Roughly two-thirds of Black adults in the United States (68%) say they do not have enough income to lead the kind of life they want, but a majority are optimistic that they will one day, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of Black Americans.
This analysis draws on a recent Pew Research Center survey to understand Black Americans’ economic realities and desires.
We surveyed 4,742 U.S. adults who identify as Black alone and non-Hispanic, Black and at least one other race and non-Hispanic, or Black and Hispanic. The survey was conducted from Feb. 22 to March 5, 2023, and includes 1,745 Black adults on the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP) and 2,997 Black adults on Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel. Respondents on both panels were recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses.
Recruiting panelists by phone or mail ensures that nearly all Black U.S. adults have a chance of selection. This gives us confidence that any sample can represent the whole population. (For more information on random sampling, refer to our Methods 101 explainer.) For more information on this survey, read its methodology and questionnaire.
This analysis also includes our own tabulations of personal total earned income from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey. This data was accessed through Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) from the University of Minnesota.
Black adults with higher incomes (64%) are far more likely than those with middle (36%) or lower (17%) incomes to say they currently earn enough to lead the kind of life they want.
Similarly, 43% of Black adults with at least a bachelor’s degree say they earn enough to support their desired life, while fewer Black adults without a bachelor’s degree say the same (26%).
Regardless of current incomes, most Black adults (58%) are optimistic they will earn enough money in the future to lead the life they want. This view holds across most demographic subgroups of Black Americans.
However, Black adults with lower incomes are less confident. Some 49% say they will earn enough money in the future, but 49% say they will not. In contrast, Black adults with middle and upper incomes are both more likely to say they will make enough money in the future than to say they will not.
Among those who currently have enough money to lead the kind of life they want, roughly eight-in-ten Black adults (81%) believe they will also have enough money in the future to lead the kind of life they want. Meanwhile, roughly half of Black adults who do not currently have enough money (48%) believe they will have enough in the future.
How much money is enough?
Four-in-ten Black adults in the U.S. say an annual income of $100,000 or more is enough to lead the kind of life they want. But more than half (56%) say they need less than $100,000.
Overall, Black adults with higher incomes (72%) are the most likely to say they need $100,000 or more annually to lead the life they want, compared with nearly half (46%) of those with middle incomes and 27% of those with lower incomes.
Black adults with at least a bachelor’s degree are also more likely than those with some college education or less to say they need $100,000 or more (56% vs. 35%, respectively). And Black adults ages 18 to 49 (43%) are more likely than those 50 and older (35%) to say this.
How much Black Americans earn
Black Americans’ incomes have long trailed those of other Americans. At the same time, income inequality among Black Americans was the second-largest of any demographic group as of 2016. That year, the highest-earning Black Americans made nearly 10 times as much as the lowest earners.
Overall, just 6% of Black adults in the U.S. had annual earnings of $100,000 or more in 2021, according to our analysis of the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. This share rises to 16% among those with at least a bachelor’s degree or more and drops to 2% among those with some college education or less.
Still, among those who said they would need $100,000 or more in order to lead the kind of life they want, roughly six-in-ten Black adults (62%) believe they will have this income in the future.
Note: For more information on this survey, read its methodology and questionnaire.
