North Carolina Minority Health Facts: 2005 African Americans
1
African
Americans
State Center for Health Statistics and Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities April 2005
Introduction
This report presents basic health facts about
African Americans in North Carolina in the
areas of mortality, chronic diseases, HIV and
sexually transmitted diseases, health risk factors,
access to health care, quality of life, maternal
and infant health, and child and adolescent
health. But first we present some background
information on the African American population
in the state.
African Americans comprise more than 21
percent of North Carolina’s total population.
The 2000 Census counted 1,738,000 residents of
North Carolina who reported their race as
African American alone, and also nearly 19,000
who reported African American in combination
with another race. The African American popu-lation
of North Carolina has increased by ap-proximately
18 percent since 1990.
African Americans in North Carolina are
younger than the majority white population.
According to the 2000 Census, the median age
of the state’s African American population was
31 years, compared to 38 years for the white
population of the state. The average life expect-ancy
at birth is 70 years for African Americans
in North Carolina, compared to 76 years for
whites.
The maps on page 2 show the number of African
Americans living in each county and also the
percentage of each county’s total population that
is African American. It can be seen from the
second map that counties in the eastern part of
North Carolina have the largest percentages of
African Americans.
The percentage of African American families
living below the federal poverty level ($ 17,603
annual income for a family of four) in 1999 was
22.9, compared to 8.4 for whites. Approximately
42 percent of African American families were
headed by females, compared to 8 percent for
white families. Thirty- five percent of the fami-lies
headed by African American females lived
in poverty, compared to 29 percent of the fami-lies
headed by white females. More than 60
percent of African American adults ( ages 25 and
older) had a high school education or less,
compared to 47 percent for whites. The unem-ployment
rate for African Americans was 2.6
times that for whites ( 10.3% vs. 3.9% in 2000).
Low income, low educational level, and unem-ployment
are all associated with a higher rate of
health problems.
Some of the rates in this fact sheet are age-adjusted.
Age- adjustment is a statistical tech-nique
for calculating the rates or percentages for
different populations as if they all had the age
distribution of a “ standard” population ( here, the
2000 United States population). Rates adjusted
to the same standard population can be directly
compared to each other, with differences being
attributed to factors other than age distribution.
North Carolina
Minority Health Facts