Interracial Marriage Rate Slowing

Even though the number of interracial marriages in the United States has grown by 20 percent since 2000, the rate seems to be slowing. In the previous decade, that number had increased by 65 percent. In particular, fewer American-born Hispanics and Asians are entering into interracial unions. Today, roughly 8 percent of U.S. marriages are mixed-race, a one-point rise since 2000. Meanwhile, blacks now appear three times more likely to marry whites than they did in 1980. Experts attribute that to higher educational attainment and a growing black middle class. The rise in interracial marriages is also leading to a rise in multiracial children. The Census Bureau currently estimates that multiracial Americans represent 5 percent of the minority population, but that by midcentury they will represent a majority of the overall population.