Key facts about race and marriage, 50 years after Loving v. Virginia
Intermarriage has increased steadily since the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling. Here are more key findings about interracial and interethnic marriage and families.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Intermarriage has increased steadily since the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling. Here are more key findings about interracial and interethnic marriage and families.
A half-century after the Supreme Court legalized interracial marriage in the United States, 18% of all cohabiting adults have a partner of a different race or ethnicity – similar to the share of U.S. newlyweds who have a spouse of a different race or ethnicity (17%).
One-in-six newlyweds (17%) were married to someone of a different race or ethnicity in 2015, representing a more than fivefold increase from 3% in 1967.
One-in-seven U.S. infants were multiracial or multiethnic in 2015, nearly triple the share in 1980.
Pew Research Center President Michael Dimock examines the changes – some profound, some subtle – that the U.S. experienced during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Interracial marriages have increased steadily since 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in 16 states.
The share of new marriages between spouses of a different race or ethnicity from each other increased to 15.1% in 2010, more than double the share in 1980.
This dramatic increase has been driven in part by the weakening of longstanding cultural taboos against intermarriage and in part by a large, multi-decade wave of immigrants from Latin America and Asia.
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