Statistical and Perceived Ethnic Diversity in Urban Activity Spaces: Evidence from Auckland, New Zealand

The study of segregation in activity spaces has received renewed attention, fueled by the increasing availability of mobility data from mobile phones and social media. These new data sources enable high-resolution analysis of how people move through cities and interact across diverse neighborhoods. A key goal of this work is to inform the design of inclusive spaces that foster intergroup contact, which is presumed to enhance social cohesion. Much of the existing research, however, has focused on statistical diversity (typically measured using data collected from mobile devices), giving less consideration to perceived diversity. This study examines the extent to which these two forms of diversity, statistical and perceived, align. Using aggregated mobility data from approximately 90,000 people in Auckland, New Zealand, we estimated mobility flows and computed the ethnic diversity of visitors across six neighborhoods. In parallel, we conducted 249 on-street surveys in those neighborhoods to capture perceptions of diversity. Our findings reveal only a weak correlation between statistical and perceived diversity, suggesting that individuals’ perceptions do not simply reflect demographic compositions. Instead, perceived diversity is more strongly predicted by self-reported intergroup contact (both within the specific neighborhood and across the city) and by affective factors such as space affinity and attitudes toward outgroup members. These results underscore the importance of integrating multiple data sources to better understand how people perceive the diversity of the spaces they visit.