We know little about how ethnic geography, i.e., the distribution of ethnic groups across space, shapes comparative economic, political and social development. To make progress and to harness the growing availability of spatially explicit data, we need indices summarizing key aspects of ethnic geography. We develop and axiomatize a novel index of ethnic segregation that takes both ethnic and spatial distances between individuals into account. We can decompose this index into indices of generalized ethnic fractionalization, spatial dispersion, and the alignment of spatial and ethnic distances. For our application, we compute different country-level versions of the segregation index and its components based on either ethnographic maps or geo-referenced survey data. Reassuringly, the different versions of the segregation index are highly correlated. We explore the relation of our indices to (i) existing measures of ethnic segregation and diversity; (ii) climatic and geographical factors; and (iii) the quality of government, economic development, and trust.

我们对族群地理，即族群在空间上的分布，如何塑造比较经济、政治和社会发展知之甚少。为了取得进展并利用日益增长的空间显性数据，我们需要总结民族地理关键方面的索引。我们开发并公理化了一个新的种族隔离指数，该指数同时考虑了个体之间的种族和空间距离。我们可以将该指数分解为广义种族分化指数、空间分散指数以及空间和种族距离的对齐指数。对于我们的应用程序，我们根据人种学地图或地理参考调查数据计算隔离指数及其组成部分的不同国家级版本。令人欣慰的是，隔离指数的不同版本是高度相关的。我们探讨了我们的指数与 (i) 现有的种族隔离和多样性衡量标准之间的关系；(ii) 气候和地理因素；(iii) 政府质量、经济发展和信任。