The United States has come a long way since “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” Sidney Poitier’s 1967 socially groundbreaking film about interracial relationships.
Data from the US Census Bureau suggests that interracial or interethnic opposite-sex marriages are on the rise, increasing 28% over the last decade.
And as nature would predict, the number of interracial children has also increased. According to the Census, children born to black and white couples and to Asian and white couples almost doubled.
More interracial couples remain unmarried than those who tie the knot, with 18% of opposite-sex couples of a different race cohabitating, and 22% of same-sex unmarried couples, compared to only 10% of same-sex interracial married couples.
There was a 41% increase in unmarried partner households between 2000 and 2010. Opposite-sex unmarried partner households grew from 4.9 million in 2000 to 6.8 million in 2010. Same-sex unmarried partner households grew from 358,000 to 646,000 from 2000 to 2010, or from 0.3 percent of all households to 0.6 percent of all households.
The geographic distribution of interracial and interethnic relationships varied regionally, but was predominantly concentrated in western and southwestern states.
Other Census highlights include:
- Multigenerational households — households containing three or more parent-child generations — increased from 3.9 million in 2000 to 5.1 million in 2010. Hawaii had the highest percentage of multigenerational households in the nation at 9%.
- There were fewer households with people under the age of 18 living in them than in 2000. These households dropped from 36% in 2000 to 33% in 2010.
- The percentage of households with people 65 and older increased across the decade. In 2000, 23% of households included someone 65 and over, compared with 25% in 2010.
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