8.New Jersey
> Pct. residents black: 13.7%
> Black homeownership rate: 39.1% (23rd highest)
> Black incarceration rate: 1,992 per 100,000 people (13th lowest)
> Black unemployment rate: 13.0% (21st lowest)
> Unemployment rate, all people: 8.2% (7th highest)
Nearly 16% of New Jersey’s black population lived in poverty in 2013. This figure is lower than the national poverty rate of 17.1% and partially reflects the fact that the state is among the wealthiest in the country. Yet, the typical black household made only 58% of the typical white household, a wider income gap than across the county. Only one in five black residents had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2013, much lower than the nearly 40% of white adults who had held at least such a degree. As Wilson explained, without economic opportunity people often turn to alternatives that may be illegal. Blacks were more than nine times as likely to be imprisoned in 2013, nearly twice the national ratio. Homeownership is another issue that many black Americans face. While more than 75% of white households owned their own home in 2013, fewer than 40% of black households did, a much larger disparity than across the U.S.
