As of 2015, there are 1.7 million sub-Sahara African immigrants living in the U.S. The largest numbers of them reside in Texas, New York, California, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia. Each of these states has at least 100,000 African immigrants respectively. These states represents the best markets for African immigrants according to TONY K ANSAH JR who used census figures for this report in Face2FaceAfrica.com.In 2015, the top four counties with sub-Saharan Africans were Bronx County, NY; Montgomery County, MD; Harris County, TX; and Prince George’s County, MD. These counties accounted for about 12% of all sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States (migrationpolicy.org). Once again, a good portion of African immigrants resides in the east coast regions.
The cities with the highest number of sub-Saharan Africans were the greater New York City, Washington, DC, and Atlanta metropolitan areas. These city areas accounted for about 27% of sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States (migrationpolicy.org). Thus, the pattern of African immigrants living on the east coast continues at the city localities.
There were over 100,000 African immigrants from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, and Ghana living in the U.S. respectively (pewresearch.org). In addition, Nigerians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Kenyans, and Ghanaians accounted for 50% of the foreign-born African population in the U.S. (pewresearch.org).
This goes to show that there are a handful of countries in Africa who have a decent amount of its population traveling abroad for various reasons. For instance, Nigeria has the most African immigrants (roughly over 300,000) living in the U.S. (pewsocialtrends.org). Therefore, it’s most likely the case that a decent number of Nigerians as well as Ethiopians, Egyptians, Kenyans, and Ghanaians can be found somewhere on the east coast of U.S.
About 75% of sub-Saharan Africans (ages 16 and over) were in the civilian labor force. They were more likely to be employed in management, business, science, and arts occupations and less likely to be employed in natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations. The occupational distribution tends to follow the pattern of educational attainment: South African and Nigerian immigrants were the most likely to be in management positions, while Somali immigrants worked in production, transportation, and material moving occupations (migrationpolicy.org).
However, about 40% of African immigrants are underemployed or occupying jobs not part of their professional expertise, such as doctors, nurses, lawyers, professors or engineers (migrationpolicy.org). Moreover, Nigerians and South Africans were the most educated, with close to 60% holding at least a bachelor’s degree, while Somalis were the least educated, with about 10% having a four-year college degree (migrationpolicy.org).
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