Diaspora populations

How this is counted

Definitions differ by country (ethnic group, ancestry, or migration background). France and Germany are excluded: they do not collect ethnicity data.

• United States: US Census 2020 detailed race data (DHC-A file). 'Sub-Saharan African alone or in any combination' = 2,800,000 (includes Nigerian 604,077; Ethiopian 325,214; Somali 221,043; Ghanaian 172,558 and others). 'Caribbean alone or in any combination' = 2,600,000 (includes Jamaican ~1,000,000; Haitian ~1,000,000; Trinidadian and Tobagonian 194,364; West Indian 119,806 and others). These are detailed write-in responses within the Black or African American race category; they exclude the 22.1 million who reported 'African American' without a specific origin. Figures are rounded to nearest 100,000 from press release; alone-only counts are 2,300,000 (Sub-Saharan) and 2,100,000 (Caribbean). Source
• United Kingdom: ONS ethnic group, England and Wales only (population base: 59,597,578). Black African and Black Caribbean sub-groups within 'Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African'. Scotland and Northern Ireland use different ethnic group categories and are not included in these sub-group counts. Source
• Netherlands: CBS population by migration background, 1 January 2022 (total population: 17,590,672). African figure = 749,780 with Africa migration background (sub-Saharan and North Africa, excluding Morocco which is reported separately at 419,272). Caribbean figure = 359,814 with Surinamese migration background (1st and 2nd generation). Note: Suriname has a majority Afro-Surinamese population but also includes Indo-Surinamese and other groups; CBS does not publish an ethnicity sub-breakdown. Dutch Caribbean (Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba) migration background is approximately 179,000 (1.0%) based on CBS 2021 classification data (99,000 born abroad plus 80,000 born in Netherlands with Dutch Caribbean parents) but is not separately tabulated in the 37325eng migration-background table. The Caribbean figure here reports Surinamese only as the cleanest available CBS series. Source
• Canada: Statistics Canada Census 2021. Visible minority group 'Black' total = 1,547,870 (4.3% of 36,991,981). Split by place of birth within the Black population: African-born Black = 505,165 (32.6% of total Black); Caribbean-born Black = 325,460 (21.0% of total Black). Canadian-born Black (633,785) are not separately attributed to African or Caribbean descent and are excluded from these counts. The African and Caribbean figures therefore undercount total African-descent and Caribbean-descent populations in Canada. Source
• Australia: ABS Census 2021 (total population: 25,422,788). African figure = 326,673 ancestry responses categorised within Sub-Saharan African ancestral groups (1.3% of population). Note: ABS collects ancestry and country of birth, not race or ethnic group. The Sub-Saharan African count includes White South Africans and other non-Black Africans born in sub-Saharan Africa. Caribbean figure: no comparable 2021 ancestry total is published by ABS. Wikipedia cites 4,242 Caribbean-ancestry responses in the 2006 Census and approximately 10,500 people born in Caribbean countries as of 2021 (country-of-birth series), but neither figure constitutes an authoritative 2021 ancestry count. Caribbean population in Australia is very small and not separately reported in ABS cultural diversity releases. Source

Common questions