Multnomah County is the smallest and most populous county in Oregon, with a population of more than 710,000 people.  It spans over 450 square miles and includes six incorporated cities.  Twenty-three percent of the population is under 18 years old.  Between 10 and 14 percent of the county’s population is without a high school diploma.  The median household income is between $35,000 and $49,999 per year.  Oregon has the second highest unemployment rate in the nation.  In Multnomah County, approximately 12 percent of the population is unemployed; even prior to the current recession, African Americans experienced unemployment rates 84 percent higher than that of the rest of the population. 

Six percent of the county’s population is labeled black. This is the target population for the ACHIEVE initiative, due to this community’s disproportionate burden of chronic diseases and its associated risk factors.  People born in Africa represent roughly three percent of the foreign-born population in the Portland tri-county area.  Nearly half of the region’s African foreign born population is from eastern Africa, which the Census Bureau defines as Ethiopia, Kenya, Somali, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.  Africans have the lowest naturalization rates of the tri-county foreign born population.  Between 2001 and 2005 in Multnomah County, African Americans had the highest stroke and heart disease mortality rate of any of the races.  African Americans also had a statistically higher diabetes mortality rate for the same period.  In Multnomah County, the prevalence of obesity and overweight is highest among African Americans.  African Americans and blacks are heavily targeted by the tobacco industry. 

African American communities in Oregon are primarily located in Multnomah County.  Similarly, Africans have mostly settled in the northeastern neighborhoods of the city of Portland, with 23 percent of blacks living in North Portland, 55 percent in the City of Portland, and 80 percent in the Portland Metro Area.  Historically, these groups resided in North and Northeast Portland for a myriad of reasons, including discriminatory policies and practices such as red-lining and inequitable lending policies and practice.   Recently, gentrification of North and Northeast Portland has resulted in the displacement of the African American, African, and black community eastward toward the City of Gresham.  Blacks have been moving out of North Portland at a high rate.  In 1990, 50 percent of black residents lived in North Portland.  Today, that number is less than half.  Sixty-four percent of black Oregonians of working age reside in Multnomah County; they are 4.8 percent of the county workforce.