About this dataset

Context

This list ranks the 51 states in the United States by Black or African American population, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau. It also highlights population changes in each states over the past five years.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates, including:

• 2019-2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2018-2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2016-2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Variables / Data Columns

• Rank by Black Population: This column displays the rank of states in the United States by their Black or African American population, using the most recent ACS data available.
• states: The states for which the rank is shown in the previous column.
• Black Population: The Black population of the states is shown in this column.
• % of Total states Population: This shows what percentage of the total states population identifies as Black. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.
• % of Total U.S. Black Population: This tells us how much of the entire United States Black population lives in that states. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.
• 5 Year Rank Trend: TThis column displays the rank trend across the last 5 years.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Graph and download economic data for Population Level - Black or African American (LNU00000006) from Jan 1972 to Sep 2025 about African-American, civilian, population, and USA.

In 2024, white Americans remained the largest racial group in the United States, numbering just over 254 million. Black Americans followed at nearly 47 million, with Asians totaling around 23 million. Hispanic residents, of any race, constituted the nation’s largest ethnic minority. Despite falling fertility, the U.S. population continues to edge upward and is expected to reach 342 million in 2025. International migrations driving population growth The United States’s population growth now hinges on immigration. Fertility rates have long been in decline, falling well below the replacement rate of 2.1. On the other hand, international migration stepped in to add some 2.8 million new arrivals to the national total that year. Changing demographics and migration patterns Looking ahead, the U.S. population is projected to grow increasingly diverse. By 2060, the Hispanic population is expected to grow to 27 percent of the total population. Likewise, African Americans will remain the largest racial minority at just under 15 percent.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the population of United States by race. It includes the population of United States across racial categories (excluding ethnicity) as identified by the Census Bureau. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of United States across relevant racial categories.

Key observations

The percent distribution of United States population by race (across all racial categories recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau): 63.44% are white, 12.36% are Black or African American, 0.88% are American Indian and Alaska Native, 5.82% are Asian, 0.19% are Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 6.60% are some other race and 10.71% are multiracial.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Racial categories include:

• White
• Black or African American
• American Indian and Alaska Native
• Asian
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
• Some other race
• Two or more races (multiracial)

Variables / Data Columns

• Race: This column displays the racial categories (excluding ethnicity) for the United States
• Population: The population of the racial category (excluding ethnicity) in the United States is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the percentage distribution of each race as a proportion of United States total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for United States Population by Race & Ethnicity. You can refer the same here

The statistic shows the share of U.S. population, by race and Hispanic origin, in 2016 and a projection for 2060. As of 2016, about 17.79 percent of the U.S. population was of Hispanic origin. Race and ethnicity in the U.S. For decades, America was a melting pot of the racial and ethnical diversity of its population. The number of people of different ethnic groups in the United States has been growing steadily over the last decade, as has the population in total. For example, 35.81 million Black or African Americans were counted in the U.S. in 2000, while 43.5 million Black or African Americans were counted in 2017.

The median annual family income in the United States in 2017 earned by Black families was about 50,870 U.S. dollars, while the average family income earned by the Asian population was about 92,784 U.S. dollars. This is more than 15,000 U.S. dollars higher than the U.S. average family income, which was 75,938 U.S. dollars.

The unemployment rate varies by ethnicity as well. In 2018, about 6.5 percent of the Black or African American population in the United States were unemployed. In contrast to that, only three percent of the population with Asian origin was unemployed.

United States - Population Level - Black or African American was 35892.00000 Thous. of Persons in September of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Population Level - Black or African American reached a record high of 35892.00000 in September of 2025 and a record low of 14332.00000 in January of 1972. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Population Level - Black or African American - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on December of 2025.

Context

Percentage of populations in the USA that identify as black. 1790-2018.

Content

Columns: State, Year, Percent

Acknowledgements

Data from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_African-American_population, via https://web.archive.org/web/20080725044857/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html.

Banner photo by Enayet Raheem on Unsplash

This statistics shows the leading metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of Black population in the United States in 2023. Among the 81 largest metropolitan areas, Memphis, Tennessee was ranked first with ** percent of residents reporting as Black or African-Americans in 2023.

Measure reports the percent of the State of Iowa's population that is classified as black or African American alone based data collected over a 60 month period. Data is from the American Community Survey, Five Year Estimates, Table B02001.

