Community Profiles
Roxbury — Neighborhood Characteristics
Race & Language: 53% black or African American, 29% Hispanic/Latino, 10% white, and 3% multi-racial. 65% of residents speak English at home, 20% speak Spanish, 3% speak French Creole (including Haitian Creole), and 3% speak Chinese.
Income: Roxbury’s median household income was more than $20,000 less than the Boston average in 2009 inflation-adjusted dollars ($30,654 compared to $52,433). 27% of families in the population live below the poverty level, compared to 15% in Boston overall.
Key Health Issues
- Recent data (2006-2008) show that Roxbury has the highest rate of hospitalizations for heart disease among Boston neighborhoods, more than 50% higher than the Boston overall rate
- Roxbury leads in heart disease mortality rates, at 360.9 per 100,000 population, more than twice the Boston citywide rate.
- Roxbury residents were more often involved in non-fatal assault related gunshots and stabbings than residents of any other Boston neighborhoods in 2008, at a rate of 23.1 victims per 100,000 population.
- The overall mortality rate is exceptionally high, at 953.6 deaths per 100,000.
Mattapan — Neighborhood Characteristics
Race & Language: 75% black, 18% Hispanic/Latino, 3% white. Mattapan has the largest Haitian population in all of Massachusetts. 69% of the population speaks English at home, 18% speak French Creole, 7% speak Spanish and 4% speak French.
Income: In 2009, Mattapan had a greater percentage of families living below the poverty level (20%) compared to the overall proportion in Boston.
Key Health Issues:
- 40% of adult Mattapan residents are obese, the highest proportion in Boston
- 10% of Mattapan’s population have been diagnosed with diabetes, also the highest prevalence in Boston.
- Mattapan had a disproportionately high rate of hospitalizations resulting from heart disease between 2006-2008. Mattapan’s hospitalization rate for high blood pressure was also one of the highest in the city over the same period.
Hyde Park — Neighborhood Characteristics
Race & Language: 39% black, 43% white, and 13% Hispanic/Latino. Hyde Park experienced a significant demographic shift between 2000 and 1990, when white residents made up 67% of the population. A quarter of Hyde Park residents speak Spanish or French Creole at home.
Income: Median income is $53,474 (in 2009 inflation-adjusted dollars). Approximately 7% live in poverty, lower than the citywide proportion.
Key Health Issues:
- 21% of adults consume the recommended daily amount of fruits and vegetables, the lowest in the city.
- Residents in this neighborhood have long been concerned with a lack of public transportation that makes it hard to get to a full service grocery store.
- 2006-2008 data showed that 31% of adults in Hyde Park have high blood pressure
Dorchester — Neighborhood Characteristics
Race & Language: Ethnically diverse with substantially populations of many ethnic groups. North Dorchester is 36% white, 24% black, 14% Hispanic/Latino, 13% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 6% multi-racial. South Dorchester is 42% black, 30% white, 10% Hispanic/Latino, 10% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 4.7% multi-racial. About a sixth of Dorchester residents speak Spanish at home.
Income: In 2009, 22% of North and 16% of South Dorchester residents were living below the poverty line.
Key Health Issues:
- Dorchester has one of the highest obesity rates of any neighborhood in Boston.
- Only about 25% of Dorchester residents report feeling very safe in their neighborhood. This may well impact on people’s ability to carry out exercise in their neighborhood.
- In 2010, South Dorchester had one of the highest rates of Hepatitis C infection among Boston neighborhoods.
East Boston — Neighborhood Characteristics
Race & Language: 50% white, 39% Hispanic/Latino, 4% Asian 3 % Black. This neighborhood has a large Latino population. Of all Boston neighborhoods, East Boston has the highest percentage of recent immigrants. Just over half (56%) of East Boston residents were born in the United States. East Boston residents have emigrated from many countries, including El Salvador, Colombia, Brazil, Italy, Vietnam, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. Over half (55%) of East Boston residents speak a language other than English at home. Spanish is the primary language spoken by 37% of residents, while 6% speak Italian, 5% speak Portuguese/Portuguese Creole, and 2% speak Vietnamese.
Income: Based on 2009 data, 10% of families in East Boston had incomes below the poverty level, lower than the overall proportion in Boston (15%).
Key Health Issues:
- In a 2005 report, the Boston Public Health Commission identified the following as key health issues affecting East Boston: obesity, cancer, asthma, substance abuse, violence, maternal and child health
- In the period between 2006-2008, East Boston had a heroin/opioid mortality rate higher than the citywide rate.
SOURCES:
Boston Public Health Commission
Boston Redevelopment Authority
