Most African American cities in Texas research summary. We used Saturday Night Science to analyze Texas’s most recent Census data to determine the cities with the largest Black population, based on the percentage of Black residents.
The city with the largest African American population in Texas is Prairie View (81.6% Black); the least is Los Fresnos (0.0%). Statewide, Texas is 11.9% Black — the 18th blackest state in the country.
Roughly 42 million people identifying as Black or African American live in the United States, about 12% of the total population. In Texas, the Black population is 3,595,595, at 11.9% of the state total.
We broke down the most recent Census data to determine the cities in Texas with the largest African American population in 2026.
#1 most African American in Texas
Located in
Waller County, TexasData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#2 most African American in Texas
Located in
Dallas County, TexasDeSoto is a city in Dallas County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 49,047.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#3 most African American in Texas
Located in
Dallas County, TexasLancaster is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. The population was 36,361 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1852 as a frontier post, Lancaster is one of Dallas County’s earliest settlements. Today, it is a suburban community located in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, approximately 15 miles south of Downtown Dallas.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#4 most African American in Texas
Located in
Ellis County, TexasCedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately 16 miles southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. The population was 45,028 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#5 most African American in Texas
Located in
Ellis County, TexasGlenn Heights is a city in Dallas and Ellis counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 11,278 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#6 most African American in Texas
Located in
Tarrant County, TexasForest Hill is a suburb of Fort Worth in Tarrant County, Texas, United States. The population was 12,355 at the 2010 census.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#7 most African American in Texas
Located in
Jefferson County, TexasBeaumont is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas in the United States, within the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about 90mi east of Houston, Beaumont city had a population of 118,296 at the time of the 2010 census, making it the twenty-fourth-most populous city in the state of Texas.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#8 most African American in Texas
Located in
Jasper County, TexasJasper is a city and the county seat of Jasper County, Texas, in the United States. The population was 8,247 at the 2000 census and 7,590 at the 2010 census. Jasper is situated in the Deep East Texas subregion, about 130 miles northeast of Houston. Jasper holds an annual Butterfly Festival the first Saturday in October to celebrate the migration of the monarch butterflies.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#9 most African American in Texas
Located in
Ellis County, TexasData | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
#10 most African American in Texas
Located in
Orange County, TexasPort Arthur is a city in Jefferson County within the BeaumontPort Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area of the U.S. state of Texas. A small portion extends into Orange County. It is ninety-one miles east of Houston. It is host to the largest oil refinery in the United States.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Texas’s statewide median.
On the map
Where Texas’s Black communities live
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How We Determined The Cities In Texas With The Largest Black Population For 2026
We still believe in the accuracy of data — especially from the Census. So that’s where we went to get the race breakdown across Texas.
That leads us to the Census’s most recently available data, the 2020-2024 American Community Survey data from the US Census.
Specifically, we looked at table B03002: Hispanic OR LATINO ORIGIN BY RACE. Here are the category names as defined by the Census:
- Hispanic or Latino
- White alone*
- Black or African American alone*
- American Indian and Alaska Native alone*
- Asian alone*
- Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone*
- Some other race alone*
- Two or more races*
Our particular column of interest was the number of people who identified as Black or African American.
We limited our analysis to non-CDPs with a population greater than 5,000 people in Texas. That left us with 324 cities.
We then calculated the percentage of residents that are Black or African American. The percentages ranked from 81.6% to 0.0%.
Finally, we ranked each city based on the percentage of the Black population, with a higher score being more Black than a lower score. Prairie View took the distinction of being the most Black, while Los Fresnos was the least African American city.
