African American Baby Boomers and Money

I was doing a search online recently and came across a rather interesting site. A company called NextMark (www.nextmark.com) had released some statistical information on African-American baby boomers. It included the number of black women in each state; the number of black women with children per state; the number of magazine buyers; book readers, etc.

But what really caught my eye was the number of African-American baby boomers making $75,000 or more and what states they were concentrated in. The study was actually broken down into baby boomers making $75,000 and those making $100,000. Much to my surprise, the big states like California and New York were NOT number one in either category, which makes me question how the numbers were gathered.

What was even more surprising is the state that claims the number one spot for black baby boomers making $75,000 or more. Do you think you could guess? I couldn’t. It’s Maryland. According to NextMark, there are approximately 59,000 black baby boomers making $75,000. Maryland, meanwhile, has a population of nearly 5,300,000 (according to the 2000 Census) in comparison to California which has a population of nearly 34,000,000 but just 21,069 black baby boomers making $75,000. And California didn’t even make the top five. How could that be with all of the black celebrities there? Is their income being reported? Or are they just not included in this list?

Here are the top five states where black baby boomers are making $75,000 or more:

Maryland
Georgia
NY
Illinois
Texas

What I found startling about the top five states is Texas has four times the population of Maryland but has only around 27,000 black baby boomers making at least $75,000.

The bottom five states that show black baby boomers making $75,000 or more:

Vermont
Wyoming
Rhode Island
North Dakota
South Dakota

First of all, I didn’t even know these bottom five states had a recognizable black population so maybe that means that if you’re black living in one of these states, the chances are greater that you can make a decent wage. According to NextMark, South Dakota has 166 black baby boomers making at least $75,000; North Dakota has 141, Rhode Island 103, Wyoming, 93 and Vermont has 58.

Keep in mind the overall population statistics are based on the 2000 census so there may be significant changes in some states---but I kind of doubt it. What is sad is the fact that there are 36 million blacks in the US according to a March 2002 report by the Census Bureau. Talk about disproportionate wealth.