Editing Buffalo, New York (section)

==Demographics==
{{Main|Demographics of Buffalo, New York}}
{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible mw-collapsed" style="font-size: 90%;"
|-
! Historical Racial composition 
!2020<ref name="2019USCensusQuickFacts">{{cite web |year=2020 |title=Buffalo city, Erie County, New York |url=https://data.indystar.com/census/total-population/total-population-change/buffalo-city-erie-county-new-york/060-3602911000/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126063236/https://data.indystar.com/census/total-population/total-population-change/buffalo-city-erie-county-new-york/060-3602911000/ |archive-date=November 26, 2021 |access-date= |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]}}</ref>!! 2010<ref>{{cite web |url=http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/3611000.html |title=Buffalo (city), New York |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140504172555/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/3611000.html |archive-date=May 4, 2014}}</ref>!! 1990<ref name="census">{{cite web |title=Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990 |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812191959/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |archive-date=August 12, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>!! 1970<ref name="census"/> !! 1940<ref name="census"/>
|-
|[[White American|White]]
|41.9% || 50.4% || 64.7% || 78.7% || 96.8%
|-
|—Non-Hispanic
|39.0% || 45.8% || 63.1% || n/a || n/a
|-
|[[African Americans]]
|36.9% || 38.6% || 30.7% || 20.4% || 3.1%
|-
|[[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Hispanic or Latino]] (of any race)
|12.8% || 10.5% || 4.9% || 1.6%{{efn|From a 15-percent sample.}} || n/a
|-
|[[Asian Americans]]
|7.6% || 3.2% || 1.0% || 0.2% || n/a
|-
| Other race
|5.3% || 3.1% || 2.8% || 0.2% || n/a
|-
|}

{{Historical populations
|type=USA
|1810 | 1508
|1820 | 2095
|1830 | 8668
|1840 | 18213
|1850 | 42261
|1860 | 81129
|1870 | 117714
|1880 | 155134
|1890 | 255664
|1900 | 352387
|1910 | 423715
|1920 | 506775
|1930 | 573076
|1940 | 575901
|1950 | 580132
|1960 | 532759
|1970 | 462768
|1980 | 357870
|1990 | 328123
|2000 | 292648
|2010 | 261310
|2020| 278349
|source = [[United States Census]] records and [[Population Estimates Program]] data.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census.html |title=Census of Population and Housing |author1=US Census Bureau |access-date=May 8, 2021 |author-link=United States Census Bureau |archive-date=April 26, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426102944/http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
}}

[[File:Race and ethnicity 2010- Buffalo (5559869161) (cropped).png|thumb|left|alt=See caption|Racial distribution in Buffalo in 2010: Each dot represents 25 residents. {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=#ff0000|White}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=#0000ff|Black}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=#00ffaa|Asian}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=#ffa600|Hispanic}} {{legend inline|outline=white|white|text=⬤|textcolor=#ffff07|Other}}]]

Several hundred Seneca, Tuscarora and other Iroquois tribal peoples were the primary residents of the Buffalo area before 1800, concentrated along Buffalo Creek.<ref name="Iroquois">{{cite book |last1=Hauptman |first1=Laurence M. |author-link=Laurence M. Hauptman |title=Conspiracy of interests: Iroquois Dispossession and the Rise of New York State |chapter=Chapter 7: The Lake Effect |date=1999 |location=Syracuse, N.Y. |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8156-0547-8 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/conspiracyofinte0000haup/page/112/mode/2up |chapter-url-access=registration |pages=107, 111–113 |access-date=11 May 2021}}</ref> After the Revolutionary War, settlers from New England and eastern New York began to move into the area.

From the 1830s to the 1850s, they were joined by Irish and German immigrants from Europe, both peasants and working class, who settled in enclaves on the city's south and east sides.<ref name="Goldman1983 72-97" /> At the turn of the 20th century, Polish immigrants replaced Germans on the East Side, who moved to newer housing; Italian immigrant families settled throughout the city, primarily on the lower West Side.<ref name="Goldman1983 176-195">{{Cite book |title=High hopes: the rise and decline of Buffalo, New York |chapter=The Changing Structure of the City: Neighborhoods and the Rise of Downtown |pages=176–195 |last=Goldman |first=Mark |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |year=1983 |isbn=9780873957342 |location=Albany, N.Y. |oclc=09110713}}</ref>

