Black Belt & Regions
Black America in the West: The Concentration Plate
The West is one of the four great regions of the federal statistical system, and its Black population — about 4.9 million residents, alone or in combination, roughly 9.3% of the national total of 52.8 million — gives it a distinct place in every national table. In the West, this plate reads the region's Black concentration as a single geography, state by state and then whole.
The Region State by State
In America in the West, that pattern is the plate's whole subject: the table below gives the published share and count, and the map shades the share. The region's largest Black populations are held by California (2.8 million), Washington (490,000), Arizona (460,000), Nevada (385,000), Colorado (285,000). Read back against the table, the general pattern resolves into the West's particular numbers.
Reading the Region
The distribution reads at state scale in America in the West, where the table's rows give the published count and the share the map draws. In the West, 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. That is what a benchmark is for in an atlas: not to rank the West, but to locate it.
The distribution reads at state scale in America in the West, where the table's rows give the published count and the share the map draws. 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. The general record matters here only as far as it sharpens the local one, which the West's table states plainly.
In America in the West, that pattern is the plate's whole subject: the table below gives the published share and count, and the map shades the share. In the West, what the federal record cannot do is count a place's meaning — only its people. In the West, general material earns its place in an atlas only when it sharpens the local record, which the table below states.
For America in the West, the pattern is not background but subject; the state's own rows, tabled below, carry it. In the West, an atlas earns its keep in the comparisons it makes possible. Where the general meets the particular is the table of the West; read the two together.
In America in the West, that pattern is the plate's whole subject: the table below gives the published share and count, and the map shades the share. In the West, 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 against the table, the broad pattern settles into the specific numbers that belong to the West.
In America in the West, that pattern is the plate's whole subject: the table below gives the published share and count, and the map shades the share. Read this plate together with its companions. Held against the national midpoint, the West's own rows say how its households stand.
The Regional Frame
In America in the West, that pattern is the plate's whole subject: the table below gives the published share and count, and the map shades the share. In the West, 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. For the West, general material earns its place in an atlas only when it sharpens the local record, which the table below states.
A note on this plate's figures, stated once and plainly: Black residents of the West, alone or in combination (sum of state counts): 4.9 million; Share of the national Black population: 9.3%; Black residents of the United States, alone or in combination (Census Bureau population estimates): 52.8 million. In the West, each figure is published by the source named below and rounded as published; the plate's map shades the Black share of the population on the same basis, so the table and the map can be read against each other without conversion.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Black residents of the West, alone or in combination (sum of state counts) | 4.9 million |
| Share of the national Black population | 9.3% |
| Black residents of the United States, alone or in combination (Census Bureau population estimates) | 52.8 million |
| Black residents of California | 2.8 million |
| Black residents of Washington | 490,000 |
| Black residents of Arizona | 460,000 |
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.