Black population in the world

The population of black people in the world is composed of Africans in the continent, African diaspora and mixed African people. It is dispersed in most parts of the world but the majority of black people can be found in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The African diaspora is composed of either the descendants of Africans who were shipped and enslaved overseas mainly in the Americas, or those who migrated to other continents. The African Union (AU) describes African Diasporas as, “people of native African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.”
During slavery, many African people from West and Central Africa were shipped to the diaspora through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. A large population of them today can be found in the United States, Brazil, and Haiti consecutively by order of population size. Another group including East Africans was shipped by the Arab slave traders to the Middle East.
There are other ethnic groups in the world that are also grouped as black people mainly because they share the same biological features as Africans. Some of them are even natives of their current residential continents. Highly notable groups are the indigenous people of Oceania who include; Australian Aboriginals of Australia, Papuans of New Guinea, and Austronesians living in countries such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, and other parts of Asia, etc.
Another group is that of the Dravidian tribe of India. Master teacher Rudolph R. Windsor writes in his book ‘From Babylon to Timbuktu’ that the black Indians were among the first inhabitants of that land. They are also accredited with the Sumer & Kish civilizations which predates the Babylonians. Windsor classifies them as an extension of the Ethiopians.
A summary of the definition of an African can be found in legendary Reggae musician Peter Tosh’s song ‘African’ that starts:
“Don’t care where you come from
As long as you are a black man, you are an African
No mind your nationality
You have got the identity of an African…”
However, other groups can at least trace their roots to African people because they have highly been absorbed by other races. A good example is the Kamba Cua people of Paraguay. They are considered as the descendants of the Akamba people of Kenya who were brought to South America as warriors. As reported by Business Daily Africa, the Akamba people were highly recognized for their military prowess in using spears, bows, and arrows.
Later on, most of the pure Negro population was diluted by interracial marriages that were aimed at clearing out the black population in Paraguay during the reign of General Higinio Morinigi beginning in 1940.
The Population of sub-Saharan Africa
As reported by the World Bank, sub-Saharan African countries had a population of 1.14 billion inhabitants as of 2020. It is moreover estimated that the population of the entire continent of Africa will have doubled by 2050. This is as a result of Africa having the largest number of women of childbearing age in what demographers describe as ‘population momentum’. Africa also has the highest number of young people in the world, its median age is 19.7 years.
According to Worldometer, Nigeria is the most populous with a population of about 206 million people. Another report by the Economist reveals that the population is likely to double by 2050 to 400 million people, which will overtake the US as the world's third most populated. Nigeria is then followed closely by Ethiopia (102,334,588) and DR Congo (102,334,404) people, and the list goes on.
10 countries with the highest population of black people in the world
Most world demographics of black people may or may not include multiracial people. A case in example is Brazil which according to the Guardian has a population of 97 million black and mixed-race people, which is 50.7% of the total population as of 2010.
Here is a list of the countries and their population of Black people in descending order;
No. | Country | Population |
1. | The United States | 46,936,733 (2020) |
2. | Brazil | 14,517,961 (2010) |
3. | Haiti | 9,925,365 |
4. | France | Approximately 3.3 – 5.5 million |
5. | Colombia | 4,671,160 including multiracial |
6. | Yemen | 3,500,000 |
7. | Saudi Arabia | 3,370,000 |
8. | Peru | 828,841 (2017) |
9. | Jamaica | 2,510,000 |
10. | The United Kingdom | 1,904,684 |
(Source: Wikipedia)
Even as the world media is currently full of news of the Russian and Ukrainian war, Russia has had a population of 50,000 black people as of 2009. Thirteen years later, the population might have increased or reduced due to various factors.
It has also been observed that the seas and oceans have not separated the black race completely for the people share many things in common from culture i.e. food, dressing, music, names, rituals, tongues, religion to political alignments such as the Pan African movement.