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County profile Texas Metropolitan HRSA MUA/P

Black health in Dallas County, Texas

570,000

Black residents (ACS)

21.87%

Of county population

$46,800

Median household income, Black

21.80%

Uninsured, Black residents

Dallas County has roughly 570,000 Black residents, concentrated in southern Dallas, a part of the city that was systematically redlined in the 1937 HOLC maps and remains the focus of the Dallas Mayor's Task Force on Equitable Policy and Investment. Parkland Memorial Hospital, the county's public hospital system, is the country's second-largest safety net hospital by admissions and has operated Dallas County's sole Maternity-Fetal Medicine referral clinic for uninsured Black patients for decades.

UT Southwestern Medical Center and its affiliated William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital anchor the county's academic medicine. The Dallas Medical District's decades-old Black Infant Health program is housed at Parkland and funded through Dallas County Health and Human Services.

Headline outcomes

Race-stratified county-level figures pulled from CDC WONDER small-area estimates, the annual County Health Rankings, and the CDC NVSS state/county life tables. County values with cell counts below CDC suppression thresholds are marked as data pending.

Life expectancy (Black)

73.40 yrs

At birth, CDC NVSS Small-Area LE

Infant mortality (Black)

10.20

Per 1,000 live births, CDC WONDER

CVD mortality (Black)

367.10

Age-adjusted per 100k, CDC WONDER I00-I99

County Health Rankings

#148

Overall rank in Texas (lower = better)

HRSA Medically Underserved Area / Population HPSA: Primary Care

Policy context in Dallas

Texas has not adopted Medicaid expansion. Low-income Black adults in this county without dependent children and without employer coverage typically fall into the coverage gap — uninsured by default. Medicaid does not cover doula services in this state. Postpartum Medicaid coverage extends for 12 months after delivery — the federal recommended standard, in place here.

Where to get help in Dallas

Find Black health providers & resources in Dallas

Black clinicians in Dallas

Directory filtered to this county & state

Federally Qualified Health Centers

Sliding-scale FQHCs across Texas

Crisis & support resources

988, postpartum helplines, Black-serving crisis lines

Texas state profile

Statewide context, Medicaid policy, all 10 health facets

References & primary sources

  1. Demographics: US Census ACS 5-year 2019–2023, Tables B03002 (race), B01003 (total population), S1903 (median income), B27010B (uninsured by race).
  2. Mortality and life expectancy: CDC WONDER county-level Multiple Cause of Death and Underlying Cause of Death, pooled 2020–2022; CDC NVSS Small-Area Life Expectancy Estimates, 2016–2020 release.
  3. County Health Rankings: University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute & Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2024 release.
  4. HRSA shortage-area designations: HRSA HPSA Find and MUA/P Find, current as of 2025.
  5. Rural-Urban Continuum Codes: USDA Economic Research Service, 2023 release.

Data refreshed:

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