Intermarriage in US increases by fivefold in 50 years

One in six newlyweds in the US were married to someone of a different race or ethnicity in 2015, a fivefold increase over the past 50 years, a Pew Research Centre analysis has found.

In 2015, 17 per cent of US newlyweds had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, compared to 3 per cent in 1967, according to the Pew Research Centre's analysis of US Census Bureau data.

In 1967, the US Supreme Court in the Loving v. Virginia case ruled that marriage across racial lines was legal throughout the country. Before that, interracial marriages were banned in many US states, Xinhua reported.

One in 10 married people in 2015 had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, meaning that there were 11 million people who were intermarried.

The most dramatic increases in intermarriage have occurred among black newlyweds. Since 1980, the percentage of intermarried black couples has more than tripled from 5 per cent to 18 per cent.

White newlyweds have also experienced a rapid increase in intermarriage, rising from 4 per cent to 11 per cent. However, despite this increase, they remain the least likely of all major racial or ethnic groups to accept intermarriage, according to the analysis.

Asian and Hispanic newlyweds are by far the most likely to intermarry in the US, as 29 per cent of Asian newlyweds were intermarried in 2015, compared to 27 per cent of Hispanic newlyweds.

For blacks and Asians, there are stark gender differences in intermarriage, finds the analysis.

Among blacks, intermarriage is twice as prevalent for male newlyweds as it is for their female counterparts. While 24 per cent of recently married black men are married to a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, this share is 12 per cent among recently married black women.

Asian women are far more likely to intermarry than their male counterparts, the poll shows.

In 2015, 36 per cent of newlywed Asian women had a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, compared with 21 per cent of newlywed Asian men.

The most common racial or ethnic pairing among newlywed intermarried US couples is one Hispanic and one white spouse, followed by one white and one Asian spouse (15 per cent) and one white and one multiracial spouse (12 per cent), according to the analysis.