The Black population of the United States is diverse. Its members have varied histories in the nation – many are descendants of enslaved people, while others are recently arrived immigrants. The Black population also has nuanced ethnic and racial identities reflecting intermarriage and international migration. As a result, there are key distinctions in demographic and economic characteristics between different parts of the national Black population, highlighting its diverse multitude of backgrounds.
The U.S. Black population is also growing. In 2019, 46.8 million people in the U.S. identified their race as Black, either alone or as part of a multiracial or ethnic background. That is up from 36.2 million in 2000. The Black share of the U.S. population is higher today than in 2000 as well. About 14% of the national population said they were Black in 2019, up from 13% who did so in 2000.
At the same time, the Black population’s racial self-identification is changing. Among those who self-identify as “Black or African American,” the share who say it is their only racial or ethnic identification has declined over the past two decades. In 2019, 40.7 million, or 87%, identified their race as Black alone and their ethnicity as non-Hispanic, while around 3.7 million, or 8%, indicated their race was Black and another race (most often White) and not Hispanic. Another 2.4 million, or 5%, self-identified as both Black and Hispanic, or Black Hispanic. But these shares have changed since 2000. Then, 93% identified their race and ethnicity as Black alone.
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One-in-four Black people are members of Gen Z
The age structure of the Black population has also changed since 2000. As of 2019, the median age of single-race, non-Hispanic Black people is 35, compared with 30 in 2000. This makes the nation’s Black population younger than the nation’s single-race, non-Hispanic White population (with a median age of 43) and the single-race, non-Hispanic Asian population (38), and slightly older than the nation’s Hispanic population (29).
The median age for the entire Black population is 32, though it varies across the differing identities among the Black population. Among Black Hispanic people, it is 22 years. Meanwhile, multiracial Black people are the youngest group, with a median age of 16.
A quarter (25%) of those in the U.S. Black population are members of Generation Z – born between 1997 and 2012 and ages 7 to 22 in 2019. A further one-in-ten were under the age of 7 that year. Together, 35% of the U.S. Black population is age 22 or younger. Another 23% are Millennials, meaning that over half (59%) of the nation’s Black population were Millennials or younger (under age 38) in 2019.
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Over half of the Black population lives in the South
In 2019, the South was the region with the highest share of the country’s Black population, with 56% of this population living there. The Midwest and Northeast each held 17% of this population, while the West was home to one-tenth of the Black population.
Regionally, the share of the national Black population living in the South has grown. In 2000, over half (54%) of Black people in the U.S. lived in the South, a very similar share to 2019 (56%). Meanwhile, somewhat higher shares lived the Midwest and Northeast in 2000 than in 2019. Back then, 19% of the national Black population lived in the Midwest and 18% in the Northeast. Over the past two decades, the share of Black people living in Western states was unchanged, at 10%.
The growth of the Black population in the South suggests a departure from previous Black migration patterns. The first half of the 20th century featured increasing shares of the population residing in regions of the U.S. outside of the South, primarily after the start of the Great Migration in the late 1910s. {snip}
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The number of Black adults with a college degree or more education has more than doubled since 2000. That year, roughly 3 million Black adults ages 25 and older, or 15%, had earned at least a bachelor’s degree. That number grew to 6.7 million (23%) in 2019.
Notably, the share of the Black population with at least a college degree has risen at a similar rate to that of the general population. In 2000, roughly a quarter (24%) of the entire U.S. population ages 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher. In 2019, that share rose to 33%, an increase of 9 percentage points. The share of Black adults who earned a bachelor’s degree or higher also grew nearly 9 points over the same time period, from 15% to 23%.
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There were differences in educational attainment in 2019 among different subgroups of the Black population. Among these groups, the multiracial Black population has the highest shares of adults 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree (20%) and advanced degree (12%). Single-race Black adults and Black Hispanics 25 and older have similar, but lower, shares with a bachelor’s degree (14% and 15%, respectively) as well as an advanced degree (9% and 8%).
The share of Black adults 25 and older without a high school diploma (or its equivalent, such as a GED certificate) has dropped substantially – by more than half – since 2000. Then, roughly three-in-ten adults in that age range (28%) had not earned a high school diploma. In 2019, that share had dropped to 13%, signifying a 15 percentage point drop over almost two decades.
Immigrants are a part of the nation’s Black population that has grown over time. The foreign-born Black population has nearly doubled since 2000, rising from 7% then to 10% in 2019. In numbers, 2.4 million Black people were born in another country in 2000, and by 2019, that had risen to 4.6 million.
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Black household incomes since 2000
Since 2000, the U.S. Black population has not seen significant increases in median household income. The median income for households headed by a Black person was $44,000 in 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession). But household income of Black households varies. Roughly three-in-ten Black households (29%) made less than $25,000 in 2019, while a quarter earned between $25,000 and $49,999 – which means that more than half (54%) of Black households made less than $50,000 in 2019. About one-in-six Black households (17%) made $50,000 but below $75,000, 10% earned at least $75,000 but less than $100,000, and 18% earned $100,000 or more in 2019.
The 2019 shares represent an improvement over the distribution of Black household income in 2000. That year, roughly six-in-ten (61%) Black-headed households made $25,000 or less (in 2019 U.S. dollar adjusted value), and more than a quarter (27%) made between $25,000 and $49,999, meaning that 88% of Black households earned less than $50,000 in 2000. In that same year, roughly one-in-ten Black households (11%) made at least $50,000 but less than $100,000, and 2% made $100,000 or more.
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