Asian Americans Now the Most Likely to Marry Outside of Race, Study Finds

Asian Americans have been known to have some of the highest “intermarriage” rates in the United States. Now, new research conducted on Asian American newlyweds has found that a significant number of them came from those with some college education, AsAmNews reports.

The study, released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday, revealed that about 29% of recent Asian marriages in 2015 were interracial, compared to 27% among recently married Hispanics.

About three-in-ten Asian newlyweds in the U.S. are intermarried

For those who were born in the U.S., the figure was significantly higher. According to the report, 46% of U.S.-born Asian newlyweds chose a partner from a different race or ethnicity, while for U.S.-born Hispanic newlyweds, the figure was at 39%.

Today, 1 in 10 people in the country has a spouse of a different race or ethnicity, which makes up about 11 million people. The research found that 17% of newlywed couples in 2015 were of different races or ethnicities. Decades ago, the figure was only 3%.

Black men are twice as likely as black women to intermarry

Between genders, it was found that Asian women are more likely to engage in mixed marriages than Asian men. The figure was 36% for the recently married female Asians compared to 21% for Asian males. The rate has actually gone down from 1980 when 26% of Asian men and 39% of Asian women married interracially.

The phenomenon is also reportedly more common among those with some college, making up 39% of the total. For Asians with more education, the figure was 29%, while those with less education, 26%.

In the U.S., the most common interracial marriage is composed of Hispanic-White, which is at 42%, while an Asian-White couple comes at second place with 15%.

It was also reported that the public acceptance of interracial marriage has improved, with 39% of those surveyed expressed that such unions are good for society, 9% think it’s a bad thing while the rest said it doesn’t make a difference. Back in 2010, only 24% saw interracial marriages as a positive trend.

Feature Image via Flickr / Emily Tan (CC BY 2.0)

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