Education and Household Location in Chicago

This paper examines the choice of residential location in the city of Chicago versus its suburban areas. Data from the 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample from the 1990 and 2000 Census of Population and Housing are used. Particular attention is given to the effects of educational attainment. Place of work continues to dominate the residential location decision. However, conditioning on place of work, demographics, and income, educational attainment is found to be statistically significant in residential choice of the city versus the suburbs in 2000 for non‐Hispanic whites, especially those with graduate degrees. In contrast, more educated African‐Americans and Hispanics tend to locate in suburban areas.