<p> This thesis seeks to describe and explain the spatial pattern of urban residential blight. The empirical analysis is limited to one study area; that of the Chicago metropolitan area. The data are U.S. Census data for census tracts in 1940, 1950, and 1960. Following a review of pertinent literature, an attempt is made to conceptualise the process that generates residential blight. From this conceptual framework, a number of hypotheses are developed concerning the relationship between residential blight and selected socio-economic variables. Other relationships are derived from an interpretation of maps of residential blight in the Chicago area for the different time periods. The hypotheses are tested using such multivariate procedures as principal components analysis, and regression and correlation analysis. The thesis also contains an application of the Blalock-Simon procedure for causal modelling to the Chicago data. The findings of the empirical analysis are related to present knowledge concerning urban residential blight. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)