Over Half of Those Who Reported Their Race as Black or African American Identified as African American, Jamaican or Haitian

As a result, data are available from the 2020 Census for three regional Black or African American groups (Sub-Saharan African, Caribbean and Other Black or African American) and 62 detailed Black or African American groups such as African American, Eritrean and Grenadian.

Detailed responses from the race question are tabulated in two ways: race alone and race alone or in any combination.

The Black or African American alone population includes respondents who reported only one response, such as Zimbabwean, to the race question. The Black or African American alone or in any combination population includes those who reported one or more responses, such as Zimbabwean, or Zimbabwean and St. Lucian, or Zimbabwean and White.

Understanding the composition of the race alone and the race alone or in any combination populations is important as our country’s demographics change and the nation becomes much more multiracial.

Throughout this article, we will refer to the Black or African American population as the Black population. The term African American throughout this article refers to people who reported their detailed response as African American.