From the Census Bureau gopher...
"New Comprehensive African American Report" (2/23/95)
EMBARGOED UNTIL: FEB. 23, 1995 (THURSDAY)
Public Information Office, CB95-40, (REVISED)
301-457-2794, 301-457-4067 (TDD)
Claudette Bennett, 301-457-2402
NEW CENSUS BUREAU AFRICAN AMERICAN REPORT MOST COMPREHENSIVE IN 20 YEARS
Two reports released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau present
its most comprehensive statistical portrait of the nation's
African American population since the 1970s--everything from
family, household types, marital status and education, to
employment, earnings, income, poverty, and housing.
The reports, "The Black Population in the United States:
March 1994 and 1993" (P20-480), from the Current Population
Survey (CPS), and "Characteristics of the Black Population:
1990" (CP-3-6), drawn from the 1990 Census of Population and
Housing, were formally released at a news conference held by the
Census Bureau and the Joint Center for Political and Economic
Studies. Both reports present data at the national level; the
1990 census report also shows data for 17 states and 13
metropolitan areas with the largest African American populations.
Together, the reports provide demographic analysts and
policymakers with the most extensive statistical description by
the Census Bureau in nearly 20 years of the nation's African
American population, estimated at nearly 13 percent, or
33 million, of the total population in 1994. The reports'
findings emphasize the importance of full-time employment,
educational attainment, and family composition for the social and
economic conditions of African American families.
Among the reports' findings are:
- The 1989 poverty rate for all African American families
was about 27 percent. In families where the
householder worked, the rate declined to 16 percent
and, if the householder worked full-time
(i.e., 35 hours or more per week), it declined to
12 percent, and was even lower--6 percent--when the
householder worked full-time, year-round.
- Eighty-three percent of the 7 million African American
families in 1990 had at least one worker; one-half had
two or more workers, 13 percent had three or more
workers, and 17 percent had no workers. About
three-fourths (77 percent) of single-parent families
had at least one worker, and 30 percent had two or
more.
- African American families in which both the husband and
wife worked full-time, year-round had a median family
income in 1989 ($44,420) almost two times that of
families where only the husband worked ($25,430), and
where the husband and wife both worked part-time,
part-year ($25,690). The median income of families
maintained by women with no spouse present who worked
full-time, year-round was $22,620. That was about
89 percent of the income for African American
married-couple families where only the husband worked
full-time, year-round ($25,430).
- In 1993, African American children in families were
nearly three times as likely as White children
(46 percent versus 17 percent) to live in poverty.
- The median income of African American families was not
significantly different in 1969 than it was in
1993 (about $21,550). White family income in
1993 ($39,310), on the other hand, was 9 percent higher
than in 1969.
- In 1970, unmarried African American teens were 10 times
more likely to have had babies than White unmarried
teens (78 per thousand versus 8 per thousand). By
1990, they were just four times more likely to have
children (81 per thousand versus 20 per thousand).
- By 1993 there were 10.7 million African American
children. Thirty-six percent of them lived with both
parents and 54 percent with their mothers only. Even
fewer African American children under age
6 (32 percent) lived with both parents. In comparison,
16 percent of non-Hispanic White children lived with
their mother only, while 79 percent lived in two-parent
families.
- In 1993, the annual high-school dropout rates of
African Americans (5 percent) and Whites (4 percent),
were not statistically different. (Because of the
survey's margin of error, the Census Bureau cannot say
for sure that the percentages are different.)
- In 1994, 73 percent of African Americans aged 25 years
old and over had attained at least a high school
diploma compared with 51 percent in 1980. In 1994,
13 percent of African American adults (25 years and
over) had a bachelor's degree compared with 8 percent
in 1980. Corresponding percentages for Whites were
23 percent and 18 percent respectively. One-third of
African American 18- to 24-year-old high school
graduates and 42 percent of comparable Whites were
enrolled in college in 1993.
- More African American women (6 million) than men
(5.4 million) were employed at the time of the
1990 census, and thus represented a larger percentage
(53) of African American workers than did males
(47 percent). The CPS showed a smaller differential
among Black workers in 1993, when 51 percent
(6.2 million) were women and 49 percent (6.0 million)
were men. The 1990 differential may thus in part
reflect the higher undercoverage of Black men than
women in the 1990 census.
- More adult (25 years old and over) college-educated
African American women (879,688) than men (677,868)
were employed in 1990. Most of these women worked in
professional (51 percent), executive (18 percent),
administrative support (15 percent), and technical and
sales (9 percent) jobs. In contrast, about
one-third (34 percent) of college-educated African
American men worked as professionals, 23 percent as
executives, 14 percent in technical and sales jobs, and
9 percent as administrative support workers.
- Among college-educated year-round, full-time workers, a
similar proportion of African American (28 percent) and
non-Hispanic White men (30 percent) were employed in
executive, administrative, and managerial jobs in 1993.
However, the median earnings of these African American
men were only 86 percent of comparable non-Hispanic
White men ($46,980 versus $54,680) in these jobs. In
professional, specialty, and sales jobs, the gap was
even wider--around 71 percent. At the bachelor's
degree level, there was an earnings parity between
African American and non-Hispanic White females working
year-round, full-time in most of the occupations.
- Of the nearly 10 million African American-occupied
housing units in 1990, about 5.6 million (57 percent)
were rented and about 4.3 million (43 percent) were
owner-occupied. Married-couple families occupied
65 percent of the homes owned by families, and female
householders occupied 58 percent of the units rented by
families.
- In 1990, 13 percent or about 1.3 million African
American-occupied housing units had no telephone. A
little over 3 million units (30 percent) did not have a
vehicle available. About 80 percent of the housing
units without telephones or vehicles were
renter-occupied.
- Twenty-four percent of African American households with
a mortgage paid 35 percent or more of their incomes on
the mortgage and selected owner costs; the comparable
percentage for renters was 37 percent. The Federal
National Mortgage Association says "affordable" housing
should cost less than 35 percent of household income.
Editor's note: EMBARGOED UNTIL: FEB. 23, 1995 (THURSDAY) -
limited copies of the two reports are available to media
representatives from the bureau's Public Information Office by
telephone: 301-457-2794; fax: 301-457-3670; or e-mail:
pio@census.gov.
Non-media orders will be filled by the bureau's
Customer Services Branch on 301-457-4100; fax: 301-457-3842.