Alabama Shows Improvement in Black Education; Two Counties National Leaders in Percent of Black Citizens

Alabama Shows Improvement in Black Education; Two Counties National Leaders in Percent of Black Citizens

• July 29th, 2019

Alabama Shows Improvement in Black Education; Two Counties National Leaders in Percent of Black Citizens

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Estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau in advance of Black History Month show black Americans are improving in educational attainment, although blacks still lag behind whites, the Alabama State Data Center at The University of Alabama reports.

“The educational attainment level of the black population in Alabama has been rising through the decade,” said Annette Jones Watters, assistant director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and manager of the Alabama State Data Center in UA’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. “We continue to see that trend.”

In the state, 73 percent of black adults have at least a high school diploma compared to 81 percent of whites. Nationally, 88 percent of blacks ages 25 to 29 were high school graduates in 1998. The racial gap in education on the national level has narrowed to the point where there is no statistical difference in whites and blacks between the ages of 25 and 29, the Census Bureau reports.

The Census Bureau counts the U.S. population every 10 years. Between censuses, the Bureau produces estimates on population trends. The Bureau packaged some of the prior estimates in advance of Black History Month, celebrated annually throughout the month of February. Most of the estimates focus on national trends.

“A lot of what is estimated at the national level is not estimated at the state level,” Watters said.

Recent population estimates for the state of Alabama show two Alabama counties are national leaders in percentage of black residents. Macon County has the second highest percentage (86.4 percent) of blacks in the nation. Only Mississippi’s Jefferson County (87 percent) has a higher percent of its population made up of blacks.

Alabama’s Greene County ranks fifth in the nation for percent black population at 81 percent. Claibourne County, Miss., (82 percent) and Hancock County, Ga., (82 percent) rank third and fourth nationally.

Alabama’s Jefferson County has the highest total black population in the state, with 242,653 black residents. The county has had a 6.2 percent increase in black population this decade. Mobile, Montgomery, Madison and Tuscaloosa counties round out the top five Alabama counties in black population.

“People find Jefferson County an attractive place to live,” Watters said. “The county’s population is increasing and African Americans find it an easy place to find a good home.”

Dallas County, Ala., shows an increase in the percent black population (59.3 percent) although the total population has decreased in the county. The other nine counties with a majority black population are Macon (86.4 percent), Greene (81.0), Lowndes (75.7), Bullock (72.9), Sumter (71.8), Wilcox (69.6), Perry (66.3), Hale (60.7) and Marengo (52.4).

The University of Alabama’s business school, founded in 1919, first began offering graduate education in 1923. Its Center for Business and Economic Research was created in 1930, and since that time has engaged in research programs to promote economic development in the state while continuously expanding and refining its broad base of socioeconomic information. This enables it to serve as a reservoir for business, economic and demographic data.

Annette Jones Watters
Assistant Director, Center for Business and Economic Research
and Manager, Alabama State Data Center