The Black Families Flourishing (BFF) Project recently unveiled a new Data & Insights Hub featuring interactive maps and accessible analysis designed to transform how researchers, policymakers, and community members understand Black families with children in the United States.
Using publicly available Census data, BFF’s maps and insights offer a new lens on the U.S. Black population by focusing on Black families with children. Users can explore county-level demographic information on Black families’ geography, child age, family structure, and family income.
“We created the BFF Data & Insights Hub to equip researchers, policymakers, and community leaders with actionable data that can help them grow, create solutions, innovate, and better support the well-being and flourishing of Black families across the country,” said Chrishana M. Lloyd, PhD, BFF’s principal investigator and project lead. “The Hub builds on existing efforts and analyses by broadening the definition and our understanding of Black families—from including families with children up to age 25 to recognizing the rich diversity of family structures and ethnicities within Black families.”
To help explain the maps, the Hub will also feature a series of data points designed to offer a fresh look at who Black families are, how they are structured, and the demographic patterns that shape their experiences. The Hub launched with its first data point, “A Fresh Look at Black Family Households with Children in the United States,” which sheds light on where Black families with children are concentrated geographically compared to the overall U.S. Black population.
“Consistent with research on the United States Black population, we found that the largest concentration of Black family households with children are in the South. Our data point findings also showed that the proportion of Black family households with children was higher than the overall Black population in each state,” said Shana E. Rochester, PhD, BFF’s deputy research activity co-lead. “We look forward to using these data points as a vehicle to help individuals make data-informed decisions to support Black families at the state and local levels.”
The Hub utilizes 2019-2023 five-year American Community Survey microdata to populate the interactive maps. BFF plans to release new data points periodically through the summer of 2026 to provide additional analyses of the data presented. To receive the new data points, sign up for BFF’s newsletter: http://eepurl.com/i9OUxY.
Launched in 2024, Black Families Flourishing (BFF) is a multi-year project, housed at Child Trends and supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to conduct rigorous and transparent research focused on Black families in the United States. BFF produces strengths-based research to establish a better understanding of the state of Black families’ well-being nationwide and inform the policies, programs, and systems with which Black families engage. Learn more at: https://blackfamiliesflourishing.org/.
