Interracial Marriage Statistics

Because of so many stereotypes, looking at interracial marriage numbers among black people is an eye opener.

How Common is Black Interracial Marriage

A common misperception is that a large percentage of Black men marry White women. In reality, this is often cited as one of the causes of lower marriage rates among Black women. Thankfully, the data proves that this is not really the case.

Overall, black men (according to the data) marry white women at twice rate that Black women marry White men.

Black Men in Interracial Marriage

In 2017 only 15% percent of Black men were married to non-Black women. That number was up from 11% in 2010. Additionally, about three-fifths of those non-black women were White. Non-black is defined as not of or relating to African American people or their culture

So, there is evidence of an increase of Black men “marrying out” of their racial demographic. To view how these numbers look for the black marriages only, check out this post.

As a matter of fact, the Pew Research Center released a report finding that 25% of Black male newlyweds in 2013 married non-Black women compared to 12% of Black women who “married out”. However, Asian women and Native Americans still have higher rates of interracial marriage.

More Black Male Newlyweds in Interracial Marriages

It is important to note the obvious difference in percentages of black male interracial marriages noted previously. The figure in 2017 was a total of 15%. Meanwhile, the number of Newlyweds in 2013 was 25%. What does this tell us? It means that there was not only an increase but a large one among newlyweds. The number of newlyweds in the years prior were obviously drastically lower. What changed?

Black Women in Interracial Marriages

Black women were the least likely to marry non-Black men at only 7% in 2017, and only 4/% were married to White men.

Only 4% Married White Men

Usually, when we think of black women marrying out, we tend to assume that the spouse is white. The statistics prove otherwise. in fact, the figure regarding white men is almost as low as half. With this being the case, why does the “white man” as being the alternative preference perception exist at the scale that it does?

It will be interesting to see how the trend with interracial marriages involving black women evolves in the future. In 2018, black women were the only group that had a higher divorce rate than marriage rate. Interestingly, at that time, there were nearly 31 divorces per 1,000 married women aged 15 and older and only 17.3 marriages per 1,000 unmarried women. Ultimately, only time will tell.