African immigrants in U.S. more religious than other Black Americans, and more likely to be Catholic
Immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa tend to be more religious than U.S.-born Black adults or immigrants from the Caribbean.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa tend to be more religious than U.S.-born Black adults or immigrants from the Caribbean.
Immigrants – particularly those from African nations – are a growing share of the U.S. Black population.
The number of Black immigrants living in the country reached 4.6 million in 2019, up from roughly 800,000 in 1980.
The number of Black people living in the United States reached a new high of 47.9 million in 2022, up about a third (32%) since 2000.
In 2020, Afro-Latino Americans made up about 2% of the U.S. adult population and 12% of the adult Latino population.
Over the past 40 years, blacks have made progress on several fronts. Yet large racial gaps persist in areas such as wealth and poverty.
A record 3.8 million black immigrants live in the U.S. today, accounting for 8.7% of the nation’s black population, nearly triple their share in 1980. While half are from the Caribbean, African immigration has soared since 2000.
Although the U.S. has long had a sizable black population as a legacy of slavery, voluntary black immigration here is projected to grow in coming decades.
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