During the 1830s, Buffalo residents were generally intolerant of the small groups of [[African Americans|Black Americans]] who began settling on the city's East Side.<ref name="Goldman1983 72-97" />{{efn|An exception before the mid-20th century was Jewish residents of the East Side during the 1920s, although they left the neighborhood through the 1960s (Goldman 1983b, p. 215).}} In the 20th century, wartime and manufacturing jobs attracted [[Black Belt in the American South|Black Americans from the South]] during the [[Great Migration (African American)|First]] and [[Second Great Migration (African American)|Second Great Migrations]]. In the World War II and postwar years from 1940 to 1970, the city's Black population rose by 433 percent. They replaced most of the Polish community on the East Side, who were moving out to suburbs.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tulke |first1=Julia |title=Buffalo at the crossroads: the past, present, and future of American urbanism |date=2020 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |location=Ithaca |isbn=9781501749797 |pages=74–75 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/2713056/pdf |url-access=subscription |access-date=11 May 2021 |chapter=Of Silo Dreams and Deviant Houses: Uneven Geographies of Abandonment in Buffalo, New York}}</ref><ref name="PPGSegregation">{{cite web |last1=Blatto |first1=Anna |title=A City Divided: A Brief History of Segregation in Buffalo |url=https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/data-demographics-history/a_city_divided__a_brief_history_of_segregation_in_the_city_of_buffalo.pdf |website=Partnership for the Public Good |access-date=9 May 2021 |pages=3, 4, 12 |date=April 2018 |url-status=live |archive-date=November 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101064651/https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/data-demographics-history/a_city_divided__a_brief_history_of_segregation_in_the_city_of_buffalo.pdf}}</ref> However, the effects of [[redlining]], steering,<ref name="Goldman1983 267-291">{{Cite book |title=High hopes: the rise and decline of Buffalo, New York |chapter=Praying for a Miracle |pages=267–291 |last=Goldman |first=Mark |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |year=1983 |isbn=9780873957342 |location=Albany, N.Y. |oclc=09110713}}</ref> [[social inequality]], [[blockbusting]], [[white flight]]<ref name="Goldman1983 267-291" /> and other racial policies resulted in the city (and region) becoming one of the most [[Residential segregation in the United States|segregated]] in the U.S.<ref name="PPGSegregation" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yin |first1=Li |title=The Dynamics of Residential Segregation in Buffalo: An Agent-based Simulation |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009346326 |url-access=subscription |journal=[[Urban Studies (journal)|Urban Studies]] |date=December 2009 |volume=46 |issue=13 |page=2753 |doi=10.1177/0042098009346326 |bibcode=2009UrbSt..46.2749Y |s2cid=154853805 |access-date=June 9, 2021 |archive-date=June 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622041757/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098009346326 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Race, neighborhoods, and community power: Buffalo politics, 1934–1997 |page=1 |last=Kraus |first=Neil |date=2000 |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |isbn=978-0791447437 |location=Albany |language=en |oclc=43296770 |quote=[...] Buffalo, one of the most segregated cities in the United States.}}</ref>

During the 1940s and 1950s, [[Puerto Ricans|Puerto Rican]] migrants arrived en masse, also seeking industrial jobs, settling on the East Side and moving westward.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Partnership for the Public Good |title=From Puerto Rico to Buffalo |url=https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/data-demographics-history/populations_and_cultural_groups/datademographicshistory-_from_puerto_rico_to_buffalo_pdf.pdf |website=Partnership for the Public Good |access-date=11 May 2021 |date=June 22, 2015 |archive-date=May 11, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511050301/https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/data-demographics-history/populations_and_cultural_groups/datademographicshistory-_from_puerto_rico_to_buffalo_pdf.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> In the 21st century, Buffalo is classified as a [[Majority minority|majority minority city]], with a plurality of residents who are Black and Latino.

Buffalo has experienced effects of [[urban decay]] since the 1970s, and also saw population loss to the suburbs and [[Sun Belt]] states, and experienced job losses from deindustrialization.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=David Maldwyn |title=New York: State and City |date=1979 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |isbn=9780801411809 |page=39 |chapter=The Peoples of New York|chapter-url=https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/2266902|chapter-url-access=subscription |access-date=May 28, 2021}}</ref> The city's population peaked at 580,132 in 1950, when Buffalo was the 15th-largest city in the United States{{snd}}down from the eighth-largest city in 1900, after its growth rate slowed during the 1920s.<ref name="Goldman1983 196-223">{{Cite book |title=High hopes: the rise and decline of Buffalo, New York |chapter=Ethnics and the Economy During World War I and the 1920s |pages=196–223 |last=Goldman |first=Mark |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |year=1983b |isbn=9780873957342 |location=Albany, N.Y. |oclc=09110713}}</ref> Buffalo finally saw a population gain of 6.5% in the 2020 census, reversing a decades long trend of population decline. The city has 278,349 residents as of the 2020 census, making it the [[List of United States cities by population|76th-most populous city in the United States]].<ref name="USCensusEst2020" /> Its metropolitan area had 1.1 million residents in 2020, the country's 49th-largest.<ref name="PopEstCBSA" />

