Is Long Island’s black population growing?
The towns of Hempstead, Brookhaven, Islip, Oyster Bay and North Hempstead all saw an increase in the Black or African-American population.
Huntington saw a 10 percent decrease, while Babylon saw a 0.37 decrease.
When we look at the black population in each of these towns or cities as a percentage, that has increased in most of them as well. This means that while Long Island towns and cities are still overwhelmingly white, it is slowly changing to be more diverse.
Smithtown, Southampton, Riverhead, Long Beach, Glen Cove, Southold, East Hampton, Shelter Island, Poospatuck reservation and Shinnecock reservation had minimal Black or African American population numbers, which made the Census data unreliable.
This is part of our series comparing the 2013 and 2018 American Community Survey 5-year datasets. If you missed our previous post looking into white population and how they trend on Long Island, read about it here.
Questions about how we define race, our data source, or what’s the difference between percent change and percentage point change? You can read an explanation about it here.
| Name | County | Percent change (black or African American) | Percentage point change (black or African American) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Babylon | Suffolk County | -0.37% | 0.11% |
| Brookhaven | Suffolk County | 11.24% | 0.58% |
| Hempstead | Nassau County | 4.57% | 0.60% |
| Huntington | Suffolk County | -10.25% | -0.42% |
| Islip | Suffolk County | 2.70% | 0.32% |
| North Hempstead | Nassau County | 5.69% | 0.24% |
| Oyster Bay | Nassau County | 5.9% | 0.12% |