Interracial Marriage: 1 In 10 American Marriages Are Mixed, Census Reveals

One in 10 American marriages are between partners of a different race or ethnicity, according to data released on Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report, which examined Census information from 2010, showed that the number of mixed marriages among heterosexual couples has risen since 2000. That year, only seven percent of marriages were mixed.

The report also revealed that more than 18 percent of unmarried heterosexual relationships were between partners of a different race or ethnicity. Among same-sex couples the number of mixed partnerships was even higher at 20 percent.

This data shows that mixed marriages are actually more prevalent than previously thought. In February, a Pew Research Center report found that 8.4 percent of current marriages -- or approximately one in 12 Americans -- were between spouses of a different race, up from 3.2 percent in 1980.

The same study also found that interracial marriages were most prevalent in western states. The 2010 Census confirmed the Pew finding, revealing that more than 26 percent of marriages in Western states were mixed.

Comments

[Venicedread]

03:46 PM on 05/07/2012

It is getting better and more accepted nationally, but we still have a ways to go.
I don't know how my parents did it back in the late 60's.
Of course California and the west coast states are leading the way in breaking these social stigmas at 26%.
That's part of the reason I moved to California some 20 years ago.

[Author James W Lewis]

02:43 PM on 05/07/2012

I've seen families that are literally like a United Nations with almost every race representing. Guess what? No problems among the races; it was all love. Many of them grew up together. It's common in the Bay Area. I think we'll eventually get there as a country and world, but we still have a while to go.

[Michael Legnon]

06:19 PM on 05/04/2012

When all is said and done, we are but one race....the human race

[buggeroffyou666]

09:51 PM on 05/03/2012

I am four deferent races. ANYTHING I do is interracial.

[Daniel C Stadler]

02:06 AM on 05/03/2012

I can't wait until the the recessive traits like blond hair and blue eyes are eliminated.

[MadMaddie]

08:35 PM on 05/04/2012

Wha? As the mother of a child with blond hair and blue eyes, I
can't help but think that is an awful thing to say. Maybe I'm not
getting you, but are you saying that recessive genes somehow
equal hateful and/or intolerant thinking when it comes to race?
In my own family, nothing could be further from the truth. You
can't get much lighter than me, and I'm 100% pro-interracial
relationships. When it comes to love, race is irrelevant.

As the child of 2 brown-eyed/ dark haired/ olive skin-tone Italians,
I have green eyes/ light red hair/ uber-light skin with freckles. I am
the only one of my sisters who looks like this, but my parents were
delighted by my recessive genes, as were my fairer relatives, whom
I clearly favor.
My Irish husband has brown-eyes/ dark hair/ medium skin tone, and
we have a daughter with hazel-brownish eyes/ dark auburn hair/ medium skin,
and a son with blue-green eyes/ blond hair/ uber light skin. We love
the unique ways our children look, and recessive genes clearly play
a great part in that. Recessive genes are often a happy surprise, and
are merely an amazing glimpse back at our ancestors...regardless of race.

[Pippen]

08:05 AM on 05/01/2012

I've dated 5 black women in my life, one I dated exclusively for 3 months and I'm a southwestern white male. We had issues related to ethnicity but not between ourselves but when we were in the publics eye. The negative experiences we had were shocking to me and still resonate in my mind. Sadly she was not as shocked.

When it was just us we were fine but when we were public it got ugly.

While walking through the mall holding hands white women would walk to the other side of the passageway and some would yank their children close to them and avert their eyes, as though we might want to eat them. White women would scoff just audible enough to let us know they did not approve.

Black men would spit on us, hit us and pull her hair as we passed by.

Restaurants would ALWAYS seat us in the back away from the door or entrance. Waiters would openly ignore us and we were dressed very well and clearly had monetary means.

White men would eye my girlfriend like she was being traded on the slave block. Hispanic people didn't seem to pay any attention or care, nor did Asians.

It was a strain on our pysche and spirit daily. The negative reactions were insipid and poisonous but mostly just an assault on our spirit.

[emmeaki]

08:55 PM on 05/01/2012

So sad. No one should have to go through that. I am a black woman and I have had some negative experiences from others in interracial dating. (With white men it has been the worse) But, I will not let other people's bigotry stop me from dating whoever I want to.

[papapj]

10:13 PM on 05/02/2012

"Black men would spit on us, hit us and pull her hair as we passed by."

That's truly sad, bro...just know this: not all Black men are afraid of inter-ethnic relationships, as some of us recognize that we all bleed red, and that love doesn't have a color....Don't give up on the human race, the ONLY race there is....

[Absolute]

05:04 PM on 04/30/2012

So 90% of them are not. In the 21st Century 10% is a relatively low number for interracial marriage, at least it is in my opinion.

[InVinoVeritasBC]

04:31 PM on 04/30/2012

My interracial relationship is certainly not problem free, but race is never what causes the bump in the proverbial road.

[liberalbarbwire]

10:05 AM on 05/02/2012

true.. there are so many other things that people have to worry about.. my husband smokes and it drives me nuts..but the race issue...has never been a problem for either of us.. I mean man.. we just don't care what people think

[Angie Daniels]

04:02 PM on 04/30/2012

Good for all of us. Expanding our minds to include a wider circle of people to love is a good thing. I used to joke with my (now) ex that I was willing to allow that I hadn't considered that my soulmate lived 2000 miles away from me. (when we met I lived in Chicago, him in LA) Love is a strange and wonderful thing and being open minded about the package that it comes in is good for all of us.

[Ben Hearn-Somma]

03:09 PM on 04/30/2012

whats the percentile of hispanic to white?

