Wes Bellamy, associate professor and executive director of the John Mercer Langston Institute for African American Political Leadership at Virginia State University, has authored a new report examining the current economic conditions facing Black men and boys in the United States.
As of July 1, 2025, there are some 46.2 million Black Americans living in the U.S., 49 percent of whom (22.7 million) are Black men and boys. Overall, the Black population is young; roughly one in five Black Americans is under the age of 18.
According to Dr. Bellamy’s report, there are significant racial disparities in early literacy and K-12 education for both Black boys and girls. Only 17 percent of Black fourth graders and 14 percent of Black eighth graders performed at or above the proficient achievement level of the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2024. More than six in 10 Black eighth graders performed below the NAEP basic level. Notably, Black students made meaningful gains in reading performance between the 1990s and the mid-2010s, but progress has since stalled. Black students are significantly more likely than their White peers to attend high-poverty schools (37 percent versus 7 percent).
In postsecondary education, there was a 22 percent decline in Black male enrollment between 2010 and 2022. At HBCUs, Black male enrollment has declined from 38 percent in 1976 to 26 percent in 2022. The share of non-Black students attending HBCUs is now approximately equal to the share of Black male students. These enrollment patterns have led to consequences in degree attainment. Among Black adults ages 25 to 34, slightly over one-quarter of Black men hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 38 percent of Black women.
As of June 2026, the Black unemployment rate is 6.6 percent. In comparison, the current unemployment rate is 5.6 percent for Hispanic Americans, 3.9 percent for Asian Americans, and 3.6 percent for White Americans. Between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, the employment-to-population ratio for Black men declined from 60.5 percent to 58.8 percent, while the ratio for Black women stayed at roughly 56.4 percent.
As of 2025, the median weekly earnings for Black men working full-time was $1,039. In contrast, the median weekly earnings for White men was $1,354. Thus, Black men earn some 77 cents for every one dollar earned by White men. Within the Black population, women earn about 91 cents for every one dollar earned by men. In 2024, median household income for Black households was about $56,000, compared to some $88,000 for White households and $121,700 for Asian households. Black median household income dropped by more than 3 percent from 2023 to 2024.
Looking beyond income, Dr. Bellamy also found major disparities in several measures of household wealth. The median transaction-account balance is $2,200 for Black families and $10,000 for White families. Some 43 percent of Black families own a home, compared to 73 percent of White families. Additionally, Black families have lower median stock holdings, lower median home equity, and higher levels of student-loan debt than White families.
