Traditional measures of segregation rely on where people live, but daily life extends far beyond the home. This map visualizes the National Experienced Racial-Ethnic Diversity (NERD) dataset, which uses anonymized mobile phone location data to measure the diversity people actually encounter throughout their day — at work, during errands, and in leisure activities.
Explore how experienced diversity varies across U.S. metropolitan areas by race, time of day, and day of week. Select a city and metric to compare experienced diversity with traditional residential measures at the census tract level.
The National Experienced Racial-Ethnic Diversity (NERD) dataset provides estimates of experienced diversity for the entire United States at the census tract level. Using anonymized mobile phone location data from over 66 million opted-in devices, the dataset measures the diversity people actually encounter throughout their day — not just where they live.
Diversity in potential social interactions is estimated at 38.2 m × 19.1 m spatial resolution and 15-minute temporal resolution for a representative year, then aggregated to the census tract level for data privacy. The dataset includes experienced diversity broken down by race/ethnicity (White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Other), time of day (morning 6:00 AM–11:59 AM, afternoon 12:00 PM–4:59 PM, evening 5:00 PM–9:59 PM, late evening 10:00 PM–11:59 PM, late night 12:00 AM–5:59 AM), and day of week (weekday vs. weekend), along with census demographic characteristics.
This dataset is made available under a custom license. Copyright 2023 Wenfei Xu. Please cite the associated publication when using this data.
Xu, W., Wang, Z., Attia, N., Attia, Y., Zhang, Y., & Zong, H. (2024). An experienced racial-ethnic diversity dataset in the United States using human mobility data. Scientific Data, 11, 638. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03490-y
| Column | Description |
| STATEFP10 | 2010 Census state FIPS code |
| COUNTYFP10 | 2010 Census county FIPS code |
| TRACTCE10 | 2010 Census census tract code |
| GEOID10 | Census tract identifier (state FIPS + county FIPS + tract code) |
| STATE | State Name |
| COUNTY | County Name |
| CBSA Title | Core Based Statistical Area name |
| total_pop | Total Population (2020 Census) |
| white_perc | % Non-Hispanic White Alone (2020) |
| black_perc | % Non-Hispanic Black Alone (2020) |
| indigenous_perc | % Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native Alone (2020) |
| asian_perc | % Non-Hispanic Asian Alone (2020) |
| pac_isl_perc | % Non-Hispanic Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Alone (2020) |
| other_perc | % Non-Hispanic Some Other Race Alone (2020) |
| two_more_perc | % Non-Hispanic Two or More Races (2020) |
| hispanic_perc | % Hispanic (2020) |
| ba_higher_perc | % Bachelor's Degree or Higher (2020) |
| median_inc | Median household income (2021 inflation-adjusted dollars) |
| white_exp_exposure | White Experienced Diversity (2022) |
| black_exp_diversity | Black Experienced Diversity (2022) |
| asian_exp_diversity | Asian Experienced Diversity (2022) |
| hispanic_exp_diversity | Hispanic Experienced Diversity (2022) |
| other_exp_diversity | Other Race Experienced Diversity (2022) |
| total_exp_diversity | Total Experienced Diversity (2022) |
| residential_diversity | Residential Diversity (2020 Census) |
| diff | Difference between Total Experienced and Residential Diversity |
Click a state to download its GeoJSON file from the OSF repository.