The Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area’s decrease in portion of black residents between 2000 and 2010 was one of the nation’s most notable, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report on population-change patterns.
Released Thursday, the report shows the black population’s share of the region’s total population decreased by 3.06 percentage points over the decade, making for the third biggest decrease of its kind among all metropolitan statistical areas in the country.
That does not mean the region lost more black citizens than most—on the contrary, the black population itself grew by 8.5-percent. The report merely shows that the total population’s share of black residents shrunk over the decade at a greater rate than almost all others.
In 2000, the black population represented 17.27-percent of the Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area’s total. According to the 2010 census, the group’s share was 14.21 percent.
The Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area covers Brunswick, New Hanover, and Pender counties. The region’s population was 362,315 at the time of the last decennial headcount.
The Jacksonville Metropolitan Statistical Area—Onslow County—ranked fourth in the nation with a share-decrease of 2.92 percentage points. In that case, however, the black population’s actual headcount barely changed; it was the non-black population that grew, accounting for the reduction in share.
The report suggests this type of share-change stretched from Onslow County down through Horry County, S.C. The fifth greatest share-decrease on the list was in the Myrtle Beach-North Myrtle Beach-Conway, S.C., Metropolital Statistical Area.
According to the Census Bureau’s summary of the report, these changes seem off trend as data show the black population increased in most metro areas outside the area’s largest city. “In Atlanta, for example, this group’s share of the population rose by at least 10 percentage points in wide swaths surrounding the city,” the bureau said.
The largest increases in share were experienced in the statistical areas around Jonesboro, Ark., Warner Robins, Ga., Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga., Albany, Ga., and Pine Bluff, Ark.
