Sub-Saharan African immigrants in the United States tend to be more highly educated than those living in the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Portugal, a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and Eurostat data finds.
In the U.S., 69% of sub-Saharan immigrants ages 25 and older in 2015 said they had at least some college education, compared with 63% of the overall U.S.-born population. In the same year, the share of sub-Saharan Africans in the UK who reported some college experience was 49%, while it was lower in France (30%), Portugal (27%) and Italy (10%).
Immigrants from sub-Sahara Africa living in the U.S. are also somewhat more likely to be employed than their counterparts in the top European destinations. In 2015, 92.9% of U.S.-based sub-Saharan immigrants said they had a paying job, compared with 84.9% in Portugal, 83.7% in France and 80.3% in Italy. Meanwhile, the share of sub-Saharan immigrants in the UK who are working (91.5%) was nearly equal to that in the U.S.
“Sub-Saharan African immigrants represent a small yet growing segment of the U.S. and European populations. At the same time, our analysis finds there are some distinct differences in educational attainment and employment status across these two top destinations,” says Monica Anderson, co-author of the report.
The annual number of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to both the U.S. and Europe has grown for most years this decade. The UK, France, Italy and Portugal are historically Europe’s leading destinations for sub-Saharan immigrants. Together, the U.S., UK, France, Italy and Portugal were home to more than half (57%) of the sub-Saharan migrants living outside sub-Saharan Africa in 2015, according to global migrant population estimates from the United Nations.
Sub-Saharan immigrants made up small shares of the total population in the U.S., UK, France, Italy and Portugal – 3% or less in each country, as of 2015. Most of those examined in this report have lived in the U.S. and top European destinations for a decade or more.
