ScholarGate
Assistant

Compare methods

Review your selected methods side by side; rows that differ are highlighted.

Index of Dissimilarity×Theil Segregation Index×
FieldSociologySociology
FamilyProcess / pipelineProcess / pipeline
Year of origin19551971
OriginatorOtis Dudley Duncan & Beverly DuncanHenri Theil & Anthony Finizza
TypeIndex of evenness of two groups across unitsEntropy-based multigroup segregation index
Seminal sourceDuncan, O. D., & Duncan, B. (1955). A methodological analysis of segregation indexes. American Sociological Review, 20(2), 210–217. DOI ↗Theil, H., & Finizza, A. J. (1971). A note on the measurement of racial integration of schools by means of informational concepts. Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 1(2), 187–193. DOI ↗
Aliasesdissimilarity index, Duncan index, D index, segregation indexTheil's H, information theory index, entropy segregation index, multigroup entropy index
Related55
SummaryThe index of dissimilarity, often called the Duncan segregation index, measures how unevenly two groups — such as two racial or occupational groups — are distributed across a set of units like neighborhoods, schools, or occupations. It ranges from 0, when both groups have identical distributions across units, to 1, when the units are completely segregated, and has the intuitive interpretation of the share of one group that would have to relocate to achieve an even distribution.Theil's information index, denoted H, is an entropy-based measure of segregation that, unlike the two-group dissimilarity index, handles any number of groups at once. It compares the diversity (entropy) found within each unit to the diversity of the whole population: segregation is high when units are internally homogeneous even though the overall population is diverse. Its defining virtue is exact decomposability across nested levels and across groups.
ScholarGateDataset
  1. v1
  2. 2 Sources
  3. PUBLISHED
  1. v1
  2. 2 Sources
  3. PUBLISHED

Go to search Download slides

ScholarGateCompare methods: Index of Dissimilarity · Theil Segregation Index. Retrieved 2026-06-24 from https://scholargate.app/en/compare