Measuring residential segregation of selected foreign groups with aspatial and spatial evenness indices. A case study

Abstract

Over the last decades there have been important methodological advances in measuring residential segregation, especially concerning spatial indices. After a discussion of the fundamental concepts and approaches some of the numerous indices are introduced. We focus in particular on the most known aspatial and spatial indices in the dimension of evenness namely segregation and dissimilarity indices. The contribution is based on data of the geographic distribution of selected foreign groups resident in the census enumeration areas that form the Local Labour Market Area (LLMA) of Rome. Data refer to the population censuses 2001 and 2011. Applying the indices to the LLMA of Rome serves as a test of the practical and potential usefulness of the proposed measures and their possible interpretation.