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Race and Ethnicity Maps by US Cities

Human Beings are social animals by nature. Interaction with fellow human beings is part and parcel of our daily lives. Even though we are social by nature, we also have some parochial instincts which manifest themselves in our day to day lives. Be it where we choose to live, or who we choose to interact with a majority of the times, we have a tendency to look for people with similar interests, culture and backgrounds. We are simply more comfortable interacting with people who are similar to us.

The picture below is a map of Columbus, Ohio, where I have lived the last 7 of my 9 years. The map depicts how the population is distributed by race and ethnicity and was complied by Eric Fisher using 2000 census data. Each dot represents 25 people.

Image Source:Eric Fisher

As can be seen, there is this clear divide based on race and ethnicity, on where people tend to live and who they choose to interact.  This divide exists in all of the major cities be it Chicago, Detroit, New York or Los Angeles.

Few Stats to Consider

Earlier this year, Forbes magazine released the list of the Worlds Richest People. It is no surprise that America has the largest number of Billionaires, 396 to be exact. But the surprise was India, which almost doubled the number of Billionaires, to about 47 people.

Now consider a few facts about these 47 richest Indians combined.

1. The combined net worth of these 47 richest Indians accounted for 14.7% of India's GDP. Only Switzerland and Russia beat us in the list of countries with more then 10 billionaires
2. When you consider that India has more then a billion people, we have one Billionaire for every 25 million people living in the country.
3. The GDP per capita in India is $1091. Compare this to the average net worth of these richest Indians, about $4 Billion.
4. Add the fact that 42% of the Indian population falls below the International Poverty Level of $1.25 per day and you get a sense of how one dimensional the growth in the Indian economy is.





Data Source: Forbes List of Billionaires
Population and GDP: Wikipedia