Authoritative Black health statistics

50.3

Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births among Black women in 2023. The national rate fell that year; this one did not.

5.0%

Share of active US physicians who identified as Black or African American in 2018, the last year AAMC published this as a citable static figure.

57.1%

Age-adjusted share of Black adults with hypertension, and almost the same for Black men and Black women, which is true of no other group NCHS reported.

1 in 365

Black or African American births in which sickle cell disease occurs. About 1 in 13 Black babies is born with sickle cell trait.

1.2M

Uninsured adults in the Medicaid coverage gap. Hispanic and Black adults together are 56% of them.

74.0 years

Life expectancy at birth for Black Americans in 2023: up 1.2 years in a single year, and above its 2006 level for the first time since COVID began.

26.8

Breast cancer deaths per 100,000 Black women, the highest rate of any racial or ethnic group, despite Black women reporting the highest screening rate of any group.

40.5%

Share of Black adults with a mental illness who received mental health treatment in the past year (2025). Fewer than half, on even the broadest definition of treatment.