Black Belt & Regions
Black America in the South: The Movement Plate
The South is one of the four great regions of the federal statistical system, and its Black population — about 25.4 million residents, alone or in combination, roughly 48.2% of the national total of 52.8 million — gives it a distinct place in every national table. In the South, this plate reads the region's Black movement as a single geography, state by state and then whole.
The Region State by State
The migration currents read locally in America in the South, where the state rows below set the population whose movement the national pattern frames. The region's largest Black populations are held by Texas (4 million), Florida (3.7 million), Georgia (3.6 million), North Carolina (2.5 million), Maryland (2 million). The general record is background; the local one — the South's, in the table — is the subject.
Reading the Region
In America in the South, that national movement pattern arrives as local gain or loss, and the table below fixes the population it describes. Here, on the plate for the South, regional figures in this atlas are built from the published state counts, rounded as the source agencies publish them; small states whose profile figures are published in rounded thousands can move a regional total at the margin, and the plate treats the total as the published sum it is. In the South, held against the national currents, the state's own rows say how its movement stands.
The migration currents read locally in America in the South, where the state rows below set the population whose movement the national pattern frames. The four regional plates of this section are companions: read together, they divide the national total of 52.8 million Black residents, alone or in combination, without remainder — every state stands in exactly one region, and every region's total is the sum of its states. Only as it sharpens the local record does the general one matter here — and the local record is the South's, in the table.
The migration currents read locally in America in the South, where the state rows below set the population whose movement the national pattern frames. Here, on the plate for the South, what the federal record cannot do is count a place's meaning — only its people. For the South, read with the table, the general pattern and the local figures correct each other.
In America in the South, that national movement pattern arrives as local gain or loss, and the table below fixes the population it describes. Here, on the plate for the South, an atlas earns its keep in the comparisons it makes possible. For the South, general material earns its place in an atlas only when it sharpens the local record, which the table below states.
In America in the South, that national movement pattern arrives as local gain or loss, and the table below fixes the population it describes. Here, on the plate for the South, the figures here are the published ones, rounded as the source agencies round them, and they describe the population as the federal record counts it: residents, in place, on the reference dates of the census and the survey. Read back against the table, the general pattern resolves into the South's particular numbers.
The migration currents read locally in America in the South, where the state rows below set the population whose movement the national pattern frames. Read this plate together with its companions. A benchmark in an atlas does not rank the South; it locates it, and that is its whole use here.
The Regional Frame
The migration currents read locally in America in the South, where the state rows below set the population whose movement the national pattern frames. Here, on the plate for the South, a region is the largest geography most readers carry in their heads whole, and the federal system obliges by publishing its statistics in regional frames as faithfully as in state ones. Here, on the plate for the South, read with the table, the general pattern and the local figures correct each other.
The subject here is Black America in the South: The Movement Plate, and the reading is the atlas's standard one: the published figures first, the interpretation after. A note on this plate's figures, stated once and plainly: Black residents of the South, alone or in combination (sum of state counts): 25.4 million; Share of the national Black population: 48.2%; Black residents of the United States, alone or in combination (Census Bureau population estimates): 52.8 million. In the South, a reader who holds the table and this text together has the plate entire.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Black residents of the South, alone or in combination (sum of state counts) | 25.4 million |
| Share of the national Black population | 48.2% |
| Black residents of the United States, alone or in combination (Census Bureau population estimates) | 52.8 million |
| Black residents of Texas | 4 million |
| Black residents of Florida | 3.7 million |
| Black residents of Georgia | 3.6 million |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census; American Community Survey; Population Estimates Program. Method: Figures are drawn from the published federal sources named on this page, for the geography named; tile shading bands the published Black population share into the five legend classes. Counts are rounded as published by the source agency, and national benchmark rows are labeled with the basis they are published on.