People from St. Louis tend to over-play this -- it&#x27;s pretty normal for cities to be separated from their surrounding suburbs in these sorts of statistics. Almost <i>all</i> of the mid-sized Midwest cities have populations in the 300k range and regional populations in the millions. St. Louis really is an exceptionally segregated city and region -- the city vs. county population trope is more of a favorite local excuse than a legitimate explanation.<p>Speaking more specifically, compare Normandy to Ladue. St. Louis County isn&#x27;t just a mirror of its city -- if anything, it&#x27;s a magnification of its city. This American Life did an excellent story that discusses this ( <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thisamericanlife.org&#x2F;radio-archives&#x2F;episode&#x2F;562&#x2F;the-problem-we-all-live-with" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thisamericanlife.org&#x2F;radio-archives&#x2F;episode&#x2F;562&#x2F;t...</a> ):<p>* nearly 1&#x2F;2 of black students in the St. Louis region (not the city -- the entire region, those 1.5m people) attended unaccreddited or provisionally accredited schools.<p>* Tellingly, the first wave of desegregation in St. Louis included County schools because, according to the judge, the county suburbs shared equal blame for the segregation of city schools.