4 Montgomery County Cities Dubbed Most Culturally Diverse In U.S.

SILVER SPRING, MD — Four Montgomery County cities were placed in the top ten "Most Culturally Diverse Cities" 2017 list created by the personal-finance website Wallethub. The site conducted an in-depth analysis of the most and least culturally diverse cities in the U.S., and Germantown placed second, Gaithersburg placed third, Silver Spring placed fourth and Rockville placed ninth.

Wallethub started investigating cultural diversity in the U.S. after President Donald Trump signed executive orders targeting immigration-policy reform.

Analysts found the most culturally diverse cities in the U.S. as of 2017 are: 1. Jersey City, New Jersey; 2. Germantown, Maryland; 3. Gaithersburg, Maryland; 4. Silver Spring, Maryland; 5. Spring Valley, Nevada; 6. New York, New York; 7. Oakland, California; 8. San Jose, California; 9. Rockville, Maryland and Kent, Washington.

They dubbed these cities as the least culturally diverse in the U.S. as of 2017: 1. Parkersburg, West Virginia; 2. Clarksburg, West Virginia; 3. Watertown, South Dakota; 4. Hialeah, Florida; 5. Rutland, Vermont; 6. Jamestown, North Dakota; 7. Barre, Vermont; 8. Bennington, Vermont; 9. Laconia, New Hampshire and 10. Miles City, Montana.

Researchers compared 501 of the largest U.S. cities across three key metrics: ethnoracial diversity, linguistic diversity and birthplace diversity.

Ethnoracial diversity looked at how many residents are white, black, Asian, Hispanic or Latino or other. Linguistic diversity established what languages residents speak. Birthplace diversity calculated where residents were born.

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the most cultural diversity.

Germantown received a cultural diversity score of 94.22. Germantown placed third in the ethnoracial rank, compared to Oakland at first; eighth in the linguistic diversity rank, compared to Jersey City at first; and 83th in the birthplace diversity rank, compared to Arlington, VA at first.

Gaithersburg scored 93.4 on the cultural diversity score, coming sixth in the ethnoracial rank, fifth in the linguistic diversity rank and 79th in the birthplace diversity rank.

Silver Spring received a 92.59 cultural diversity score. The city placed seventh in the ethnoracial rank, ninth in the linguistic diversity rank and 39th in the birthplace diversity rank.

Rockville was given a 87.94 cultural diversity score. Rockville placed 54th in the ethnoracial rank, 13th in the linguistic diversity rank and 34th in the birthplace diversity rank.

To view the full report, check it out here.

Photo of Silver Spring: thisisbossi/Flickr