In 2023, the greatest share of players by ethnic group in the National Football League (NFL) were black or African American athletes, constituting just over 53 percent of players within the NFL. Despite the large population of Hispanic or Latino people within the United States, there is a substantial underrepresentation within the NFL, with only 0.5 percent of players identifying as such.
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that was established in 1920 and now consists of 32 clubs divided into two conferences, the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The league culminates in the Super Bowl, the NFL's annual championship game. As the league’s championship game, the Super Bowl has grown into one of the world's largest single-day sporting events, attracting high television ratings and generating billions of dollars in consumer spending.
NFL revenues
The NFL is one of the most profitable sports leagues in the world, generating a staggering 18.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. This total revenue of all 32 NFL teams has constantly increased over the past 15 years and, although this figure dropped significantly in 2020, this was largely as a result of the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) containment measures. This significant drop in revenue demonstrates one of the primary impacts of COVID-19 on professional sports leagues.
NFL franchises
As a result of this profitability in non-pandemic times, the franchises of the NFL are attributed extremely high market values. The Dallas Cowboys were by far the most valuable franchise in the NFL, with a market value of nine billion US dollars in 2023. The high value of NFL franchises can be seen clearly when compared to those of the NBA, MLB, and NHL. Franchises within the NFL had an average market value of approximately 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.
FAQs
In 2023, the greatest share of players by ethnic group in the National Football League (NFL) were black or African American athletes, constituting just over 53 percent of players within the NFL.
What percent of NFL players are black in 2023? ›
57.5% of NFL players are people of color in 2023.
More specifically, 57.5% of NFL players were Black, 9.4% identified as two or more races, 0.4% Hispanic or Latinx, 0.1% Asian, 1.6% Pacific Islander, and 0.2% American Indian.
What race is majority in NFL? ›
Of the big four professional sports leagues in North America, the NFL and the NBA have the highest percentage of African American players. In 2024, around 53.5 percent of NFL players were African American, as well as around 36.6 percent of assistant coaches.
What percentage of NFL players are Caucasian? ›
In the 21st century, the percentage of non-Hispanic white players has decreased slightly, falling from 29.0% in 2003 to 26.8% in 2019.
What are the demographics of NFL fans in 2023? ›
As of August 2023, around half of NFL fans aged 18-29 were white. Meanwhile, 14 percent of NFL fans aged 30 or older were Black, while this figure stood at 16 percent among those aged 18 to 29.
Which NFL team has the most white players? ›
According to Best Tickets, the Philadelphia Eagles have 25 white players on their roster — good for 47% of the team — and are the only team with more than 20 (the Houston Texans have exactly 20 for the league's second-most).
How many black quarterbacks in 2023? ›
The 2023 kicked off with a record-breaking 14 Black quarterbacks starting Week 1: Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Deshaun Watson, C.J.
What is the racial breakdown of NFL players? ›
In 2023, the greatest share of players by ethnic group in the National Football League (NFL) were black or African American athletes, constituting just over 53 percent of players within the NFL.
What football team has the most black players? ›
My coding began by first downloading spreadsheets of recent Raiders' rosters from Pro-Football-Reference.com and then imputing each player's race from pictures. of the team's roster once again found that 82.0 percent of the Raiders' players were Black in 2017.
How many Mexicans are in the NFL? ›
According to a report by the Institute of Diversity and Ethics in Sport, there were just 12 players in the NFL who identified as Latino in 2021. The NFL reported that the number went up to about 20 in 2022. But that's still less than 1% of the league. As a reminder, 19% of the US population identifies as Latino.
Mexico: Total audience reach of 24.1 million, with an average of 8.7 million viewers, up +5% year-on-year and the highest since records began.
What percent of the NBA is black? ›
According to racial equality activist Richard Lapchick, the NBA in 2021 was composed of 73.2 percent black players, 16.8 percent white players, 3.1 percent Latino players of any race, and 0.4 percent Asian players.
What is the percentage of minorities in the NFL? ›
Other notable findings of the report: The overall percentage of people of color in the NFL league office was at an all-time high of 34.9% in 2023, an increase of 1.2 percentage points from 33.7% in 2022, the previous all-time high.
Is Taylor Swift bigger than the NFL? ›
The NFL has 27 million followers on Instagram; Swift has 273 million, or two or three times a Super Bowl audience. Swift's Eras Tour is projected to generate $2.2 billion (U.S.) in North American ticket sales alone, and as much as $5 billion in economic activity, before she heads to Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Who will be worst NFL team in 2023? ›
Between the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the Carolina Panthers have the worst record by a team in a season, with a record of 2-15 in 2023.
What percentage of NFL coaches are black? ›
Despite that about 60 percent of the players in the NFL are African American, only 3 of the current 32 head coaches (9 percent) are African American. It has been like this for a while. Art Shell was named the head coach of the Los Angeles Raiders in 1989.
What percentage of the NBA is black in 2023? ›
In 2023, approximately 70.4 percent of NBA players were African American. Meanwhile, ethnically white players constituted a 17.5 percent share of all NBA players that year. After the WNBA and NBA, the National Football League had the largest share of African Americans in a professional sports league in North America.
Which NFL team is the least diverse? ›
On the other end of the spectrum are the Cincinnati Bengals, whose staff is just 25% non-white. The Bengals also ranked last in this category a year ago. They are one of 10 teams in the NFL this season with white men at head coach and each of their coordinator positions.
