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The Bureau of the Census reports on the Black population statistics.
1989 (Jun 20)
The Bureau of the Census reported that New York State had the largest number of Black residents in 1985 while California had the fastest growing Black population. New York had a Black population of 2.7 million, followed by California with 2.1 million. Fourteen other states had Black populations of one million or more. These included Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The state with the largest proportion of Blacks in its population was Mississippi with 36 percent, followed by South Carolina, 31 percent, and Louisiana, 30 percent. During the period 1980–1985, only West Virginia and the District of Columbia had declines in their Black populations. The bureau's report also revealed that four out of every five Blacks lived in metropolitan areas in 1985. Four metropolitan areas had Black populations of one million or more. These included New York (metropolitan New York also includes Long Island and portions of Connecticut and New Jersey, 3.2 million), Chicago (1.6 million), Los Angeles (1.2 million) and Philadelphia (1.1 million). The fastest growing metropolitan area in Black residents was Atlanta, up 15.6 percent to 608,000 from 1980 to 1985, followed by Houston, up 13.6 percent to 641,000 in the same period. The new calculations of the Black population were the first detailed estimates of minorities by state since the 1980 census. They also showed that Blacks remained the nation's largest minority at 28.9 million, or 11.8 of the estimated U.S. population.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.