About this dataset

Context

This list ranks the 3065 counties in the United States by Black or African American population, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau. It also highlights population changes in each counties over the past five years.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates, including:

• 2019-2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2018-2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2016-2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Variables / Data Columns

• Rank by Black Population: This column displays the rank of counties in the United States by their Black or African American population, using the most recent ACS data available.
• counties: The counties for which the rank is shown in the previous column.
• Black Population: The Black population of the counties is shown in this column.
• % of Total counties Population: This shows what percentage of the total counties population identifies as Black. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.
• % of Total U.S. Black Population: This tells us how much of the entire United States Black population lives in that counties. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.
• 5 Year Rank Trend: TThis column displays the rank trend across the last 5 years.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

There were almost 700 thousand slaves in the U.S. in 1790, which equated to approximately 18 percent of the total population, or roughly one in six people. By 1860, the final census taken before the American Civil War, there were four million slaves in the South, compared with less than 500,000 free Black Americans in all of the U.S.. Of the 4.4 million Blacks in the U.S. before the war, almost four million of these people were held as slaves; meaning that for all African Americans living in the US in 1860, there was an 89 percent* chance that they lived in slavery. A brief history Trans-Atlantic slavery began in the early 16th century, when the Portuguese and Spanish forcefully brought enslaved Africans to the New World. The British Empire introduced slavery to North America on a large scale, and the economy of the British colonies there depended on slave labor, particularly regarding cotton, sugar, and tobacco output. In the seventeenth and eighteenth century the number of slaves being brought to the Americas increased exponentially, and at the time of American independence it was legal in all thirteen colonies. Although slavery became increasingly prohibited in the north, the number of slaves remained high during this time as they were simply relocated or sold from the north to the south. It is also important to remember that the children of slaves were also viewed as property, and were overwhelmingly born into a life of slavery. Abolition and the American Civil War In the years that followed independence, the Northern States gradually prohibited slavery, it was officially abolished there by 1805, and the importation of slave labor was prohibited nationwide from 1808 (although both still existed in practice after this). Business owners in the Southern States however depended on slave labor in order to meet the demand of their rapidly expanding industries, and the issue of slavery continued to polarize American society in the decades to come. This culminated in the election of President Abraham Lincoln in 1860, who promised to prohibit slavery in the newly acquired territories to the west, leading to the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. Although the Confederacy (south) took the upper hand in much of the early stages of the war, the strength in numbers of the northern states including many free, Black men, eventually resulted in a victory for the Union (north), and the nationwide abolishment of slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Legacy In total, an estimated twelve to thirteen million Africans were transported to the Americas as slaves, and this does not include the high number who did not survive the journey (which was as high as 23 percent in some years). In the 150 years since the abolition of slavery in the US, the African-American community have continuously campaigned for equal rights and opportunities that were not afforded to them along with freedom. The most prominent themes have been the Civil Rights Movement, voter suppression, mass incarceration, and the relationship between the police and the African-American community.

Graph and download economic data for Employment-Population Ratio - Black or African American (LNS12300006) from Jan 1972 to Aug 2025 about African-American, employment-population ratio, 16 years +, household survey, population, employment, and USA.

The following data set is information obtained about counties in the United States from 2010 through 2019 through the United States Census Bureau. Information described in the data includes the age distributions, the education levels, employment statistics, ethnicity percents, houseold information, income, and other miscellneous statistics. (Values are denoted as -1, if the data is not available)

Data Dictionary

This statistic shows the population of the United States in the final census year before the American Civil War, shown by race and gender. From the data we can see that there were almost 27 million white people, 4.5 million black people, and eighty thousand classed as 'other'. The proportions of men to women were different for each category, with roughly 700 thousand more white men than women, over 100 thousand more black women than men, and almost three times as many men than women in the 'other' category. The reason for the higher male numbers in the white and other categories is because men migrated to the US at a higher rate than women, while there is no concrete explanation for the statistic regarding black people.

About this dataset

Context

This list ranks the 27808 cities in the United States by Black or African American population, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau. It also highlights population changes in each cities over the past five years.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates, including:

• 2019-2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2018-2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2016-2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Variables / Data Columns

• Rank by Black Population: This column displays the rank of cities in the United States by their Black or African American population, using the most recent ACS data available.
• cities: The cities for which the rank is shown in the previous column.
• Black Population: The Black population of the cities is shown in this column.
• % of Total cities Population: This shows what percentage of the total cities population identifies as Black. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.
• % of Total U.S. Black Population: This tells us how much of the entire United States Black population lives in that cities. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.
• 5 Year Rank Trend: TThis column displays the rank trend across the last 5 years.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

