List of U.S. states and territories by African-American population Facts for Kids

African Americans are a big part of the United States' population. This article looks at how many people identify as African American in different U.S. states, territories, and the District of Columbia. We'll use information from the 2020 U.S. Census.

In 2020, about 12.4% of people in the U.S. said they were "Black" and no other race. If you include people who said they were "Black" and also another race, the percentage goes up to about 14.2%.

Proportion of African Americans in each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census

Proportion of black Americans in each county of the fifty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census

African American Population in 2020
African American Population Over Time (1790–2020)
Free Black Population (1790–1860)
See also

African American Population in 2020

The table below shows the places with the highest percentage of people who identify as Black or African American, either alone or combined with another race, according to the 2020 census.

% Black or African American alone or in combination	Rank	State or territory	Black or African American alone Population (2020)
76.0%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&01.&&&&&01	Virgin Islands (U.S.)	80,908
44.17%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&02.&&&&&02	District of Columbia	385,810
37.94%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&03.&&&&&03	Mississippi	1,084,481
33.13%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&04.&&&&&04	Louisiana	1,564,023
33.03%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&05.&&&&&05	Georgia	3,538,146
32.01%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&06.&&&&&06	Maryland	2,220,472
29.80%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&07.&&&&&07	Alabama	1,696,162
27.09%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&08.&&&&&08	South Carolina	1,680,531
23.50%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&&09.&&&&&09	North Carolina	2,350,217
22.11%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&010.&&&&&010	Delaware	218,899
14.20%	&&&&&&&&&&&&&0-2.1000000-	United States of America	47,511,020

African American Population Over Time (1790–2020)

For many years, from 1787 to 1868, the U.S. Census counted enslaved African Americans in a special way. This was part of something called the Three-fifths Compromise. This agreement was made when the U.S. Constitution was being written. It decided that each enslaved person would count as three-fifths of a person for two main reasons:

To figure out how many representatives each state would have in the U.S. House of Representatives.
To decide how much each state would pay in taxes (though this tax part was never actually used).

Even though enslaved people couldn't vote, this compromise gave Southern states more power in Congress and more votes for president. Free Black people and indentured servants (people who worked to pay off a debt) were counted as full people.

The Three-fifths Compromise was part of the original U.S. Constitution. But in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment changed this rule, and the compromise was officially ended.

The chart below shows how the percentage of African Americans in the total population has changed over time in the U.S. and in some specific states. You can see how these numbers have shifted from 1790 all the way to 2020.

Free Black Population (1790–1860)

In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment made all enslaved Black people in the U.S. free. However, some states had already freed some or all of their Black population before that.

The table below shows the percentage of free Black people compared to the total Black population in different U.S. regions and states between 1790 and 1860. If a spot is blank, it means there's no data for that area or year.

**Free Black People as a Percentage of the Total Black Population by U.S. Region and State (1790–1860)**
State/territory	1790	1800	1810	1820	1830	1840	1850	1860
United States	7.9%	10.8%	13.5%	13.2%	13.7%	13.4%	11.9%	11.0%
Northeast	40.1%	56.2%	73.5%	83.7%	97.8%	99.5%	99.8%	100.0%
Midwest		78.7%	52.4%	38.0%	37.7%	34.4%	35.5%	37.6%
South	4.7%	6.7%	8.5%	8.2%	8.4%	8.1%	7.0%	6.3%
West							97.9%	99.4%
Alabama		4.4%	2.2%	1.3%	1.3%	0.8%	0.7%	0.6%
Alaska
Arizona								100.0%
Arkansas			1.4%	3.5%	3.0%	2.3%	1.3%	0.1%
California							100.0%	100.0%
Colorado								100.0%
Connecticut	50.4%	84.9%	95.4%	98.8%	99.7%	99.8%	100.0%	100.0%
Delaware	30.5%	57.3%	75.9%	74.2%	82.8%	86.7%	88.8%	91.7%
District of Columbia		16.2%	30.7%	37.9%	50.5%	66.2%	73.2%	77.8%
Florida					5.2%	3.1%	2.3%	1.5%
Georgia	1.3%	1.7%	1.7%	1.2%	1.1%	1.0%	0.8%	0.8%
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois		41.5%	78.5%	33.3%	68.7%	91.6%	100.0%	100.0%
Indiana		75.7%	62.4%	86.6%	99.9%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Iowa					91.5%	100.0%	100.0%
Kansas							99.7%
Kentucky	0.9%	1.8%	2.1%	2.1%	2.9%	3.9%	4.5%	4.5%
Louisiana			18.0%	13.2%	13.2%	13.1%	6.7%	5.3%
Maine	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	99.8%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Maryland	7.2%	15.6%	23.3%	27.0%	33.9%	40.9%	45.3%	49.1%
Massachusetts	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Michigan		100.0%	83.3%	100.0%	99.6%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Minnesota							100.0%	100.0%
Mississippi		5.0%	1.2%	1.4%	0.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.2%
Missouri			17.4%	3.3%	2.2%	2.6%	2.9%	3.0%
Montana
Nebraska								81.7%
Nevada								100.0%
New Hampshire	79.9%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	99.5%	99.8%	100.0%	100.0%
New Jersey	19.5%	26.2%	42.0%	62.2%	89.0%	96.9%	99.0%	99.9%
New Mexico							100.0%	100.0%
New York	17.9%	33.3%	62.8%	74.4%	99.8%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
North Carolina	4.7%	5.0%	5.7%	6.7%	7.4%	8.5%	8.7%	8.4%
North Dakota
Ohio		100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	99.9%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Oklahoma
Oregon							100.0%	100.0%
Pennsylvania	63.6%	89.5%	96.6%	99.3%	98.9%	99.9%	100.0%	100.0%
Rhode Island	78.2%	89.7%	97.1%	98.7%	99.5%	99.8%	100.0%	100.0%
South Carolina	1.7%	2.1%	2.3%	2.6%	2.4%	2.5%	2.3%	2.4%
South Dakota								N/A
Tennessee	9.6%	2.2%	2.9%	3.3%	3.1%	2.9%	2.6%	2.6%
Texas							0.7%	0.2%
Utah							48.0%	50.8%
Vermont	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%
Virginia	4.1%	5.6%	7.3%	8.2%	9.3%	10.1%	10.2%	10.5%
Washington							100.0%	100.0%
West Virginia	11.6%	6.8%	10.5%	8.5%	10.9%	14.1%	13.1%	13.1%
Wisconsin				100.0%	51.6%	94.4%	100.0%	100.0%
Wyoming