A portrait of Waterloo

In Waterloo, Iowa, white households have 81 percent higher median incomes than Black households and more than double the homeownership rate.

Residential patterns set when segregation was enforced by law hang on, driven by a wealth gap compounded over generations of discrimination — an American problem as much as a Waterloo one. Roughly 60% of the city’s Black residents live on one side of the Cedar River, which splits the community diagonally, and 80% of white residents live on the other.

Select a map below to learn more about residency, homeownership and income in Waterloo. Click on the map to get details by census tract.