In the United States, a Black Hispanic[2] or Afro-Hispanic[2] (Spanish: Afrohispano) is an American citizen or resident who is officially classified by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S. government agencies as a Black American of Hispanic descent.[3]

Hispanicity, which is independent of race, is the only ethnic category, as opposed to racial category, which is officially collated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The distinction made by government agencies for those within the population of any official race category, including African American, is between those who report Hispanic backgrounds and all others who do not. Non-Hispanic Black Americans consists of an ethnically diverse collection of all others who are classified as Black or African American that do not report Hispanic ethnic backgrounds.

States like New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut have some of the highest percentages of Hispanics identifying as Black, where up to 25% of Hispanics identify as black, compared to 2.5% of Hispanics nationwide.[4] [4] Overall, the Northeast region has the largest concentration of Black Hispanics, this is partly because of the large Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other mostly or partly African descended Hispanic populations in the region.[4] [5]

Black Hispanics account for 2.5% of the entire U.S. Hispanic population.[1] Most Black Hispanics in the United States come from within the Dominican and Puerto Rican populations.[6] [7] [8] Aside from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, large numbers of Black Hispanics can also be found in populations originating from Cuba, northern South America, and the Caribbean coast of Central America as well, including the Cuban, Panamanian, and Colombian communities, among others.[9]

The main aspects which distinguish Black Hispanics born in the United States of America from African Americans is having Spanish as their mother tongue or most recent ancestors native language, their culture passed down by their