Black ethnic groups

[Docere]

Black alone or in combination, 2020 Census

African American 24,569,479
Jamaican 1,047,117
Haitian 1,032,717
Nigerian 604,077
Ethiopian 325,214
Somali 221,043
Trinidadian and Tobagonian 194,364
Ghanaian 172,558
West Indian 119,806

Obviously a lot of Black Americans just tick the Black box and don't specify beyond Black racial identity.

[Docere]

Black Caribbean and Black African ethnicities with at least 20,000 (% of Black population):

California

Nigerian 57,066 2%
Jamaican 37,264 1.3%
Ethiopian 33,191 1.2%

Connecticut

Jamaican 52,815 11.3%
Haitian 21,078 4.5%

Florida

Haitian 456,362 12.3%
Jamaican 254,148 6.9%
Trinidadian and Tobagonian 30,412 0.8%
West Indian 21,779 0.6%
Bahamian 21,105 0.6%

Georgia

Jamaican 60,091 1.7%
Nigerian 38,952 1.1%
Haitian 30,853 0.9%

Illinois

Nigerian 29,587 1.5%

Maryland

Nigerian 57,571 2.9%
Jamaican 35,953 1.8%
Ethiopian 34,650 1.8%

Massachusetts

Haitian 87,328 13%
Jamaican 29,099 4.3%

Minnesota

Somali 91,111 18.8%
Ethiopian 26,259 5.4%

New Jersey

Haitian 71,670 5.1%
Jamaican 61,949 4.4%
Nigerian 32,776 2.3%

New York

Jamaican 284,228 8%
Haitian 187,087 5.3%
Trinidadian and Tobagonian 71,251 2%
Nigerian 52,110 1.5%
West Indian 45,878 1.3%
Ghanaian 28,642 0.8%
Barbadian 20,482 0.8%

Ohio

Somali 26,160 1.5%

Pennsylvania

Jamaican 33,767 2%
Haitian 28,136 1.7%

Texas

Nigerian 117,363 3%
Jamaican 29,100 0.7%
Ethiopian 27,903 0.7%

Virginia

Ethiopian 34,903 1.9%

Washington

Ethiopian 24,530 5.5%

[Nite]

Originally Posted by Docere

Black alone or in combination, 2020 Census

African American 24,569,479
Jamaican 1,047,117
Haitian 1,032,717
Nigerian 604,077
Ethiopian 325,214
Somali 221,043
Trinidadian and Tobagonian 194,364
Ghanaian 172,558
West Indian 119,806

Obviously a lot of Black Americans just tick the Black box and don't specify beyond Black racial identity.

It's amazing how small the African population in the US is

[streetscaper]

I wonder which has the higher amount of Haitians, New York metropolitan area or the Miami metro area.

For NY, I think you could simply add the state numbers for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut and get close to the real number (~270,000). But I don't think you could do the same with Florida for Miami.

I think they'll have similar numbers, but Miami metro will still be ahead

[iheartthed]

I think the Black American population is a bit north of 40 million, maybe even close to 50 million. Any idea why this population is so much smaller than expected?

[Docere]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I think the Black American population is a bit north of 40 million, maybe even close to 50 million. Any idea why this population is so much smaller than expected?

I think it's mainly because most tick off Black and see specifying further as African American as redundant.

[eschaton]

It's interesting to me that there are not even 100,000 Dominicans in the U.S. who self-identify as even partially black, considering there are nearly 2.4 million of them in the U.S.

Yeah, for various historical reasons (mostly due to their home country's troubled history with Haiti) Dominicans tend to downplay their African descent to what seems a strange degree to Americans (since by U.S. standards, they tend to be read as black, though in reality they're about an even mix). But not even 5% of them identifying as even partially black in 2020 is pretty shocking, because some of the young second/third generation Dominican-Americans I've known are more accepting of being Afro-Latino.

[Docere]

It's likely these figures are for the non-Hispanic Black population.

[TWAK]

I'd like to see the ancestry breakdown for the 24.5 million, like I'm Italian but I don't think I'd ever put that on the census. Probably hasn't been an option in 50 years.
A job for 23&Me and not the census it would seem.

-for the dominican comment above...yeah there has to be more and I would not want to touch the complexities with a 10 foot pole.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by eschaton

It's interesting to me that there are not even 100,000 Dominicans in the U.S. who self-identify as even partially black, considering there are nearly 2.4 million of them in the U.S.

