The end of the 1990s marked a high point in the nation’s economic and social progress.

Compared to the beginning of that decade, for the 100 largest cities and their suburbs,

poverty declined, per capita income rose, fewer teens were having babies and more pregnant

women were getting early prenatal care. Black residents made the most progress on

these measures, although they remain troublingly behind whites on each of these and

other socioeconomic indicators. Asians also fared well, while progress for Hispanics was

generally modest or, in some cases, negligible. This report examines how well the largest

cities and their suburbs, including Milwaukee, fared on key quality of life indicators between 1990 and 2000.

Drawing on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Bureau of Investigation, this

report profiles the 2000 status and changes since 1990 in rates of: extreme poverty and

concentrated poverty, adults without a high school diploma and adults with any college

attendance, unemployment, and violent crime for the nation’s 100 largest cities and their

suburbs. The cities and suburbs are also separately examined on a unique “social deprivation”

index (SDI) which integrates poverty, per capita income, no high school diploma,

unemployment, violent crime, and limited English proficiency into a single measure

that provides a relative ranking of community well-being. The report also highlights

results of correlations conducted separately for cities and suburbs on a set of quality of

life indicators with measures of racial/ethnic diversity and maternal/infant health.