Black population by state

The main column is the Census Bureau's population estimate of people who are Black alone, of any Hispanic origin, on July 1, 2025. The two extra columns come from the 2025 American Community Survey: Black alone or in combination with other races, and Black alone excluding Hispanic residents. On the alone-or-in-combination measure the District of Columbia is again highest (42.3%) and Montana lowest (1.2%⁴).

States with the most Black residents

A state's share and its number of Black residents rank very differently. Mississippi¹ has the highest share of any state but 1,059,049³ Black residents, fewer than Ohio. Texas², close to the national share, has the most. The table uses the American Community Survey count of people who reported Black alone in 2025; the rank column uses the 2020–2024 survey, the period used to rank every state on the same basis.

The United States had 41.2 million Black residents in 2025 on this measure. California is the only state in the West among the largest Black populations; it ranks 6th largest² by number while Black residents are 6.4% of its population, 21st lowest. At the other end, Montana¹ (6,883, ±1,660) and Wyoming (4,472) have the fewest Black residents, followed by Vermont (10,898³).

A Southern pattern, with northern exceptions

The ten highest shares are all in the Census Bureau's South region: the District of Columbia, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Alabama, South Carolina, Delaware, North Carolina and Virginia. 18 states, counting DC, are above the national figure of 13.5%; outside the South they are New York (18.1%), New Jersey (15.8%), Illinois (14.5%), Michigan (13.9%) and Connecticut (13.6%¹).

The lowest share in the South, West Virginia's 4.0%, is still higher than in most Western states, where the highest share, Nevada's 11.3%, is 2.2 percentage points below the US figure (13.5%). In the Midwest, Illinois leads at 14.5%, and in the Northeast New York leads at 18.1%. The median of the 51 values is 9.7%¹, well below the national share, because a few populous states with large Black populations pull the national figure up.

How the shares changed since 2020

In the population estimates, the national Black share rose slightly, up from 13.4% in 2020. Most states moved by a fraction of a percentage point. The District of Columbia had the largest decline: its share was 41.6% in 2025, down from 43.7% in 2020, a drop of 2.1 percentage points. South Carolina followed, down from 25.6% in 2020¹.

The largest increases, 1.0 percentage points each, were in Connecticut (up from 12.6% in 2020), Delaware (up from 23.0% in 2020), Massachusetts (up from 9.3% in 2020) and Minnesota (up from 7.3% in 2020). Maine's share is small but rose from 2.0% to 2.9%¹. These are estimates, not survey figures, so they carry no margin of error, but each new vintage revises the earlier years.

District of ColumbiaGeorgiaMississippiUnited States

Source: Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2005-2019 and 2021-2025. ACS 1-year estimates; no standard 1-year release for 2020. Shaded band: 90% margin of error.

Show the numbers

Year	District of Columbia	Georgia	Mississippi	United States
2005	56.3% ±0.3	29.0% ±0.1	36.4% ±0.2	11.9% ±0.0
2006	54.9% ±0.4	29.6% ±0.1	37.3% ±0.2	12.2% ±0.0
2007	54.2% ±0.2	29.7% ±0.1	37.4% ±0.2	12.2% ±0.0
2008	52.8% ±0.5	29.6% ±0.1	37.4% ±0.2	12.1% ±0.0
2009	52.7% ±0.3	29.6% ±0.1	37.0% ±0.2	12.1% ±0.0
2010	50.5% ±0.3	30.3% ±0.1	37.2% ±0.2	12.3% ±0.0
2011	49.5% ±0.3	30.3% ±0.1	37.3% ±0.2	12.2% ±0.0
2012	48.8% ±0.2	30.5% ±0.1	37.5% ±0.2	12.3% ±0.0
2013	48.0% ±0.4	30.5% ±0.1	37.6% ±0.2	12.3% ±0.0
2014	47.7% ±0.3	30.9% ±0.1	37.7% ±0.2	12.3% ±0.0
2015	46.6% ±0.3	30.9% ±0.1	37.6% ±0.2	12.3% ±0.0
2016	46.4% ±0.3	31.1% ±0.1	37.9% ±0.2	12.3% ±0.0
2017	45.4% ±0.4	31.1% ±0.1	37.9% ±0.2	12.3% ±0.0
2018	44.4% ±0.4	31.2% ±0.1	37.9% ±0.2	12.3% ±0.0
2019	44.2% ±0.4	31.5% ±0.1	37.8% ±0.3	12.4% ±0.0
2021	42.7% ±0.4	30.4% ±0.2	36.0% ±0.3	11.8% ±0.0
2022	41.7% ±0.6	30.7% ±0.2	36.5% ±0.3	11.9% ±0.0
2023	40.2% ±0.8	30.5% ±0.2	35.5% ±0.4	11.8% ±0.0
2024	40.7% ±0.5	30.3% ±0.2	35.8% ±0.3	11.8% ±0.0
2025	38.0% ±0.9	30.2% ±0.2	35.8% ±0.4	11.7% ±0.0

