A study on inequality between American neighborhoods found that Bethesda and Chevy Chase are home to three of the most affluent neighborhoods in America.
The study, released last month by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute, used four factors to assign scores to every census tract in the United States.
The think tank’s goal was “to understand the magnitude of current inequality and inequality growth,” across the country and within metropolitan areas over the last two decades.
After measuring average household income, the share of residents with college degrees, homeownership rate and median household value in each census tract in 2010, the institute found that the “most advantaged” tract in the country was in Chevy Chase.
The neighborhood had a high score of 4.31 thanks in large part to an average household income of more than $466,000 a year.
The next highest scores were found in two separate census tracts in Bethesda, where at least nine out of every 10 residents had college degrees and more than 90 percent of the homes in the neighborhoods were owner-occupied.
The Urban Institute said that taken together, the results show Bethesda and Chevy Chase are home to “the three most advantaged tracts in the United States.”
In the Washington, D.C., region, the study found that the most economically disadvantaged have moved away from the city and into suburban neighborhoods in Prince George’s County. Over the past 20 years, the most advantaged have moved toward the Northwest section of the city and suburban neighborhoods on the west side of Montgomery County.
