Nigeria, the world’s most populous black nation, accounts for the highest number of African immigrants to the US. Among black immigrants from Africa, virtually all are from sub-Saharan African countries, with only 1% of all black immigrants from North Africa. Nigeria, with 226,000 immigrants, and Ethiopia, with 191,000, are the two largest birth countries for black African immigrants to the U.S. Ghana comes third with 147,000.
Black immigrants have roots in other parts of the world as well. Some 5% of all black immigrants are from South America and 4% are from Central America; those from Europe make up 2% of the population and those from South and East Asia make up 1%.
A record 3.8 million foreign-born blacks now live in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center . The influx means that the share of foreign-born blacks, largely from Africa and the Caribbean, has grown from 3.1 percent of the black population in 1980 to 8.7 percent in 2013. By 2060, 16.5 percent of the U.S. black population will be foreign-born, the report says.
Majority of the nation’s 40 million U.S.-born blacks trace their heritage to African ancestors who were brought here as slaves. The report also notes that blacks accounted for nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population at the end of the 18th century
The most recent wave of black immigration began in the 1960s after U.S. immigration laws were changed. In recent years, the pace has increased. The most recent Census Bureau estimates show that immigration accounted for 25 percent of the growth in the U.S. black population between 2010 and July 2013, Frey said.
Half of the black immigrants arrived from the Caribbean, the Pew report says. The largest source is Jamaica, with 682,000, followed by Haiti, with 586,000. Jamaican immigrants make up 18 percent of the black population in the United States; those from Haiti represent about 15 percent of the U.S. black population.
But a rapidly growing proportion of foreign-born blacks who arrived in the United States in recent years came from Africa, led almost entirely by immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, the report says. Nigeria and Ethiopia rank first and second, respectively, in the number of African immigrants in the United States. Many sub-Saharan immigrants — 28 percent — were refugees or others seeking asylum.
About 8 percent of black immigrants came from South or Central America, the report says.
In terms of socioeconomic profiles, foreign-born blacks have a median age of 42, compared with 29 for U.S.-born blacks. Twenty-six percent have a college education, compared with 19 percent of native-born blacks, and black immigrants are less likely to live in poverty (20 percent vs. 28 percent) and have higher incomes. About 48 percent of black immigrants who are 18 or older are also married, compared with 28 percent of blacks born here, a finding that is likely related to the higher median age among immigrants.
Pew’s report, based on census data, focuses on the rising number of foreign-born blacks, those who were born outside the United States, Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories. Their race was defined as “black” or “mixed race black” on Census Bureau surveys.
