Black African immigration to the U.S. has exploded over the past few decades. Today, there are about 2 million Black African immigrants – up from 184,000 in 1990. Black African immigrants now make up 42% of the country’s foreign-born Black population, just behind Caribbean immigrants.
While large metropolitan areas typically see the biggest shares of African immigrants, populations are also growing in rural areas. In Iowa, for example, 17% of foreign-born residents in 2022 were born in Africa, compared with just under 3% in 1990.
