Foreign-Born Blacks Are More Likely Than Native-Born African Americans to Hold Graduate Degrees

There are 114,000 foreign-born blacks in the United States who hold a master’s degree. They make up 4.7 percent of all foreign-born black adults in this country. For native-born African Americans, 3.9 percent of all adults hold a master’s degree. For white Americans, 7.7 percent of all adults hold a master’s degree.

Nearly 2 percent of foreign-born black adults hold either a professional degree or a doctorate. For African Americans, one percent of the total adult population holds a professional degree or a doctorate. For white Americans, 3.1 percent of all adults hold a professional degree or a doctorate.

Often, high-income families in Africa send their children to school in the United States, and a significant percentage of these children decide to stay on in America after completing their education. Other highly educated Africans come to the United States in search of greater economic opportunities than those that exist in their homeland.