Posted on May 19, 2017

Interracial Marriage Becoming the Norm in US: Report

Sheryl Estrada, DiversityInc, May 19, 2017

Interracial Couple Weds

Credit Image: Robin Rayne Nelson/ZUMAPRESS.com

Interracial marriage is on the rise, making more than a fivefold increase since 1967, when only 3 percent of newlyweds were intermarried, according to a Pew Research Center report released Thursday. However, interracial marriage is more accepted by Democrats than Republicans, and Black men and Asian women are more likely to marry someone of a different race.

In 2015, 17 percent of all newlyweds in the country had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity  — the growth coinciding “with shifting societal norms as Americans have become accepting of marriages involving spouses of different races and ethnicities, even within their own families,” according to the report.

The 17 percent represents one-in-six newlyweds.

{snip}

Asians were most likely to intermarry, with 29 percent of newlywed Asians married to someone of a different race or ethnicity, followed by Hispanics at 27 percent, Blacks at 18 percent and whites at 11 percent, according to the authors.

When looking at the data of Black newlyweds in the U.S., researchers found that intermarriage is twice as common for Black men as it is for Black women.

“While about one-fourth of recently married Black men (24 percent) have a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, this share is 12 percent among recently married Black women,” according to the analysis.

{snip}

The Pew study released Thursday also found that Asian women are far more likely to intermarry than Asian men. In 2015, just over one-third (36 percent) of newlywed Asian women had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, while 21 percent of newlywed Asian men had a spouse of a different race.

{snip}

More Key Findings:

    • About half (49 percent) of Democrats and Independents who lean toward the Democratic Party say the growing number of people of different races marrying each other is a good thing for society. Only 28 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents share that view.

{snip}

    • White people living in urban areas are more likely to marry someone of a different race or ethnicity than those in non-urban areas. However, Hispanics and Asians are more likely to intermarry if they live in non-urban areas. And for Blacks the intermarriage rates do not vary by place of residence.
    • The most common intermarriages were between a Hispanic and white spouse, at 42 percent. The next most common was between a white and Asian spouse at 15 percent, followed by a multiracial and white spouse at 12 percent.