The Pew Research Center recently released a new report outlining key facts about the current population of Black immigrants in the United States.
Over the twenty-first century, the number of Black immigrants in the U.S. has more than doubled, rising from 2.4 million in 2000 to 5.6 million in 2024. As of 2024, Black immigrants represent 11.2 percent of all U.S. immigrants.
This increase in Black immigrants has accounted for a quarter of the growth in the overall U.S. Black population, which rose by 13 million from 2000 to 2024. Black immigrants represent 11.4 percent of the total U.S. Black population. Combined, a quarter of all Black people living in the U.S. are either immigrants themselves or the children of immigrants. This is similar to the share of White Americans (24 percent), but far below the shares for Hispanic (66 percent) and Asian Americans (86 percent).
Within the Black immigrant population, African-born Black immigrants are the fastest-growing group, rising from 600,000 in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2024. Over the same time period, the number of Caribbean-born Black immigrants rose from 1.4 million to 2.5 million, and the number of Black immigrants from other regions rose from 400,000 to 700,000. The top countries of origin for U.S. Black immigrants are Jamaica, Haiti, and Nigeria; roughly four-in-ten Black immigrants hail from these countries.
Compared to other immigrants in the United States, Black immigrants are more likely to be recent arrivals. About 34 percent of the Black immigrant population came to the U.S. between 2015 and 2024, compared to 30 percent of all U.S. immigrants.
Among different regions in the United States, Black immigrants are significantly more likely to live in the South (44 percent) and the Northeast (34 percent) than in the Midwest (12 percent) and the West (10 percent). New York City has the most Black immigrants of any metropolitan area (1.1 million), followed by the Miami metro area (520,000) and Washington, D.C. (310,000).
The vast majority of Black immigrants are in the U.S. legally. Nearly eight-in-ten Black immigrants are authorized to live in the U.S., and 61 percent are U.S. citizens. Some 21 percent of Black immigrants are unauthorized. In comparison, the overall share of U.S. immigrants who are in the country without authorization is 27 percent, and the share who are naturalized citizens is 51 percent.
An increasing share of Black immigrants in the U.S. have at least a bachelor’s degree. In 2000, 21 percent of Black immigrants had at least a bachelor’s degree, with 8 percent holding a master’s degree or higher. By 2024, over a third of Black immigrants had at least a bachelor’s degree, with 16 percent holding a master’s degree or higher.
The share of Black immigrants ages 5 and older who either speak English at home or say they speak it very well has decreased slightly, dropping from 77 percent in 2000 to 73 percent in 2024. However, Black immigrants are significantly more likely than immigrants overall (53 percent) to speak English proficiently. Regardless of English proficiency, almost two-thirds of Black immigrants say they speak a non-English language at home. The most commonly spoken non-English languages among Black immigrants in the U.S. are French or Haitian Creole (13 percent), Spanish (10 percent), and Niger-Congo languages (10 percent).
