The New Suburbs; The New Downtown

The NYT reports on a Brookings Institute preview of the 2010 census:

As the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close, more black, Asian, Hispanic, foreign-born and poor people live in the suburbs of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas than in their primary cities.

“Several trends in the 2000s further put to rest the old perceptions of cities as declining, poor, minority places set amid young, white, wealthy suburbs,” a report released Sunday by the Brookings Institution concluded.

The NYT article on the study includes other findings, too:

• “In the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, black, Hispanic and Asian residents constitute a majority of residents younger than 18 — presaging a benchmark that the nation as a whole is projected to reach in just over a decade.”
• “The number of married couples fell to fewer than half of the nation’s households.”
• “The wage gap between rich and poor was the highest recorded in modern times.”
• “The 100 biggest metropolitan areas grew by about 28 million people since 2000. They are now home to two-thirds of the nation’s population.