Research & Studies

Although HBCUs represent 9 percent of all four-year bachelor-degree-granting institutions in the 21 states and U.S. territories where they are located, these colleges and universities awarded 28 percent of all STEM bachelor's degrees earned by Black students in the 2022–2023 academic year.

Using census data from 1860 and mortality data from 2010–2020, scholars from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that U.S. counties with higher proportions of enslaved Black Americans in 1860 have higher contemporary Black mortality rates and lower contemporary White mortality rates.

“Adolescence is a critical period for social modeling,” said lead author Emily Balcetis, associate professor of psychology at NYU. “When influencers share those identities, they grab attention, and as a result, signal what people like their followers do, value, and eat.”

“Black women incur some of the highest student debt burdens while pursuing higher education, which, when combined with a lack of job opportunities, deepens existing economic inequities and exacerbates the racial wealth gap,” the report authors write.

In a new article, Cantrell Dumas of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies argues that while new state and federal savings policies will likely increase Black retirement savings, the policies themselves are not enough to close the persistent Black-White retirement divide.

A new multi-university study has projected some 66 percent of U.S. counties will be at-risk for extreme heat exposure by 2100, with older adults, Black people, and residents living in the Southeast facing the highest risk.

New data from the American Institute of Physics has revealed Black students represented about 4.7 percent of all recipients of physics bachelor's degrees awarded by U.S. institutions during the 2024–2025 academic year. Black students' representation among physics undergraduate degree recipients has gradually increased over the past two decades.

A new report from Virginia State University's Wes Bellamy analyzes the current economic conditions facing Black men and boys in the United States, including insights regarding K-12 education, postsecondary education, employment, income, and wealth disparities.

The findings from a new study from scholars at Rutgers University suggests greater exposure to gun violence is a direct contributor to the persistent health disparities facing Black and Hispanic communities.

In recognition of the country's 250th anniversary, the National Urban League's 2026 State of Black America report examines the status of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for Black Americans and discusses how to protect the American Dream for all.

Since the early 2000s, high-poverty, predominately non-White districts spend more money per pupil than their counterparts. However, urban, predominantly non-White school districts often have higher labor costs, which explains much of the discrepancy.

During the 1935 to 1947 period, foreign-born U.S. residents appeared to have benefited significantly more from these federal lending programs than native-born Black borrowers.

Between 2015 and 2019, the average Ivy League school received $110 million per year in private foundation funding, while the average HBCU received just $618,588. Thus, the average Ivy League university received 178 times more foundation funding than the average HBCU.

“The inclusion of intentional support for Black students should not be considered in conflict with a 'Hispanic-serving' mission, but rather a more inclusive, equitable, and interconnected approach to expanding belonging, access, and resources to all students in which the university is responsible for serving,” the study authors write.

Between 2016 and 2022, the share of Black borrowers with new medical debt collections declined from 15.6 percent to 11.2 percent. Despite this improvement, Black borrowers were still nearly twice as likely as Hispanic and White borrowers and more than nine times as likely as Asian and Pacific Islander borrowers to carry medical debt in 2022.

A new report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies examines how Black-White financial disparities throughout the lifetime contribute to severe economic hardship among Black retirees, who are more than twice as likely as White retirees to live in poverty.

According to a new study, White children whose favorite media displayed a higher share of White characters relative to Black characters said they were less likely to play with a Black child and were less likely to have positive attitudes toward their Black peers.

A new study led by scholars at the University of Washington has found communities that have a larger share of residents living within 10 minutes of a pharmacy have lower racial disparities in medication use. This association was strongest among Black residents.

“Providing access to a quality math education for all Black students requires a transformation of our entire math education system, including dismantling the gatekeepers that perpetuate inequity. It must be grounded in the belief that all students are capable of math success when provided with the proper support,” writes Andrea McChristian, national policy director at Just Equations.

African Americans who live in communities with high levels of hate crimes are more likely to vote via mail-in absentee ballots compared to those from areas with lower levels of hate crimes, according to a new study from scholars at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.