This City in Maine Is One of the Least Diverse in America

As unsurprising as it may sound, there are certainly a lot of cities in the country, and apparently, this is one of the least diverse.

Get our free mobile app

And without question, it's not surprising to hear that a city in Maine is considered 'undiversified.' To call a spade a spade, Maine is known for its predominantly white population, especially in many of the Pine Tree State’s rural areas.

Maine is known for its white winters, but its population is also overwhelmingly white.

In fact, according to the U.S. Census, approximately 94% of the nearly 1.4 million people in Maine are considered 'white alone.' This means that Maine's not just white because of the snow; the majority of Maine also tends to be white in the summer, too.

So, all of this being said, whether it's the white snow or the white folks on the beaches, Maine is a state where the color white is a common sight year-round.

This is why it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of Vacationland’s major cities is recently being called 'one of the least diverse' in the country.

The personal finance website WalletHub recently published a report highlighting the 'Most Diverse Cities in the U.S.' for 2024, and of course, Maine cities were towards the bottom.

But first, to find the most diverse cities in America, WalletHub compared over 500 of the most populated cities, ensuring no state had more than 10 cities in the study, looking at five key dimensions: Socioeconomic Diversity, Cultural Diversity, Economic Diversity, Household Diversity, and Religious Diversity.

Using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index method, which is commonly used to measure market concentration, WalletHub assessed diversity based on race/ethnicity, occupations, languages, and nationalities. They only considered the city proper for each case, excluding surrounding metro areas, and categorized cities by population size: large (over 300,000 residents), midsize (100,000 to 300,000 residents), and small (fewer than 100,000 residents).

So, which city in Maine is one of the least diverse in the country?

According to the study published by WalletHub, Bangor is one of the least diverse in America, ranking 279th out of the 285 cities listed in the 'Small City' category, and ranked 495th out of the 501 total cities studied.

What are your thoughts on the Queen City of the East’s rankings in diversity?