Census shows city’s Black population declining
Jeremy M. Lazarus | 9/7/2023, 6 p.m.
The Black community’s share of Rich- mond’s population is continuing to fall, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The bureau’s latest estimate of the city’s population released in July indicated that the city’s white population represents nearly 50 percent of the 229,395 residents in the city as of 2022, or 113,819 people.
The Black population represented 44.6% of the population or 102,202 people, the bureau indicated.
The Census Bureau produces yearly estimates in between the official 10-year count and this most recent report points to increasing momentum in the demographic shift that has been underway for at least a decade.
The official count and the estimates do vary widely.
For example, in the official 2020 Census, the bureau counted only 97,442 white people and 90,644 Black people in Richmond, strongly suggesting an undercount given the bureau’s estimate that the city has added only 3,000 people since the official Census was taken.
Still, a review of the official Census data since 1990 as well as the yearly estimates documents what is evident: The growth of the white population in areas that were once predominantly Black.
The change is partly due to the growth in the Hispanic population, which largely identifies as white, but also to the influx of white people from other parts of the state and the nation who have relocated to the city.
To date, the long-term trend has not had a significant impact on city politics.
