
Estimated 200,000 Indy Residents Live in Food Deserts
Using recent, local data to improve on food access measures, we find that an estimated 200,000 Indianapolis residents have low food access and live in low income areas.
Using recent, local data to improve on food access measures, we find that an estimated 200,000 Indianapolis residents have low food access and live in low income areas.
In 1970, there was a $22.6k gap between average family income in high- and low-income (80th and 20th percentile) neighborhoods. By 2016, the gap had doubled to $53.5k. Incomes grew for wealthy and middle-income neighborhoods, but fell for low-income neighborhoods.
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.
Indianapolis and Anderson were the region’s urban centers in 1970. Three-quarters of the population lived in those counties. Now, just over half the population live there, and Hamilton County is the second largest urban center.
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.