Charlotte is more diverse than ever, census data shows. But not in every neighborhood.

Huge swaths of Mecklenburg County — from Huntersville to Steele Creek to Mint Hill — were more diverse racially and ethnically in 2020 than the decade before.

The change followed a national shift, with the U.S., North Carolina and all but one of the state’s counties becoming more diverse.

But about 13% of Mecklenburg’s census tracts, or neighborhood-size areas, bucked that trend and became less diverse after 2010, meaning that residents there are more likely to have similar racial and ethnic characteristics in 2020 than a decade before.

In Mecklenburg, that meant Black residents increasing in already mostly Black neighborhoods or white residents increasing in mostly white neighborhoods.

These neighborhoods are sprinkled throughout the county, though about half of them run along or close to the Blue Line light rail, which stretches from the Pineville area to the University City area, a Charlotte Observer analysis found.

Elizabeth Delmelle, an urban and transportation geographer at UNC Charlotte, said the decrease in diversity along some of the light rail neighborhoods indicates that the people who have moved there over the past 10 years are likely less diverse than new arrivals elsewhere in the city. Many neighborhoods along the light rail have seen substantial increases in the number of white residents.

Additionally, she said, several areas along the light rail were previously mixed industrial and residential and have become less industrial over time. Because there were relatively low populations in some of those census tracts to begin with, the people moving into new apartment complexes have played a major factor in determining the level of diversity there.

Elsewhere, growing Hispanic populations have helped fuel much of the city’s growing diversity, she said.

The Observer analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s diversity index. The index measures the probability that two people chosen at random will have a different racial or ethnic makeup.

The Census awards each tract a number between 0 and 1. A higher number indicates a more diverse population.

The Observer found:

▪ 40 Mecklenburg County neighborhoods became less diverse from 2010 to 2020.

▪ 18 of those neighborhoods are located on or near the city’s Blue Line light rail corridor.

▪ About 260 census tracts — or around 87% — became more diverse.

▪ The neighborhood around Remount Road and South Boulevard saw the biggest increase in diversity, partly because of a flood of white residents into what had been a largely Black community.

Some of the county’s most diverse neighborhoods sit either east of U.S. 74 or west of Interstate 77, data show. But it doesn’t take a great distance for diversity levels to change.

The Wynnwood neighborhood on U.S. 74 is one of the most diverse areas. Just across a set of railroad tracks is the Sherwood Forest neighborhood, one of the county’s least diverse.

The city’s southern wedge, a section of affluent neighborhoods between uptown and Ballantyne, remains substantially less diverse than the rest of the county, as does the northernmost section of Mecklenburg. White residents make up most of the residents there.

Higher housing prices in the wedge, fueled in part by desirable school districts, are a primary cause of the lower diversity, Delmelle said, though diversity has increased in all but a few tracts there over the past decade.

News & Observer reporter Tyler Dukes contributed.