Isolation index measures the degree to which people inhabit geographic units inhabited primarily by members of their own group.
It varies from 0 to 1.0 and is defined as the proportion of own-group members in the unit of the average person.
In measuring black isolation, for example, a score of 1.0 means that the average black person lives in a neighborhood that is 100 percent black, and a score approaching 0 means that this person lives in a neighborhood where he or she is nearly the only black resident.
[1] They have been used in studies of racial segregation[2] and ideological segregation.
[3][4] Isolation index is not invariant to relative size of group.
Examples of isolation indices include Lieberson's isolation index and Bell's isolation index.
[5] The formula to compute the isolation index is given by:
is the total population of group
Consider the following distribution of white and black population across neighborhoods.
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