[Sheadamama]

03:08 PM on 04/30/2012

Woot woot! Loving my interracial marriage. Good to see that so many Americans are embracing one another in the most intimate ways. :) Progress!

[liberalbarbwire]

03:42 PM on 04/30/2012

I hear ya

[Aesthete]

01:06 PM on 04/30/2012

This is news? America has been a multi-racial country ever since the first European set foot on this continent. People who say that they are against "all this race-mixing" are simultaneously sad, ignorant, and laughable. Races have been "mixing" since the dawn of history. Anthropologically, although there are phenotypic visual differences among various peoples (even those of the same "race," race, per se, is a superficial socio-cultural construct that Mother Nature basically cares nothing about. The differences in skin color and other outward visual attributes are related to the need to absorb vitamin D from the sun in order for Homo sapiens to survive. Those groups or tribes that remained closer to the equater where the sun is most intense are very dark-skinned. Those that migrated further away from the equater became lighter, a notable exception being the Aleuts and other Asiatic groups near the Arctic Circle because of the sun's intense reflection off the snow and ice cover (also the reason why skiers and other winter sports enthusiasts need sunburn protection).

[Daniel C Stadler]

02:11 AM on 05/03/2012

natural selection also applies to IQ among other things, it might explain the bell curve on IQ scores.

[papapj]

10:11 AM on 05/03/2012

Rubbish.

[Sharon Halstead]

12:29 PM on 04/30/2012

I fear the day that everyone becomes just one color. That would be BORING! I love Diversity and the different features, characteristics, and colors of ALL ETHNICITIES. In my opinion, it is our DIFFERENCES that are exciting!

Sure, everyone has the right to choose who they want as a mate. However, I enjoy the diversity.

[Aesthete]

01:10 PM on 04/30/2012

The world will always be diverse in terms of colors and cultures. Even if the American population were to become racially homogenized, it only makes up 6% of the world's total population.

[Seattle Noir]

12:15 PM on 04/30/2012

First of all people need to understand that 75% of these unions are between white men and fairly light skin asian women, it's not as ethnic and contraversal as as black/white. Also black american women need to understand there are black men all over this planet for us to have, the ones in the america aren't even the best of the best we have so stop crying if they go elsewhere. 99% of the black men I have dated have been from africa and have the same values I do, education of some kind and hard work, move on already. Also as a woman that "used" to date out exclusively I have come to truely understand why we black wome want a black family. I want my cultural heritage as a black woman to be passed down to black kids, not mixed,(I have lived and worked around many, any born to white women do have a very difficult time) I like be a black woman through and through. If I happen to fall in love with a non-black man so be it, however I am a black woman, I want a black man, and I want black children no different than the vast majority of women regardless of race.

[melodisong2]

01:09 PM on 04/30/2012

Interesting. You and I would have long chats over lunch. The handful of African men that I've met were...umm, a tad chauvanistic and boring as all they talked about was themselves and their supposed millions of dollars (whatever). I'm not so fixated on being with a black man to have a black family because the thought honestly never crossed my mind. I have to talk to people and get to know them before I know if I'm attracted to them or not. Also my family is so mixed that color just isn't anything that we notice and we were raised to not care. That being said, the father of my children is black and very dark skinned and our kids are a beautiful, yummy caramel. I don't care that black men might have a preference for women other than black women because you like what you like. It's just odd to me that people get so bent out of shape and personally insulted about it. Bottom line is that I think that we would all be happier and get along better if we focused on the character and intelligence of people instead of skin color. :-)

[Seattle Noir]

01:41 PM on 04/30/2012

Well it is about the people you meet, I have had the opposite, they were very kind and not as much braggerts as american men. The only issue I have with mixing is less about the mixing itself and more about the motive behind it. In this country ethnic people are highly encouraged to mix (with whites) while most whites stay within (only 3% of whites marry out). I question is it about love or loyalty, as where I live the asian women (50% of whom marry out) who marry white tend to go very white, as in they look down their noses to asians (even within their own family) as well as tend to over compensate to prove their loyalty to the race not so much the man. So I question is this about finding someone to love or proving loyatly to the power race in this country. As we have more people coming into this country more tend to want to stick to their cultural heritage, which I think is wonderful but tends to not go over well with those who demand assimilation (loyalty). So it's not about the dating/marrying out it is more about the demand and push to have non-whites do so.

[Fikicia SweetLips Guy]

02:43 PM on 04/30/2012

I agree with you 100%, but I think the reason why some women get mad and bent out of shape, is because the black men they know who date or marry white women, tend to put black women down. I could care less if a black man dates outside the race. What bothers me, is if he's dating outside the race....because he feels as though black women are inferior. And I, unfortunately, have met black men who dated white women because they thought the white woman was better than black woman. My daughter's own father told her he would never date a black woman again, because in his opinion we are all bossy and the majority gay. Where is he getting his statistics? Who knows? But that's how he feels, and he shared it with his black daughter. So date another race cause you really like that person, not because you think their race is superior to your own!

[BiggpussJr]

01:36 PM on 04/30/2012

An Afican man is NOT a Black man. His culture is NOT your culture. Not saying dont date them or that there is anything wrong with them, just saying they are not Black, except for their skin.

[Aesthete]

01:51 PM on 04/30/2012

True. Peoples from the continent of Africa identify themselves by their country of origin.

[melodisong2]

02:39 PM on 04/30/2012

Totally agree with you on that. They are Very different from our american brothers.

[Sharon Halstead]

12:11 PM on 04/30/2012

So what? This will NOT INTERESTING and or INTRIGUING information. People of different ethnicities have intermingling since the beginning of time.

Gee. with ALL of the problems facing mankind, this crap is so insignificant! It changes nothing!

Please get OVER IT already, and lets focus on IMPORTANT matters.