The number of Black people living in the United States reached a new high of This group is diverse, with an increasing number who say they are of two or more races. In this analysis, the population includes three main groups: single-race, non-Hispanic Black people; non-Hispanic, multiracial Black people; and Black Hispanics.
The Black Hispanic population is not the same as the Afro-Latino population. You can also read our updated fact sheet about Black Americans. All displayed numbers are rounded. Shares and percent changes are calculated using unrounded numbers. The racial and ethnic categories used in census data have changed over time β including question wording, format and instructions β and may affect how people identify by race and ethnicity.
Starting in , Americans could select more than one racial category in census forms. Before that, many multiracial people were counted in only one category. Note about total population estimates: A recent publication by the Census Bureau shows that immigrants are underrepresented in official population estimates used for the ACS.
Almost all of the additional people were immigrants. In this blog post, we report data on the Black population β which includes data on immigrants β using the ACS. Readers should be aware that the population figures shown in this report are slightly smaller than those indicated by the new Census Bureau estimates.
Black population or total Black population refers to the population of Americans who self-identify as Black in the United States. This includes those who say their race is only Black and that they are not Hispanic; those who say Black is one of two or more races in their identity and they are not Hispanic; and those who say they are either Black alone or in combination with other races and Hispanic or Latino.
