By Ed Diokno
Views from the Edge
I’m a first generation Filipino American. My wife is a Filipina American whose family has been in this country five generations. Through my extended family, I have relatives who are mixed race: Filipino plus white (a strong dose of Irish), black, Latino and Native American.
According to the U.S. Census, the rest of the country is catching up with my family. The trend of interracial marriages is becoming more common place, according to the U.S. Census.
Is this what people mean when they say, “Love conquers all?”
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According to the U.S. Census, interracial marriage in the United States grew from 7.4 to 10.2 percent from 2000 to 2012-2016. This change varied across states and counties and for specific interracial/interethnic combinations.
The census breaks down interracial marriage into seven categories. The largest is non-Hispanic whites married to Hispanics. That increased in 43.2 percent of counties.
40% of Asian females married outside their race in 2008, just 20% of Asian male newlyweds did the same.
Here are a few other bullet points:
Every state showed an increase in interracial and interethnic married-couple households from 2000 to 2012-2016.
Hawaii and Oklahoma and the District of Columbia increased by at least 4.34 percent.
Nine states, mostly in the West and Mid-Atlantic region, showed increases from 3.34 to 4.33 percentage points.
Seventeen states increased by 2.4 to 3.33 percentage points.
All other states showed increases of less than 2.4 percentage points.
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