History

• The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech traced the perception and reality of gated communities; while they have traditionally been considered enclaves of the wealthy, lower-income residents also seek quarters in gated communities and are increasingly finding them.
  
  

Expert Insight

• Lighting and emergency buttons add to residents' feelings of safety.light image by pearlguy from Fotolia.com
  
  Research from Texas A&M found that residents felt safer in gated communities, regardless of how secure their communities actually were, and regardless of whether crime statistics showed that they actually were safer within their community. Lighting, emergency buttons and access to police officers were factors that also contributed to perceived safety in addition to the gates of their community.
  
  

Significance

• Approximately 6 percent of U.S. households are in gated communities.Gate image by Yuriy Rozanov from Fotolia.com
  
  The Census Bureau's 2001 housing survey estimated that more than 7 million households, or 6 percent of households in the U.S., are within gated communities, and 4 million of those households are within communities controlled by increased security measures such as gates that require codes or key cards or security guards.
  
  

Misconceptions

• While homeowners do tend to fit the stereotypical resident of a gated community, as they are mostly high-income residents, a renter is 2.5 times more likely than a homeowner to live in a community with gates or protected by walls.
  
  

Warning

• Research from the University of Wisconsin found that crime rates within gated communities were not significantly different from those in non-gated neighborhoods. In high-income communities, residents felt a decreased sense of community in the gated community; in lower-income gated communities, no differences were found.