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Texas
The state entry: 3.6 million Black residents, 12.2% of the state, in the published 2020 count.
Texas holds the largest Black population of any state in the union. The decennial census counted about four million Black Texans — Black alone or in combination with another race — roughly 13.8 percent of the state's population, with Black alone accounting for about 3.6 million, or 12.2 percent. Scale is the headline: Texas's Black population exceeds the total population of many states, and its two great metros, Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth, each hold Black populations larger than those of most American cities. This article profiles Black Texas in the census data: its distribution, its history, and its growth.
Civic Snapshot
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total population, 2020 | 29,145,505 |
| Black residents (alone), 2020 | 3,552,997 |
| Black share of the state, 2020 | 12.2% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census Redistricting File (Public Law 94-171), Table P1 (race). Trend: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census Redistricting File (Public Law 94-171), Table P1.
Population Trend
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, the Black population of Texas grew from 2,979,598 to 3,552,997 (+19.2%), and its share of the whole moved from 11.8% to 12.2%.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census Redistricting File (Public Law 94-171), Table P1 (race). Trend: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census Redistricting File (Public Law 94-171), Table P1.
The Record
Black Texans are concentrated, as the state's population generally is, along the urban triangle formed by Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, and San Antonio, with Austin at its center. The Houston metropolitan area holds the largest Black population in the state — well over one million — and the city of Houston itself is roughly one-fifth to one-quarter Black, with historic Black communities in wards across the city. Dallas–Fort Worth follows closely, its Black population split between the two anchor cities and a ring of suburbs. East Texas, the region nearest Louisiana with deep nineteenth-century roots, records the state's highest rural Black population shares, while the border and Panhandle regions record the lowest.
Institutions
Black Texas's institutions — congregations, schools, businesses, civic organizations — are recorded in this gazetteer where they stand: in the county and place entries beneath this page. The state page is the frame around them, holding 3.6 million Black residents across 254 counties and county equivalents and 1860 places in the published counts.