Yeah, for various historical reasons (mostly due to their home country's troubled history with Haiti) Dominicans tend to downplay their African descent to what seems a strange degree to Americans (since by U.S. standards, they tend to be read as black, though in reality they're about an even mix). But not even 5% of them identifying as even partially black in 2020 is pretty shocking, because some of the young second/third generation Dominican-Americans I've known are more accepting of being Afro-Latino.

I don't know if that holds true in the second generations and later. A lot of second generation Dominicans do tend to identify as "Afro-Latino". Even those with lighter skin that can blend in with white America have embraced "Afro-Latino" recently. It's also fairly common for Dominicans to mix with other ethnic groups that identify as Black (African Americans, Jamaicans, etc).

[Steely Dan]

Chicago's relative lack of black African and Caribbean immigrants is on full display here, making the black flight numbers from the city even more pronounced.

Some cities like NYC have also experienced a lot of black flight of African Americans too, but then there's a much healthier amount of "backfilling" of overall black population through significantly stronger black immigration there.

Chicago's black population is probably over 95% African American. I don't know exactly what that percentage is in NYC, but I know it's WAY lower.


Also very interesting to see Minnesota with over 40% of the nation's Somalis all by itself. That's quite a concentration in a fairly unexpected place.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by TWAK

I'd like to see the ancestry breakdown for the 24.5 million, like I'm Italian but I don't think I'd ever put that on the census. Probably hasn't been an option in 50 years.

Italian was an option in the 2020 census.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Also very interesting to see Minnesota with over 40% of the nation's Somalis all by itself. That's quite a concentration in a fairly unexpected place.

The U.S. federal government decides where refugees go and for whatever reason Minnesota is a common area for refugee settlement. Most Hmong refugees went to Minnesota as well.

[eschaton]

So I just played around with Census data and confirmed that the ACS survey that tracks detailed national ancestry doesn't actually have breakdowns for race. So you can't drill down and do an estimate of the number of different Latino groups who self-identify as black.

However, I found another data table from the 2021 ACS where those who self-identify as black/black alone have some more detailed data. Overall 2.53 million are foreign-born and from Latin America (which, admittedly, is inclusive of the Caribbean).

A better measure suggests 1.44 million black Americans speak Spanish at home.

About 660,000 black-identified Americans were born in Puerto Rico.

It's irritating that getting better data than this seems difficult, with the Census data.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by Docere

Italian was an option in the 2020 census.

Awe, well I didn't pick it nor would I at this point.
DNA testing for the 2030 census would be too invasive I would think, since people can't even get over them coming to the door lol.

[Docere]

The Census Bureau's website is an absolute mess. I've been posting the 2020 census:

https://www.census.gov/library/visua...20-census.html

Got to hand it to Statistics Canada. Far more accessible website and availability of data.

[Docere]

West Indian ancestry seems to be undercounted. The origin count lines up more or less with the foreign born count.

Black immigrants, New York State (2018)

Jamaica 226,898
Haiti 126,572
Trinidad and Tobago 73,294
Guyana 60,896
Ghana 35,838
Nigeria 34,761
Barbados 25,836

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by Docere

The U.S. federal government decides where refugees go and for whatever reason Minnesota is a common area for refugee settlement. Most Hmong refugees went to Minnesota as well.

I'm almost positive there was a thread addressing this and explaining it...maybe one of the midwest threads. IIRC I think the feds partnered with those states specifically, for whatever reason besides resettlement.
There's a lot of Hmong in the Central Valley.

[Docere]

Black Canadians

Total: 1,547,870

North American origins 164,820
Caribbean origins 548,060
African origins* 603,910

African, not otherwise specified 243,135
Jamaican 201,400
Haitian 167,445
Black, not otherwise specified 77,175
Nigerian 66,890
Somali 62,060
Congolese 42,845
Caribbean, not otherwise specified 40,515
Ethiopian 40,275
Eritrean 34,835
Ghanaian 30,150
Trinidadian/Tobagonian 30,235
African Canadian 29,370
Barbadian 22,615
African American 21,665
Guyanese 20,945


* excluding unspecified African not otherwise specified.

[KamJacob]

Any idea of what the numbers are for Kenyan, Somali and Eritrean populations in Washington State? There seems to be a not insignificant number of Horn of Africa centered immigrants in S King County as well as Pierce.

Anecdotally, my cousin who works at the State Hospital in Lakewood claims that half of the staff members there are Kenyan. I concede this could be exaggerated somewhat, but am just curious what the actual numbers are. Thanks in advance.