[[File:Ethnic Origins in Buffalo, NY.png|left|thumb|235x235px|Ethnic origins in Buffalo]]

Compared to other major US metropolitan areas, the number of foreign-born immigrants to Buffalo is low. New immigrants are primarily resettled refugees (especially from war- or disaster-affected nations) and refugees who had previously settled in other U.S. cities.<ref name = "PPGRefugee1">{{cite web |last1=Partnership for the Public Good |title=Immigrants, Refugees, and Languages Spoken in Buffalo |url=https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/immigration_buffalo_brief_final.pdf |website=Partnership for the Public Good |access-date=10 May 2021 |date=February 28, 2018 |archive-date=September 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926134616/https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/immigration_buffalo_brief_final.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> During the early 2000s, most immigrants came from [[Canadian Americans|Canada]] and [[Yemeni Americans|Yemen]]; this shifted in the 2010s to [[Myanmar|Burmese]] ([[Karen people|Karen]]) refugees and [[Bangladeshi people|Bangladeshi]] immigrants.<ref name="PPGRefugee1" /> Between 2008 and 2016, Burmese, [[Somali Americans|Somali]], [[Bhutanese Americans|Bhutanese]], and [[Iraqi Americans]] were the four largest ethnic immigrant groups in Erie County.<ref name="PPGRefugee1" />

A 2008 report noted that although [[food desert]]s were seen in larger cities and not in Buffalo, the city's neighborhoods of color have access only to smaller grocery stores and lack the supermarkets more typical of newer, white neighborhoods.<ref name="PPGDesert">{{cite journal |last1=Raja |first1=Samina |last2=Yadav |first2=Pavan |title=Beyond Food Deserts: Measuring and Mapping Racial Disparities in Neighborhood Food Environments |journal=[[Journal of Planning Education and Research]] |date=June 2008 |volume=27 |issue=4 |page=469 |doi=10.1177/0739456X08317461 |s2cid=40262352 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0739456X08317461 |url-access=subscription |access-date=9 May 2021 |archive-date=April 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414015828/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0739456X08317461 |url-status=live}}</ref> A 2018 report noted that over fifty city blocks on Buffalo's East Side lacked adequate access to a supermarket.<ref name="PPGSegregation" />

Health disparities exist compared to the rest of [[New York (state)|the state]]: Erie County's average 2019 lifespan was three years lower (78.4 years); its 17-percent [[Smoking in the United States|smoking]] and 30-percent [[Obesity in the United States|obesity]] rates were slightly higher than the state average.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Scanlon |first1=Scott |title=Covid-19 or not, Western New York has serious health issues |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/covid-19-or-not-western-new-york-has-serious-health-issues/article_32271838-1b7a-5d8a-a7b1-3e61626e184d.html |url-access=limited |website=[[The Buffalo News]] |access-date=24 May 2021 |language=en |date=March 27, 2020 |archive-date=March 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310141425/https://buffalonews.com/news/local/covid-19-or-not-western-new-york-has-serious-health-issues/article_32271838-1b7a-5d8a-a7b1-3e61626e184d.html |url-status=live}}</ref> According to the Partnership for the Public Good, educational achievement in the city is lower than in the surrounding area; city residents are almost twice as likely as adults in the metropolitan area to lack a high-school diploma.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Partnership for the Public Good |title=Public Education In Buffalo And The Region |url=https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/education/public_education_in_buffalo_and_the_region_buffalo_brief_may_2018.pdf |website=Partnership for the Public Good |access-date=24 May 2021 |archive-date=May 24, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524170246/https://ppgbuffalo.org/files/documents/education/public_education_in_buffalo_and_the_region_buffalo_brief_may_2018.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Religion===
{{See also|Burned-over district}}
[[File:Temple Beth Zion 2.jpg|thumb|[[Temple Beth Zion (Buffalo, New York)|Temple Beth Zion]]]]