We updated this article for 2026. This is our eleventh time ranking the cities in Texas with the largest African American population.
The full plate
African American Population By City In Texas
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | African American Population | % African American |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prairie View | 8,431 | 6,883 | 81.6% |
| 2 | DeSoto | 56,211 | 37,676 | 67.0% |
| 3 | Lancaster | 40,820 | 26,221 | 64.2% |
| 4 | Cedar Hill | 48,879 | 26,359 | 53.9% |
| 5 | Glenn Heights | 18,096 | 9,349 | 51.7% |
| 6 | Forest Hill | 14,062 | 6,496 | 46.2% |
| 7 | Beaumont | 113,279 | 51,229 | 45.2% |
| 8 | Jasper | 7,299 | 3,175 | 43.5% |
| 9 | Red Oak | 17,077 | 7,367 | 43.1% |
| 10 | Port Arthur | 55,828 | 23,369 | 41.9% |
| 11 | Hempstead | 6,137 | 2,567 | 41.8% |
| 12 | Crockett | 6,364 | 2,553 | 40.1% |
| 13 | Marshall | 23,825 | 9,466 | 39.7% |
| 14 | Marlin | 5,516 | 2,171 | 39.4% |
| 15 | Missouri City | 76,558 | 29,284 | 38.3% |
| 16 | Texarkana | 35,992 | 13,470 | 37.4% |
| 17 | Killeen | 158,159 | 56,168 | 35.5% |
| 18 | Balch Springs | 27,255 | 8,866 | 32.5% |
| 19 | Center | 5,271 | 1,573 | 29.8% |
| 20 | Lacy-Lakeview | 7,274 | 2,150 | 29.6% |
| 21 | Duncanville | 39,683 | 11,631 | 29.3% |
| 22 | Stafford | 17,401 | 5,043 | 29.0% |
| 23 | Silsbee | 6,842 | 1,954 | 28.6% |
| 24 | Rusk | 5,477 | 1,564 | 28.6% |
| 25 | Cleveland | 8,984 | 2,507 | 27.9% |
| 26 | Mexia | 6,859 | 1,900 | 27.7% |
| 27 | Orange | 19,177 | 5,228 | 27.3% |
| 28 | La Marque | 19,268 | 5,228 | 27.1% |
| 29 | Harker Heights | 34,128 | 9,239 | 27.1% |
| 30 | Princeton | 25,229 | 6,796 | 26.9% |
| 31 | Mesquite | 149,299 | 40,081 | 26.8% |
| 32 | Palestine | 19,136 | 5,113 | 26.7% |
| 33 | Wake Village | 5,867 | 1,548 | 26.4% |
| 34 | Texas City | 55,364 | 14,422 | 26.0% |
| 35 | Atlanta | 5,439 | 1,401 | 25.8% |
| 36 | Converse | 29,607 | 7,381 | 24.9% |
| 37 | Grand Prairie | 201,883 | 50,048 | 24.8% |
| 38 | Nacogdoches | 32,197 | 7,947 | 24.7% |
| 39 | Navasota | 8,542 | 2,072 | 24.3% |
| 40 | Terrell | 20,366 | 4,866 | 23.9% |
| 41 | Mansfield | 77,510 | 18,358 | 23.7% |
| 42 | Crowley | 19,532 | 4,538 | 23.2% |
| 43 | Dallas | 1,307,930 | 299,064 | 22.9% |
| 44 | Huntsville | 47,864 | 10,780 | 22.5% |
| 45 | Houston | 2,328,253 | 519,857 | 22.3% |
| 46 | Tyler | 109,215 | 24,273 | 22.2% |
| 47 | Richmond | 12,582 | 2,786 | 22.1% |
| 48 | Arlington | 397,742 | 87,978 | 22.1% |
| 49 | Wharton | 8,724 | 1,915 | 22.0% |
| 50 | Paris | 24,775 | 5,428 | 21.9% |
| 51 | Little Elm | 54,820 | 11,669 | 21.3% |
| 52 | Everman | 6,106 | 1,299 | 21.3% |
| 53 | Hitchcock | 7,563 | 1,601 | 21.2% |
| 54 | Commerce | 9,383 | 1,930 | 20.6% |
| 55 | Humble | 16,521 | 3,374 | 20.4% |
| 56 | Jacksonville | 14,325 | 2,917 | 20.4% |
| 57 | Longview | 82,923 | 16,662 | 20.1% |
| 58 | Rowlett | 65,463 | 12,982 | 19.8% |
| 59 | Brenham | 18,641 | 3,684 | 19.8% |
| 60 | Forney | 31,532 | 6,101 | 19.3% |
| 61 | Fort Worth | 963,194 | 186,317 | 19.3% |
| 62 | Waco | 143,570 | 27,671 | 19.3% |
| 63 | Pearland | 127,514 | 24,486 | 19.2% |
| 64 | Henderson | 13,385 | 2,533 | 18.9% |
| 65 | Lufkin | 34,251 | 6,273 | 18.3% |
| 66 | Cameron | 5,416 | 952 | 17.6% |
| 67 | Pflugerville | 65,971 | 11,538 | 17.5% |
| 68 | Live Oak | 15,984 | 2,784 | 17.4% |
| 69 | Euless | 60,421 | 10,418 | 17.2% |
| 70 | Waxahachie | 45,347 | 7,772 | 17.1% |
| 71 | Seagoville | 19,352 | 3,300 | 17.1% |
| 72 | Webster | 12,366 | 2,095 | 16.9% |
| 73 | Mount Pleasant | 16,136 | 2,729 | 16.9% |
| 74 | Elgin | 11,563 | 1,907 | 16.5% |
| 75 | Kennedale | 9,439 | 1,553 | 16.5% |
| 76 | Gladewater | 6,227 | 999 | 16.0% |
| 77 | Addison | 17,290 | 2,723 | 15.7% |
| 78 | Bryan | 87,939 | 13,838 | 15.7% |
| 79 | Gatesville | 16,228 | 2,535 | 15.6% |
| 80 | Anna | 24,330 | 3,765 | 15.5% |
| 81 | Garland | 246,844 | 37,235 | 15.1% |
| 82 | Baytown | 85,205 | 12,797 | 15.0% |
| 83 | Galveston | 53,424 | 8,017 | 15.0% |
| 84 | Jersey Village | 7,817 | 1,164 | 14.9% |
| 85 | Freeport | 10,621 | 1,571 | 14.8% |
| 86 | Wylie | 60,334 | 8,741 | 14.5% |
| 87 | Edna | 6,027 | 872 | 14.5% |
| 88 | Lewisville | 131,080 | 18,617 | 14.2% |
| 89 | Kilgore | 13,470 | 1,881 | 14.0% |
| 90 | Bay City | 17,730 | 2,428 | 13.7% |
| 91 | Sulphur Springs | 16,401 | 2,217 | 13.5% |
| 92 | Bellmead | 10,566 | 1,423 | 13.5% |
| 93 | Dayton | 9,058 | 1,216 | 13.4% |
| 94 | Greenville | 31,222 | 4,180 | 13.4% |
| 95 | Cibolo | 35,109 | 4,683 | 13.3% |
| 96 | Rosenberg | 40,646 | 5,307 | 13.1% |
| 97 | Athens | 13,200 | 1,723 | 13.1% |
| 98 | Corsicana | 25,511 | 3,315 | 13.0% |
| 99 | Copperas Cove | 37,947 | 4,927 | 13.0% |
| 100 | Bonham | 10,697 | 1,380 | 12.9% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 324 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
Summary: Black Populations Across Texas
If you’re looking for a breakdown of African American populations across Texas according to the most recent data, this is an accurate list.
The blackest cities in Texas are Prairie View, DeSoto, Lancaster, Cedar Hill, Glenn Heights, Forest Hill, Beaumont, Jasper, Red Oak, and Port Arthur. Not sold on Texas? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
