'

• B03002_005: not Hispanic or Latino, American Indian and Alaska Native alone 'NHoLAIAN'

• B03002_006: not Hispanic or Latino, Asian alone 'NHoLA'

• B03002_007: not Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone 'NHoLNHOPI'

• B03002_008: not Hispanic or Latino, Some other race alone 'NHoLSOR'

• B03002_009: not Hispanic or Latino, Two or more races 'NHoLTOMR'

• B03002_010: not Hispanic or Latino, Two races including Some other race 'NHoLTRiSOR'

• B03002_011: not Hispanic or Latino, Two races excluding Some other race, and three or more races 'NHoLTReSOR'

• B03002_012: Hispanic or Latino 'HoL'

• B03002_013: Hispanic or Latino, white alone 'HoLW'

• B03002_014: Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American alone 'HoLB'

• B03002_015: Hispanic or Latino, American Indian and Alaska Native alone 'HoLAIAN'

• B03002_016: Hispanic or Latino, Asian alone 'HoLA'

• B03002_017: Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone 'HoLNHOPI'

• B03002_018: Hispanic or Latino, Some other race alone 'HoLSOR'

• B03002_019: Hispanic or Latino, Two or more races 'HoLTOMR'

• B03002_020: Hispanic or Latino, Two races including Some other race 'HoLTRiSOR'

• B03002_021: Hispanic or Latino, Two races excluding Some other race, and three or more races 'HoLTReSOR'

Use the internal state and county arguments within the get_acs function to specify geographic extent of the data output.

RCL is a measure of clustering of racial or ethnic populations within smaller geographical units that are located within larger geographical units. RCL can range in value from -Inf to Inf and represents the degree to which an area is a racial or ethnic enclave. RCL equals 0 when the racial or ethnic subgroup population displays the same amount of clustering as the referent racial or ethnic subgroup population, and is positive whenever the racial or ethnic subgroup population members display greater clustering than is typical of the the referent racial or ethnic subgroup population. If the racial or ethnic subgroup population members were less clustered than the the referent racial or ethnic subgroup population, then RCL would be negative.

The metric uses the exponential transform of a distance matrix (kilometers) between smaller geographical area centroids, with a diagonal defined as (0.6*a_{i})^{0.5} where a_{i} is the area (square kilometers) of smaller geographical unit i as defined by White (1983) \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1086/227768")}.

Larger geographical units available include states geo_large = 'state', counties geo_large = 'county', census tracts geo_large = 'tract', census-designated places geo_large = 'place', core-based statistical areas geo_large = 'cbsa', combined statistical areas geo_large = 'csa', and metropolitan divisions geo_large = 'metro'. Smaller geographical units available include, counties geo_small = 'county', census tracts geo_small = 'tract', and census block groups geo_small = 'cbg'. If a larger geographical unit is comprised of only one smaller geographical unit (e.g., a U.S county contains only one census tract), then the RCL value returned is NA. If the larger geographical unit is census-designated places geo_large = 'place', core-based statistical areas geo_large = 'cbsa', combined statistical areas geo_large = 'csa', or metropolitan divisions geo_large = 'metro', only the smaller geographical units completely within a larger geographical unit are considered in the V computation (see internal st_within function for more information) and recommend specifying all states within which the interested larger geographical unit are located using the internal state argument to ensure all appropriate smaller geographical units are included in the RCL computation.

Value

An object of class 'list'. This is a named list with the following components:

rcl

An object of class 'tbl' for the GEOID, name, and RCL at specified larger census geographies.

rcl_data

An object of class 'tbl' for the raw census values at specified smaller census geographies.

missing

An object of class 'tbl' of the count and proportion of missingness for each census variable used to compute RCL.

References

Massey, DS, & Denton, NA (1988) The Dimensions of Residential Segregation. Social Forces, 67(1):281-315. \Sexpr[results=rd]{tools:::Rd_expr_doi("10.1093/sf/67.2.281")}

See Also

get_acs for additional arguments for geographic extent selection (i.e., state and county).

Absolute Clustering: massey

Proximity measures: morgan_massey, morgan_denton, white_blau

Examples

## Not run: 
# Wrapped in \dontrun{} because these examples require a Census API key.

  # Relative Clustering (a measure of clustering)
  ## of non-Hispanic Black vs. non-Hispanic white populations
  ## in census tracts within counties of Georgia, U.S.A. (2020)
  denton(
    geo_large = 'county',
    geo_small = 'tract',
    state = 'GA',
    year = 2020,
    subgroup = 'NHoLB',
    subgroup_ref = 'NHoLW'
   )


## End(Not run)

ndi documentation built on Sept. 9, 2025, 5:26 p.m.