3 Bay Area cities make list as among the most diverse in U.S.

Cultural identity has long been at the heart of the melting pot that is America. Yet immigration continues to be a hot-button issue even as the country gets more ethnically diverse. The nature of race, culture and community seems more controversial now than ever.

That’s one of the reasons WalletHub, a personal finance site, took a snapshot of the nation, comparing more than 500 of the largest U.S. cities to see which are the most diverse. The company analyzed each city based on ethnicity, race, language and birthplace. Most of the data used to create this ranking was obtained from the U.S.

Census Bureau.

It should come as no surprise that the

Bay Area excels by this measure. Long a region that has treasured diversity of all kinds and championed tolerance in the face of bigotry, the area has scored three cities in the top

11 in the nation.

Indeed, some would say the area’s rich cultural fusion, from the languages spoken to the cuisines celebrated, is precisely what makes living here worthwhile despite its housing crisis, steep cost of living and soul-crushing traffic.

This is a microcosm of the multicultural movement.

Congratulations go to Oakland, which came in at seventh place. The largest city in the East Bay, with a population of 429,082, according to the census, received a score of 68.91.

“The city ranked first in terms of ethnoracial diversity,” said WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez. “This is because the majority of its population is almost evenly distributed between white, Hispanic or Latino, and black or African American. Additionally, Asians make up for almost 16% of Oakland’s population.”

San Jose, which ranked at number eight, got a total score of 68.5. San Jose has a population of 1,030,119, according to the census.

“It stands out particularly in terms of linguistic diversity,” Gonzalez said. “As the second most language-diverse city, San Jose has about a quarter of its residents who speak Asian and Pacific Islander languages, and another 23% who speak Spanish.”

For the record, San Francisco also fared well in this ranking. The famously progressive City by the Bay came in at 11th place.

“As the second most languagediverse city, San Jose has about a quarter of its residents who speak Asian and Pacific Islander languages, and another 23% who speak Spanish.” — Jill Gonzalez, WalletHub analyst