Our 2021 research is focused on equity. We are exploring equity in the economy, environment and climate, health, and more.
Equity in Economic Opportunity
How race, place, and class impact opportunity in Indianapolis
Children born to low-income families in Indianapolis have worse economic outcomes than almost any other large city, and there are stark disparities for Black children and children who grew up in low-income neighborhoods.
How are you using these data? What other data would be useful for you?
Events
SAVI Talks: Equality of Opportunity
March 25
SAVI analysts will present the team’s latest research and WFYI will moderate a panel discussion.
SAVI Talks: Equity in Aging
April 22
Older adults face issues of equity on a daily basis. The Polis Center, IU Public Policy Institute, and the IU Center for Public Policy Research partner with Central Indiana Senior Fund to highlight these issues and solutions.
More to come…
Check back throughout the year for more presentations, forums, and workshops.
Research Under Development
More equity research is in development, including the following projects.
A neighborhood model of economic opportunity
What drove opportunity in neighborhoods of the 1980s, and what can predict economic mobility for children growing up today?
What is the measurable effect of Redlining on segregation?
Over 80 years after communities of color were Redlined and excluded from federal mortgage guarantees, how strongly do modern patterns of segregation correlate with Redlined areas?
Life expectancy in Indianapolis neighborhoods
How long you live is influenced by where you lives and the resources you have. The Polis Center and the Fairbanks School of Public Health are partnering to update our 2015 research on disparities in life expectancy and examining social determinants of health.
Equity in the criminal justice system
We will explore data from the criminal justice system to understand the inequities and disproportionate effects on different populations. The issues we explore may include police arrests, incarceration, reentry, recidivism, and how these all connect to economic opportunity.
Measures of Equity
Our equity research agenda will incorporate a community conversation on the key indicators of equity. Until then, here are just a few examples of community-level measures of equity across race, gender, and neighborhoods. For more equity data, visit the SAVI Equity Profile.
Racial Equity
Mortgage denial rate by race
Gender Equity
Median earnings by gender
Neighborhood Equity
Broadband access by census tract
More Equity Research
Reports and articles from 2020 and earlier.
Indy’s Most Mixed-Income Neighborhoods
We measured income diversity in every neighborhood in the region, and the most mixed-income neighborhoods include the Old Northside, the tract containing Rocky Ripple and Crows Nest, and the area near Pike High School.
What Can the Opportunity Atlas Tell Us About Indianapolis?
The newly released Opportunity Atlas shows that children born in different neighborhoods can have vastly different outcomes. Children born in Indianapolis urban core have lower household incomes than those born in northern suburbs.
After Public Investment, St. Clair Place’s Housing Market Significantly Stronger
Mortgage activity in St. Clair Place shows a dramatic increase in home purchases and home value since 2007. The area is more diverse than ever and poverty is falling for people of color. But home buyers are still 76 percent white.
Income Inequality High Where Golden Hill and Northwest Indianapolis Converge
In the area where wealthy Golden Hills converges with the working-class neighborhoods of Northwest Indianapolis, income inequality is high and increasing. The area is also experiencing a growth of white households above the median income.
Changes in Indy’s Historic Black Neighborhoods
In the 1970s, 4,000 residents left this nearly all-black neighborhood. Why? An increasingly desegregated housing market and closure of one of the country’s first public housing projects.
Story Map: Race and Migration Since 1970
In 1970, half of the region’s Black population lived in 12 square miles north of downtown Indianapolis. As Black residents moved into ’60s suburban communities, 120,000 White residents left the city’s core for newer suburbs.
Are We Segregated by Educational Attainment?
Most neighborhoods match the educational diversity of our region, but those with less education are largely excluded from downtown and the northern suburbs, while they are relatively isolated in the southeast side and parts of Anderson.
City Funds Flanner House Micro-Grocery in Food Desert
WFYI reports that the City of Indianapolis announced the first recipient of its Healthy Food Access grant on Thursday. Flanner House will receive $400,000 to develop Cleo's Bodega, a micro-grocery that will sell discounted food through a relationship with Under the...
As Gentrification Bill Considered, Values Increasing Quickly in These Neighborhoods
A proposal in the state legislature would offer long-time homeowners in designated areas relief from rising property taxes. Indiana House Bill 1056, which was debated in a study committee last week, would cap assessed value increases at three percent for eligible...
Who Has Access to Groceries and Farmers’ Markets?
The USDA defines food deserts as a census tract where “at least 500 people and/or at least 33 percent of the census tract's population reside more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store." [usda.gov] This is a useful definition, but of course food...