Two numbers that should not be eighteen points apart

The National Center for Health Statistics keeps a standing set of figures for
the health of the Black or African American non-Hispanic population in the
United States. Read as a list they are administrative. Read as pairs, two of
them stand out.

The gap between men and women

Seventeen points on obesity. That is not a rounding difference between two
halves of one population; it is two different health pictures under one
heading, and any programme aimed at "the population" without splitting on sex
is aimed at an average that describes nobody.

Obesity figures are 2015–2018; hypertension is 2017 to March 2020.

Births and deaths

The leading causes of death are **heart disease, cancer, and accidents
(unintentional injuries)** — the first two of which the hypertension and
obesity figures above feed directly.

Health status and coverage

• 20.1% of adults 18 and over are in fair or poor health (2024)
• 4.2% of children under 18 are in fair or poor health (2024)
• 10.8% of adults 18 and over currently smoke cigarettes (2024)
• 10.5% of adults aged 18–64 had no health insurance at the time of
  interview (2024)
• 2.7% of children under 18 had no health insurance (2024)

The smoking figure is worth pausing on: at 10.8% it is lower than the
stereotype, and lower than the obesity and hypertension numbers by a wide
margin. Where the risk sits has moved, and public health messaging built for
the 1990s is aimed at the smaller problem.

Comparable pages exist for the American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian,
Hispanic or Latino, Mexican American, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific
Islander populations — the point of keeping them separately is that a national
average hides exactly the kind of gap in the first table.

*Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.*