Nearly 1 in 7 marriages in 2008 was interracial or interethnic, according
Nearly 1 in 7 marriages in 2008 was interracial or interethnic, according to a report released by the Pew Research Center. That’s more than double the intermarriage rate of the 1980s and six times the intermarriage rate of the 1960s.
Waves of immigrants from Latin America and Asia are driving the intermarriage trend.
Approximately 280,000 of the roughly 2 million marriages in 2008 were between spouses of different races or ethnicities, according to the Pew report. White-Asian couples made up 15 percent.
Among all newlyweds in 2008, 31 percent of Asians married someone whose race or ethnicity was different from their own.
The rates have hardly changed for Hispanics and Asians over the past 30 years.
Some 40 percent of Asian female newlyweds in 2008 married outside their race, compared with just 20 percent of Asian male newlyweds.