What proportion of americans are black?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Census%2C_2000
12.3 % (35,624,779 )

Answer 2

Define black ? Ok. For our purposes here, it means a person who is of , ok, let's be liberal with it and say at least fully HALF black African (that is, sub-Saharan African) ancestry. That I would consider black. I don't subscribe , nor do most people anymore I don't think, to the old school Southern "one drop rule" or any of that nonsense. I would say if someone is half-black however, like Halle Berry for example, and they "self-identify" as black more so than identifying as anything else (as she seems to), then they are , for all intents and purposes, black.

So, that having been said, I believe current figures are right around 13% or so. That is based on census respondents who answered "Black / African descent". Black Americans have however recently been overtaken and slightly surpassed by Latin Americans in the US (mostly these are Mexicans, however other Latin American nations are well represented here as well of course). They are at, I believe, right around 14%. However, they are predicted to outpace blacks in the near future due to higher birthrates, larger families, and certain social / cultural differences which seem to be , thus far at least, causing them to "go further" , if you will, than unfortunately all-too-many black Americans. One key thing that Hispanics / Latinos have , for example, which the black community is sorely lacking, is fathers who (generally) stay with one wife and raise their children with her. Also the argument is sometimes made, and not wholly without reason, that Hispanics / Latinos are currently "working harder" to "get ahead" than are (again "all-too- many") black Americans. That in itself, I realize, sounds like an anti-black comment but I am in no way shape or form anti-black. No more so than Bill Cosby is. I'm merely stating here some things that I have read in other sources and have agreed with. I'm sorry if it offends anyone.

Answer 3

According to the 2005 United States Census, 12.1% of the nation claims to have a single race of Black/African American.

Answer 4

I believe the Scot/Irish hold a greater percentage around 34/40%in the US.
Black American hold around 12%

Answer 5

Yeah we like to waste money on a war that was over a lie. We also dont' help the homeless or our own sick children. Maybe we'll learn our lesson someday eh?

Answer 6

about 15% of the population

Answer 7

12%

Answer 8

I agree with cedley196 - What's black? How come if someone is mostly white with a bit of black they are called black in the U.S.? Why isn't it if someone is mostly black with a bit of white they are called white?
And if you look at the different shades of "white" in Europe - some of them look the same as so-called "black" people in the U.S. or the U.K.
Who cares?

Answer 9

It's about 13 percent of the population.!!!

Answer 10

not as much as it was, since the goverment left most of them to die after "katrina" im watching the spike lee documentary on it, im starting to feel very angry that the usa could treat their citizens, no matter what colout like this in 2006

if they had not spent their money on going to war -based on a lie, then maybe they could have helped their own.

Answer 11

Demographics

Metropolitan Areas with High Populations of African Americans (2000 Census) Rank Metropolitan Area African American Population % of African Americans
1st New York City, New York 2,166,576 23.3
2nd Chicago, Illinois 1,557,619 18.8
3rd Washington D.C. District of Columbia 1,288,470 26.2
4th Atlanta, Georgia 1,189,179 28.9
5th Detroit, Michigan 1,024,353 23.1
6th Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1,023,425 20.1
7th Los Angeles, California 924,518 9.7
8th Houston, Texas 727,165 17.4
9th Baltimore, Maryland 703,323 27.5
10th Dallas, Texas 530,715 15.1

African Americans as percent of population, 2000.
African American population density, 2000.In 1790, when the first census was taken, African Americans numbered about 760,000—about 19% of the population. In 1860, at the start of the American Civil War, the African American population increased to 4.4 million, but the percentage rate dropped to 14% of the overall population of the country. The vast majority were slaves, with only 488,000 counted as "freemen". By 1900, the black population had doubled and reached 8.8 million.

In 1910, about 90% of African Americans lived in the South, but large numbers began migrating north looking for better job opportunities and living conditions, and to escape Jim Crow and racial violence. The Great Migration, as it was called, spanned the 1890s to the 1970s. From 1916 through the 1960s, more than 6 million black people moved north. But in the 1970s and 1980s, that trend reversed, with more African Americans moving south to the Sunbelt than leaving it.

By 1990, the African American population reached about 30 million and represented 12% of the U.S. population, roughly the same proportion as in 1900. In current demographics, according to 2005 U.S. Census figures, some 39.9 million African Americans live in the United States, comprising 13.8 percent of the total population. African Americans were once the largest minority in the United States, but are now second, only behind Hispanics or Latinos of any race. At the time of the 2000 Census, 54.8 percent of African Americans lived in the South. In that year, 17.6 percent of African Americans lived in the Northeast and 18.7 percent in the Midwest, while only 8.9 percent lived in the western states. The west does have a sizable black population in certain areas, however. California, the nation's most populous state, has the fifth largest African American population, only behind New York, Texas, Georgia, and Florida.

Almost 88 percent of African Americans lived in metropolitan areas in 2000. With over 2 million black residents, New York City had the largest black urban population in the United States in 2000, overall the city has a 23 percent black population. Chicago has the second largest black population, with almost 1.6 million African Americans in it's metropolitan area, representing about 18 percent of the total metropolitan population. Among cities of 100,000 or more, Gary, Indiana, had the highest percentage of black residents of any U.S. city in 2000, with 85 percent. A 2006 estimate puts Gary's population below 100,000, however, many plans are being made to renovate the city, including the expansion of the Gary/Chicago International airport, which is expected to bring jobs along with the overall city population. Nonetheless, Gary is followed closely by Detroit, Michigan, with 83 percent African American. Atlanta, Georgia, has a substantial African American population of about 65 percent. Baltimore, Maryland, has a high African American population of 64 percent. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with 43 percent, Washington, D.C., with 60 percent, and Memphis, Tennessee with 61 percent, are also large African American population centers.

The nation's most affluent county with a majority African American population is Prince George's County, Maryland, with a median income of $62,467. Other affluent African American majority counties include Dekalb County in Georgia, and Charles City County in Virginia.