The survey's longer series shows the shift in the District. Its non-Hispanic Black share was 56.3% in 2005 and 38.0% (±0.9 percentage points) in 2025; the latest year alone brought a decline (down from 40.7% in 2024). Georgia's share moved the other way, up from 29.0% in 2005 to 30.2%. Mississippi's was 35.8% (±0.4 percentage points⁵) in 2025, down from 36.4% in 2005⁷.

Four ways to count Black residents

Federal sources count Black residents in four ways, and each gives a different national figure:

• Black alone, any Hispanic origin (population estimates): 13.5%¹ on July 1, 2025. This is the ranking above. The estimates use modified race categories without a "Some other race" group, so their race shares are not directly comparable with survey shares.
• Black alone (American Community Survey): 12.1%³ in 2025, the basis of the count table.
• Black alone or in combination: 14.5%⁴ in 2025. It adds people who reported Black and one or more other races. Because a person can be counted in several race groups, these shares add up to more than the whole population.
• Black alone, not Hispanic: 11.7%⁵ in 2025, the narrowest measure.

The gap between the alone and the alone-or-in-combination shares is people of more than one race. Among combinations that include Black, the largest is white and Black: 4.5 million³ nationally in 2025. Their share is highest in Delaware and Ohio (1.9% each in 2020–2024) and the District of Columbia (1.7%). People who reported Black and "Some other race" are most common, as a share, in Rhode Island (1.9%), New York and Massachusetts (1.3%² each).

African and Caribbean ancestry

The survey also asks about ancestry, which people of any race report. 4.2 million people reported a sub-Saharan African ancestry in 2025, and 3.1 million⁸ a West Indian ancestry other than Hispanic groups. Their geography differs from the Black population as a whole.

• Sub-Saharan African: the most people in Texas (462,867 in 2020–2024); the highest shares in Maryland and the District of Columbia (4.4% each).
• By country: Nigerian ancestry is most common in Texas (141,307), Ethiopian in Maryland (42,074) and Somali in Minnesota (63,026).
• West Indian: Florida (981,702) and New York (751,510) have the most. Florida also has the most people of Haitian ancestry (520,017); Florida (326,202) and New York (312,178) have the most of Jamaican ancestry, while the highest Jamaican share is in Connecticut (1.8%⁹).

Ancestry is self-reported and counted for people of every race, so these figures describe reported ancestry, not the origins of all Black residents.

Reading these figures

• DC is a city. The District of Columbia is ranked with the states, as in Census Bureau tables, but it is a single urban area. This site covers states only, not cities or counties.
• Hispanic origin overlaps. The main ranking includes Black Hispanic residents. Use the not-Hispanic column when comparing with Hispanic shares, so that no one is counted twice.
• Share or number. "Most Black residents" and "highest Black percentage" lead to different states: Texas for the first, the District of Columbia and Mississippi for the second.
• Dates. The shares are for July 1, 2025 (population estimates, Vintage 2025); the counts are for 2025 (survey); detailed groups and ancestry by state use 2020–2024. The next state estimates by race are expected in June 2027.

For each state's full racial breakdown, see the race and ethnicity hub and the state pages, such as Mississippi, Georgia and Maryland.