AmericaAfrica

This is the second edition of Fact’s About African American Americans You May Not Know (Social and Economic Edition). Click here for the first one.  The data is about African Americans and is from the U.S. Census and Nielson. The Census totals are the latest information from the 2012 American Community Data Survey. I this put together in response to African Americans who were incredibly misinformed about our status in America. We are an exceptional people who occupy every profession and industry. We have served our nation proudly as both civilians and veterans. We speak various languages and come from every corner of the globe. I hope this destroys stereotypes and gives you a clear view of who we are and where we are going. This is public data. This is your data. We may not see it or hear this on the news so I urge you to share it and get the word out. The only limit we have is the one we place on ourselves. We are amazing people so think and be limitless.

Highlights:

  • Twenty-eight percent of African Americans are married.
  • 60% of foreign born African Americans are from Latin America
  • Over 8.3% of African Americans have served our nation and are veterans.
  • 30% of African Americans ages 3 and up are enrolled in a post-secondary program.
  • The number of African American business have tripled from 2002-2007.
  • As of 2007, there were 1.9 million African American businesses and 37.6 % were in the in the health care and social assistance industries.
  • African Americans 2013 buying power was $1 trillion.

As of 2012, there are 39,623,138 African Americans. African Americans account for 13% of the United States population.

Gender Percentage
Male 47.7%
Female 52.3%

More than half of the Black population are Black women.
There are two million more Black women then Black men.
Median age for African Americans in the United States is 32.9 years old.
Approximately 26.6% (10.5 million) of the African American population is under 18 years old.

There are over 14 million African American households in the United States.
Over 62% of those households are families.
Of those families 27.4% are married.

Marital Status

Population 15 years and over

Total

Male

Female

30,914,435

14,488,687

16,425,748

Now married, except separated

28.8%

32.4%

25.5%

Widowed

5.8%

2.5%

8.6%

Divorced

12.2%

10.5%

13.7%

Separated

4.3%

3.8%

4.8%

Never married

49.0%

50.8%

47.4%

Approximately 49% of African Americans have never been married.
50.8% of African American men have never been married.
47.4% of all African American women have never been married.

School Enrollment

Enrollment Male Female
3 years and over enrolled in school 5,893,891 6,502,633
Percent enrolled in kindergarten to grade 12 69.0% 59.5%
Percent enrolled in college or graduate school 24.5% 34.9%

There are over 12 million African Americans ages three and over enrolled in school. Of that total 30% are in college or graduate school.

Education Attainment

Population 25 years and over Total Male Female
High school graduate or higher 83.2% 81.8% 84.4%
Bachelor’s degree or higher 18.7% 16.4% 20.7%

Of the population of age 25 and older, 18.7% of African Americans have a bachelors, graduate or a post graduate degree.
Over 33.1% of African Americans have some college education or an associate’s degree.

Foreign Born African American Population Region Percentage
Population born outside the United States

3,477,342

  Europe

1.8%

  Asia

0.7%

  Africa

36.7%

  Oceania

0.1%

  Latin America

60.2%

  Northern America

0.6%

Over 3 million African Americans are foreign born.
Over 60% of foreign born African Americans are from Latin America.
Eight percent of African Americans age five and over speak a language other than English.

Occupation

 Occupations Total Male Female
Civilian employed population 16 years and over

15,518,116

7,059,566

8,458,550

Management, business, science, and arts occupations

28.1%

22.6%

32.6%

Service occupations

25.7%

22.8%

28.1%

Sales and office occupations

25.9%

18.9%

31.8%

Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations

5.3%

10.9%

0.6%

Production, transportation, and material moving occupations

15.0%

24.7%

6.9%

Approximately 62% of African Americans over the age of 16 are in the workforce.
Twenty-eight percent of African Americans are in the management, business, science, and arts occupations.
Twenty-nine percent of African Americans are employed in the educational services, and health care and social assistance industries.
19% of African Americans are government employees.

Median family income (dollars)

    Families Families Married-couple family Male householder, no spouse present, family Female householder, no husband present, family
Median family income

$40,946

$65,914

$33,860

$25,594

The median family income for African Americans is $40,946.

Poverty Rates for Families

  All families 24.2%
  Married-couple family 8.4%
  Female householder, no husband present, family 38.8%

Over 28.1% of African Americans live in poverty.

Of that total 39.6% are children under 18 years old.
Of the African American families in poverty only 8.4% are married African American families

Source: 2012 American Community Survey – 1 Year Estimates

Survey of Business Owners 

“From 2002 to 2007, the number of black-owned businesses increased by 60.5 percent to 1.9 million, more than triple the national rate of 18.0 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners. Over the same period, receipts generated by black-owned businesses increased 55.1 percent to $137.5 billion.

  • Of the 1.9 million black-owned businesses in 2007, 106,824 had paid employees, an increase of 13.0 percent from 2002. These businesses employed 921,032 people, an increase of 22.2 percent; their payrolls totaled $23.9 billion, an increase of 36.3 percent. Receipts from black-owned employer businesses totaled $98.9 billion, an increase of 50.2 percent from 2002.
  • In 2007, 1.8 million black-owned businesses had no paid employees, an increase of 64.5 percent from 2002. These nonemployer businesses’ receipts totaled $38.6 billion, an increase of 69.0 percent.
  • The number of black-owned businesses with receipts of $1 million or more increased by 35.4 percent to 14,507 between 2002 and 2007.”

Source: Survey of Small Business Owners, 2007 

According to Nielsen and the National Newspaper Publishers Association by 2017 African Americans will have a buying power of $1.3 trillion. African American’s 2013 buying power is $1 trillion. Read more at Nielsen.com.