During the early 19th century, [[Seneca mission|Presbyterian missionaries]] tried to convert the [[Seneca people]] on the Buffalo Creek Reservation to Christianity. Initially resistant, some tribal members set aside their traditions and practices to form their own sect.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nicholas |first=Mark A. |title=Practicing Local Faith & Local Politics: Senecas, Presbyterianism, and A "New Indian Mission History" |date=2006 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27778719 |journal=[[Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies]] |volume=73 |issue=1 |pages=69–72 |doi=10.2307/pennhistory.73.1.0069 |jstor=27778719 |s2cid=157731538 |issn=0031-4528 |access-date=May 8, 2021 |archive-date=May 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508225417/https://www.jstor.org/stable/27778719 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Iroquois" /> Later, European immigrants added other faiths. Christianity is the predominant religion in Buffalo and Western New York. [[Catholicism]] (primarily the [[Latin Church]]) has a significant presence in the region, with 161 [[parish]]es and over 570,000 adherents in the [[Diocese of Buffalo]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Herbeck |first1=Dan |author-link=Dan Herbeck |title=Facing huge debts, Buffalo Diocese studies possible mergers of churches, schools |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/education/facing-huge-debts-buffalo-diocese-studies-possible-mergers-of-churches-schools/article_e0b46896-069b-5d92-b2a4-d82d3b4e56e3.html |url-access=limited |website=[[The Buffalo News]] |access-date=21 May 2021 |language=en |date=May 23, 2020 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522000252/https://buffalonews.com/news/local/education/facing-huge-debts-buffalo-diocese-studies-possible-mergers-of-churches-schools/article_e0b46896-069b-5d92-b2a4-d82d3b4e56e3.html |url-status=live}}</ref> {{Update after|2022|reason=New survey releases|text=Major [[Protestantism in the United States|Protestant]] denominations in the area include [[Lutheran]], [[Baptists in the United States|Baptist]], and [[Methodist]]. [[Pentecostals]] are also significant, and approximately 20,000 persons are [[Nondenominational Christianity|non-denominational]] adherents.}}<ref>{{cite book |title=2010 U.S. religion census: religious congregations & membership study: an enumeration by nation, state, and county based on data reported for 236 religious groups |date=2012 |publisher=[[Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies]] |location=Kansas City, Mo. |isbn=978-0615623443 |page=397}}</ref>

A [[Jewish diaspora|Jewish]] community began developing in the city with immigrants from the mid-1800s; about one thousand [[History of the Jews in Germany|German]] and [[Lithuanian Jews]] settled in Buffalo before 1880. Buffalo's first [[synagogue]], Temple Beth El, was established in 1847.<ref name="BuffaloJewish">{{cite book |last1=Kotzin |first1=Chana Revell |title=Jewish community of Greater Buffalo |date=2013 |pages=12–16 |publisher=[[Arcadia Publishing]] |location=Charleston, South Carolina |isbn=978-1-4671-2006-7}}</ref> The city's [[Temple Beth Zion (Buffalo, New York)|Temple Beth Zion]] is the region's largest synagogue.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Watson |first1=Stephen T. |title=Synagogues in Buffalo, Ontario plan online Shabbat service |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/synagogues-in-buffalo-ontario-plan-online-shabbat-service/article_fa32bebb-b0d8-54bb-b982-f82d8cc71be1.html |url-access=limited |website=[[The Buffalo News]] |access-date=21 May 2021 |language=en |date=March 27, 2020 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522000250/https://buffalonews.com/news/local/synagogues-in-buffalo-ontario-plan-online-shabbat-service/article_fa32bebb-b0d8-54bb-b982-f82d8cc71be1.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

With changing demographics and an increased number of refugees from other areas on the city's East Side,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Reinl |first1=James |title=Muslim refugees in Buffalo defy stereotypes |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/muslim-refugees-buffalo-defy-stereotypes |website=[[Middle East Eye]] |access-date=22 May 2021 |language=en |date=February 2, 2016 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522045741/https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/muslim-refugees-buffalo-defy-stereotypes |url-status=live}}</ref> Islam and Buddhism have expanded their presence. In this area, new residents have converted empty churches into [[mosque]]s and Buddhist temples.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Krishna |first1=Ashima |title=A new solution for America's empty churches: A change of faith |url=https://theconversation.com/a-new-solution-for-americas-empty-churches-a-change-of-faith-121726 |website=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |access-date=22 May 2021 |language=en |date=August 30, 2019 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522045741/http://theconversation.com/a-new-solution-for-americas-empty-churches-a-change-of-faith-121726 |url-status=live}}</ref> Hinduism maintains a small, active presence in the area, including the town of Amherst.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Neville |first1=Anne |title=Hindu festival honoring Lord Ganesha is new beginning of welcoming community |url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/hindu-festival-honoring-lord-ganesha-is-new-beginning-of-welcoming-community/article_e4dc8d42-add4-5348-92b5-3f844d76dd69.html |url-access=limited |website=[[The Buffalo News]] |access-date=22 May 2021 |language=en |date=September 8, 2019 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522045740/https://buffalonews.com/news/local/hindu-festival-honoring-lord-ganesha-is-new-beginning-of-welcoming-community/article_e4dc8d42-add4-5348-92b5-3f844d76dd69.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

A 2016 [[American Bible Society]] survey reported that Buffalo is the fifth-least "Bible-minded" city in the United States; 13 percent of its residents associate with the [[Bible]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Keenan |first1=John |title=Where is the world's most 'godless' city? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/dec/07/where-world-godless-city-religion-atheist |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=22 May 2021 |language=en |date=2016-12-07 |archive-date=May 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522163555/https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/dec/07/where-world-godless-city-religion-atheist |url-status=live}}</ref>