Data to help bridge the racial wealth divide
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The Black Wealth Data Center aims to provide easy access to race-based data and empower evidence-driven decision-making.
To help government leaders implement equitable policies and practices, the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative recently launched the Black Wealth Data Center (BWDC), a platform that offers national-, state- and local-level data required to address the wealth divide.
With the addition of the Black Wealth Indicators tool to the data center, users can now compare one county to another and to the whole country, Bloomberg Cities Network announced today. This application pulls data from the BWDC’s Racial Wealth Equity Database and generates side-by-side visualizations of wealth indicators such as health insurance coverage, median household income, broadband internet access and housing units owned by Black individuals.
The BWDC can help policymakers push data-driven solutions to close the wealth divide, officials said. For example, local leaders can explore data broadband internet access in their communities so they know where to offer increased support and programs for families in need of service. Additionally, housing data enables leaders to prepare responses to evictions or displacements of residents and increase homeownership for disadvantaged populations.
The database is organized into six categories: assets and debt, business ownership, education, employment, homeownership and population demographics. Users can explore a data topic and view data visualizations including interactive maps, infographics and datasets.
For instance, the education tab presents six graphics of indicators and measures of education. One includes degree attainment by age, sex and ethnicity at the national level. Another table provides adult literacy and numeracy statistics at the person-level as well as median income and population percentage of Black individuals in the area. Users are able to filter data results by ZIP code, county, ethnicity and other metrics.
The site also includes a resource library featuring articles, reports, case studies and other resources relevant to racial disparity research. Visitors can also submit peer-reviewed and open access resources to the site.
BWDC pulls information from sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and the Department of Labor. Other sources include the Small Business Administration, the National Center for Education Statistics and the Federal Reserve Board. The database is updated as new data is available, and user feedback will influence any new functionality added to the site, officials said in the announcement.
“Local leaders need high-quality data disaggregated by race to inform the design of equitable programs and policies,” said Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative. “This new platform aims to ease accessibility to race-based data and empower evidence-based decision making amongst leaders developing racial wealth equity initiatives.”