NMCDC Copy of Living Atlas map. Source: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=23ab8028f1784de4b0810104cd5d1c8fIllustration by Brian BrenemanThis layer shows population broken down by race and Hispanic origin. This is shown by tract, county, and state boundaries. This service is updated annually to contain the most currently released American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year data, and contains estimates and margins of error. There are also additional calculated attributes related to this topic, which can be mapped or used within analysis. This layer is symbolized to show the predominant race living within an area. To see the full list of attributes available in this service, go to the "Data" tab, and choose "Fields" at the top right. Current Vintage: 2016-2020ACS Table(s): B03002 (Not all lines of this ACS table are available in this feature layer.)Data downloaded from: Census Bureau's API for American Community Survey Date of API call: March 17, 2022National Figures: data.census.govThe United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS):About the SurveyGeography & ACSTechnical DocumentationNews & UpdatesThis ready-to-use layer can be used within ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, its configurable apps, dashboards, Story Maps, custom apps, and mobile apps. Data can also be exported for offline workflows. For more information about ACS layers, visit the FAQ. Please cite the Census and ACS when using this data.Data Note from the Census:Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate arising from sampling variability is represented through the use of a margin of error. The value shown here is the 90 percent margin of error. The margin of error can be interpreted as providing a 90 percent probability that the interval defined by the estimate minus the margin of error and the estimate plus the margin of error (the lower and upper confidence bounds) contains the true value. In addition to sampling variability, the ACS estimates are subject to nonsampling error (for a discussion of nonsampling variability, see Accuracy of the Data). The effect of nonsampling error is not represented in these tables.Data Processing Notes:This layer is updated automatically when the most current vintage of ACS data is released each year, usually in December. The layer always contains the latest available ACS 5-year estimates. It is updated annually within days of the Census Bureau's release schedule. Click here to learn more about ACS data releases.Boundaries come from the US Census TIGER geodatabases, specifically, the National Sub-State Geography Database (named tlgdb_(year)_a_us_substategeo.gdb). Boundaries are updated at the same time as the data updates (annually), and the boundary vintage appropriately matches the data vintage as specified by the Census. These are Census boundaries with water and/or coastlines erased for cartographic and mapping purposes. For census tracts, the water cutouts are derived from a subset of the 2020 Areal Hydrography boundaries offered by TIGER. Water bodies and rivers which are 50 million square meters or larger (mid to large sized water bodies) are erased from the tract level boundaries, as well as additional important features. For state and county boundaries, the water and coastlines are derived from the coastlines of the 2020 500k TIGER Cartographic Boundary Shapefiles. These are erased to more accurately portray the coastlines and Great Lakes. The original AWATER and ALAND fields are still available as attributes within the data table (units are square meters). The States layer contains 52 records - all US states, Washington D.C., and Puerto RicoCensus tracts with no population that occur in areas of water, such as oceans, are removed from this data service (Census Tracts beginning with 99).Percentages and derived counts, and associated margins of error, are calculated values (that can be identified by the "_calc_" stub in the field name), and abide by the specifications defined by the American Community Survey.Field alias names were created based on the Table Shells file available from the American Community Survey Summary File Documentation page.Negative values (e.g., -4444...) have been set to null, with the exception of -5555... which has been set to zero. These negative values exist in the raw API data to indicate the following situations:The margin of error column indicates that either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute a standard error and thus the margin of error. A statistical test is not appropriate.Either no sample observations or too few sample observations were available to compute an estimate, or a ratio of medians cannot be calculated because one or both of the median estimates falls in the lowest interval or upper interval of an open-ended distribution.The median falls in the lowest interval of an open-ended distribution, or in the upper interval of an open-ended distribution. A statistical test is not appropriate.The estimate is controlled. A statistical test for sampling variability is not appropriate.The data for this geographic area cannot be displayed because the number of sample cases is too small.

The issue of race and slavery was arguably the largest cause of the American Civil War, with the southern states seceding from the Union as the practice of slavery became increasingly threatened. From the graph we can see that roughly 16.5 percent of the entire US population at this time was black, and the vast majority of these were slaves. In 1860 there were almost 27 million white people, four and a half million black people, and less than one hundred thousand non-black or white people (mostly of Native/Latin American or East-Asian origin).

Graph and download economic data for Population Estimate, Total, Not Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American Alone (5-year estimate) in King County, WA (B03002004E053033) from 2009 to 2023 about King County, WA; Seattle; African-American; non-hispanic; WA; estimate; 5-year; persons; population; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Population Estimate, Total, Hispanic or Latino, Black or African American Alone (5-year estimate) in New York County, NY (B03002014E036061) from 2009 to 2023 about New York County, NY; African-American; latino; hispanic; New York; estimate; NY; 5-year; persons; population; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Unemployment Rate - Black or African American (LNS14000006) from Jan 1972 to Sep 2025 about African-American, 16 years +, household survey, unemployment, rate, and USA.