COVID-19 MORTALITY IN NEW YORK CITY ACROSS NEIGHBORHOODS BY RACE, ETHNICITY, AND NATIVITY STATUS

New York City has lost more lives from covid-19 than any other American city. This study examines variation in covid-19 deaths across neighborhoods as it relates to variation in the racial, ethnic, and nativity-status composition of neighborhoods. This topic has received little scholarly attention and is imperative to explore, given the absence of racial and ethnic specific covid-19 mortality rates by neighborhood. New York City is a racially and ethnically segregated city, and a longstanding destination of immigrants, making some neighborhoods more susceptible to greater levels of covid-19 mortality than others. Using ZCTA-level data on covid-19 deaths and demographic data from the American Community Survey, our descriptive and bivariate choropleth mapping analyses reveal that a racial, ethnic, and nativity-status hierarchy exists in the geographic distribution of covid-19 mortality. Implications of these findings are discussed as they relate to residential segregation and persistent spatial inequalities faced by neighborhoods of color.

Automated summary

The study examines the variation in covid-19 deaths across neighborhoods in New York City and its relation to racial, ethnic, and nativity-status composition. It reveals a hierarchy in the geographic distribution of covid-19 mortality based on race, ethnicity, and nativity-status.