The Nathalie P. Voorhees Center for Neighborhood and Community Improvement at UIC has released a new report examining neighborhood change across Chicago over the past forty years. “The Socioeconomic Change of Chicago’s Community Areas,” also known as the Gentrification Index, shows a deepening of inequality over time among Chicago’s neighborhoods. The Gentrification Index measures changes in poverty and wealth using thirteen socioeconomic variables and four decades of US Census data. Neighborhood change is determined by analyzing changes in index scores from 1970 to 2010.

According to the report, decline is a more prevalent trend in the City of Chicago as a whole than is gentrification. The analysis demonstrates that while some neighborhoods have grown wealthier, many others have grown poorer. The number of middle-class neighborhoods has also decreased.

In addition to the report, you can find an Appendix showing the detailed information for each community area. 

For more information, visit WBEZ’s interactive website on gentrification.