Black flight, not white flight, from KC
Yael T. AbouhalkahThe most interesting - and surprising - statistic in the new U.S. Census Bureau figures is this:
- The number of black people living in Kansas City has actually dropped by 339 people, down to 137,540.
And that’s at the same time the city has added more than 18,000 people, to a total of 459,787 people. Blacks make up 30 percent of the city’s population, or just a slightly smaller fraction than they did in the 2000 Census.
The white population went up by almost 4,400 people, meanwhile.
So much for all the thought that Kansas City’s population would continue to add black people, and white flight would continue as well.
There are all kinds of possible reasons for this occurrence.
The center city continues to hollow out, and that’s the largest traditional concentration of black residents. But instead of simply moving to different parts of Kansas City, blacks are moving to other, closer-in suburbs.
The black population of Raytown, for instance, swelled in the last decade.
The number of black Grandview residents went up as well.
Meanwhile, more white residents from outside of the city are moving into the Northland.
The trend is interesting for the region, because it means the metropolitan area is getting more diverse.
KC is as well, because the largest number of new residents classify themselves as Hispanics. In fact, the still-relatively small Hispanic population went up more than 50 percent, to 45,953. That’s just shy of 10 percent of the city’s total population.
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