FARGO — A new report examining diversity in hundreds of cities across America shows Fargo is the eighth least ethnically diverse midsize city in the country.
As immigration reform remains a hot political topic in Congress, personal finance website WalletHub issued a report last week comparing diversity in the country's 501 largest cities . The experts then scored each city based on three main metrics — ethnoracial diversity relating to ethnicity and race, linguistic diversity and birthplace diversity — and came up with a score out of 100 possible points, with higher scores indicating more diversity.
North Dakota had 10 cities in the list, all ranking in the bottom quarter. The highest and lowest ranking cities in North Dakota were Williston (385th) and Jamestown (491st). Overall, North Dakota communities consistently ranked low in ethnoracial diversity and linguistic diversity, but fared a bit better in birthplace diversity.
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Fargo ranked 401st overall and West Fargo ranked 478th out of the 501 cities analyzed by WalletHub. Fargo was the eighth least diverse midsize city, which the report defined as communities with populations between 100,000 and 300,000.
Cities in neighboring state Minnesota ranked much higher, with Brooklyn Park reaching 66th and St. Paul ranked 71st overall.
The city with the highest diversity was Jersey City, N.J., with a score of 72.41 out of 100. Jersey City has topped the list before, ranking first in linguistic diversity and second in ethnoracial diversity. A 2015 government study reported there are more than 40 languages spoken by Jersey City students, and 1 in 4 citizens there do not speak English as a household language.
Hialeah, Fla., ranked last with an overall score of 14.02. This doesn’t mean it is dominated by Caucasians, however — the city has the highest concentration of Hispanics or Latinos, who make up 96.44 percent of the population. Hialeah also ranked lowest in English speakers, with less than 6 percent speaking the language.
WalletHub's report was issued as immigration reform continued to be major national news. Projections show America will have no single ethnic group as the majority by 2045 — a first for the country — according to the website.
