Changing Family Patterns - The Multiracial Society

As America's mobile society became more racially and ethnically diverse, dating, cohabiting, and marrying a person of another race or ethnic background has become more accepted, at least among the baby boomers and succeeding generations. In 1980, 651,000 couples, 1.3% of all married couples, were identified as interracial. By 2000 interracial couples accounted for 2.6% of married couples. Between 1980 and 2002 the total number of couples increased 16.5%, but the number of interracial couples increased 137%. Of the 1.7 million interracial couples, nearly three-quarters (73%) were composed of one white person and a person of another race other than African-American. (See Table 6.7.)

The Census Bureau changed the way information on race was gathered in 2000. For the first time, individuals were allowed to identify themselves as of more than one race or of a race other than the standard choices—white, black or African-American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander. While 97.6% of the population identified themselves with one race, 2.4% identified themselves with two or more races. The trend in multiracial identification was most apparent among youth. Of persons reporting themselves as a mix of two or more races, 42% were under age eighteen. Figure 6.3 demonstrates visually the areas of the country in which 40–50% of youth identified themselves with two or more races in 2000.