Chicago tabbed as most segregated by race

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CHICAGO, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Chicago is the most racially segregated city in the United States with black residents marking the most isolated racial group, a study says.

The Chicago Tribune said Friday an analysis of 2008 population estimates it conducted found that Chicago's black population was the top segregated racial group in the country's 20 largest cities.

The data analysis found that in order to reach an acceptable level of integration in Chicago, 84 percent of either the city's black or white population should alter neighborhoods.

But segregation expert Douglas Massey of Princeton University such major residential changes are unlikely due to ingrained racial patterns formed by history.

"Once institutions exist, they tend to persist, and it requires some act of force to get them to change," she told the Tribune.

The newspaper said other cited key issues regarding segregation in Chicago were restrictive real estate dealings, income differences, personal taste and an individual's level of comfort with their surrounding neighborhood.