Comparing the Black Percentage of Total College Enrollments to the Black Percentage of the Total Population in Each of the Nation’s 50 States

Nationwide, blacks make up 12.5 percent of the total enrollments in higher education. When we look at individual states we find that in Mississippi blacks are 38.5 percent of all enrollments in higher education, the highest level in the nation. In contrast, blacks are only 0.6 percent of the total enrollments in Montana, the lowest rate in the United States.

But when we compare black enrollments to the black population of each state we find that in the three northern New England states of Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, the black share of total enrollments is three times the black percentage of the population in these states. Each of these states with very small black populations have a number of highly selective colleges that actively recruit black students from around the country. Also, universities in these states recruit black athletes from other parts of the nation for their athletic teams.

The black percentage of all college enrollments in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Arizona, Montana, and Idaho, all states with small black populations, is at least double the black percentage of the state’s population.

In contrast, in the states of Wisconsin and New York, the black percentage of all college enrollments is significantly less than the black percentage of the state’s population. 

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.