Divorce interracial statistics

By Gretchen Livingston and Anna Brown. Since then, intermarriage rates have steadily climbed. All told, more than , newlyweds in had recently entered into a marriage with someone of a different race or ethnicity. By comparison, in , the first year for which detailed data are available, about , newlyweds had done so. The long-term annual growth in newlyweds marrying someone of a different race or ethnicity has led to dramatic increases in the overall number of people who are presently intermarried — including both those who recently married and those who did so years, or even decades, earlier. Overall increases in intermarriage have been fueled in part by rising intermarriage rates among black newlyweds and among white newlyweds.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the U. Supreme Court case that overturned state laws banning interracial marriage. Over five decades, interracial relationships have become more common across the United States, but those couples still face some unique challenges.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth NLSY79 , this article examines marriages and divorces of young baby boomers born during the — period. The article presents data on marriages and divorces by age, gender, race, and Hispanic origin, as well as by educational attainment. Many changes in the last half century have affected marriage and divorce rates. Cultural norms changed in ways that decreased the aversion to being single and increased the probability of cohabitation.

In , the U. Supreme Court ruled in the Loving v. Virginia case that marriage across racial lines was legal throughout the country. Intermarriage has increased steadily since then: One-in-six U. Here are more key findings from Pew Research Center about interracial and interethnic marriage and families on the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision.