Racial Diversity, Minority Concentration and Trust in Canadian Urban Neighbourhoods

Feng Hou, Statistics Canada
Zheng Wu, University of Victoria

Using a sample of 42,329 respondents nested within 4,254 Canadian urban neighborhoods, this study demonstrates the conceptual and empirical importance of making a distinction between neighborhood racial diversity and minority concentration, and examines how each is uniquely associated with trust. Our analysis shows that at a given level of racial minority concentration, whites are more trusting when their minority neighbors are more evenly distributed across racial minority groups. Meanwhile, whites are less trusting as the neighborhood share of racial minorities increases. Overall, the effect of racial minority concentration tends to prevail over that of racial diversity.