How many black men are killed by police officers each year?
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Executive summary
Available databases and reporting show that U.S. police kill roughly 1,000–1,300 people per year, and Black people are killed at more than twice the rate of White people, while accounting for about 13–14% of the population but roughly 25% of police-killing victims (Washington Post, NYT, Mapping Police Violence reporting) [1][2][3].
1. What the major databases count — and what they miss
The Washington Post has tracked every fatal police shooting in the line of duty from Jan. 1, 2015 through Dec. 31, 2024 and reports that U.S. police shoot and kill more than 1,000 people per year on average; Post analysts say official FBI counts have underreported these events by more than half in earlier years [1]. Independent projects such as Mapping Police Violence and Campaign Zero compile wider definitions (including chokeholds, tasers, off‑duty incidents and non‑shooting deaths) and produce similar totals and racial-disparity findings, but definitions and cutoffs differ between datasets, so exact annual totals vary [4][5].
2. How many Black men specifically?
None of the provided sources gives a single, authoritative annual count solely for “Black men killed by police” across all years; sources report racial shares and overall totals. The Washington Post and related analyses show Black people make up roughly 25–27% of people killed by police while comprising about 13–14% of the population, implying Black victims are killed at more than twice the White rate — but that is for all Black people, not only men [1][3]. Mapping Police Violence and other studies repeatedly highlight that the burden falls disproportionately on Black males, but a precise yearly number for “Black men” is not supplied in the cited material [4][5].
3. Disproportion, rates, and context
Analysts calculate disparity in two ways: raw counts and population-adjusted rates. The Post’s data find that although about half of people killed by police are White in absolute terms, Black Americans are killed at more than twice the rate of White Americans when adjusted for population. Other sources and studies cited (Mapping Police Violence, NYT analysis, Campaign Zero research) reach the same conclusion: Black people — especially Black men — are overrepresented among police-killing victims relative to their share of the population [1][2][5].
4. Year-to-year trends and recent years
Multiple outlets report that police killings rose after 2020 and reached highs in recent years: the New York Times and other analyses found totals rising every year since 2020, with 1,226 people killed by police in the referenced recent year; Campaign Zero and Mapping Police Violence reported 2024 as the highest in more than a decade [2][6][7]. These trend statements refer to total killings and to continuing racial disproportionality rather than an isolated annual count for Black men [2][7].
5. Geographic and social drivers of risk
Research shows risk is not evenly distributed: fatal police encounters cluster by ZIP code and correlate with social vulnerability, unemployment and concentrated disadvantage. Studies analyzing thousands of fatal shootings report especially high spikes in Black and Hispanic populations in high‑vulnerability areas — one study found a 20.4-times spike for Black populations across examined ZIP codes [5]. This indicates the problem blends policing practices with socioeconomic and place-based factors.
6. Limits of the available reporting and open questions
Available sources document clear racial disparity and provide robust totals for “people killed by police,” but do not deliver a single, definitive annual tally exclusively for “Black men” across all categories (shootings, non-shooting deaths, in- and off-duty incidents). The Washington Post, Mapping Police Violence and Campaign Zero are the best public trackers referenced here; federal reporting (FBI/CDC) has historically been incomplete, which is why journalists and researchers use these independent datasets [1][8][9].
7. Competing perspectives and implications
Journalistic and advocacy sources emphasize racial disproportionality and call for policy change; law‑enforcement advocates sometimes point to context — for example, that most people killed were armed or that policing works in high‑crime places — and to differences in definitions across datasets. The sources here show both that most victims are male and that many are armed, while still documenting disproportionate Black victimization and rising totals since 2020 [1][6][7].
8. Bottom line for your question
If you mean “how many Black men are killed by police each year” in a precise numeric sense, available reporting does not provide a single definitive annual number limited to Black men across all datasets; instead, authoritative trackers report that about 1,000–1,300 people are killed by police annually and that Black people — driven largely by Black men — make up roughly one quarter of those victims despite being ~13–14% of the population [1][3][2]. For a precise yearly count of Black men only, consult the raw datasets (Washington Post, Mapping Police Violence, Campaign Zero) and apply consistent inclusion criteria; those datasets are the primary sources cited here [1][4][7].