As the number of interracial marriages in the U.S. continues to rise, so does Americans’ acceptance of them, a new Pew Research Center report finds.
The report, “The Rise of Intermarriage,” analyzed characteristics of people who marry spouses of a different race or ethnicity. It was based on Census data and on findings from nationwide telephone surveys conducted by Pew.
It found that about 15 percent of all new marriages in the United States in 2010 were between spouses of a different race or ethnicity, more than double the share in 1980. The share of intermarriages among all married couples, regardless of when they married, hit an all-time high of 8.4 percent. That’s up from 3.2 percent in 1980.
Among newlyweds in 2010, Asians, at 28 percent, and Hispanics, at 26 percent, were most likely to “marry out,” followed by blacks, at 17 percent. Whites, at 9 percent, were least likely to marry someone of a different race or ethnicity. (The report noted whites are by far the largest racial group in the U.S., so even though their intermarriage rate is relatively low, marriages between whites and minority groups are the most common.)
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