These Maps Show The Geography Of Interracial Marriage

Attitudes towards interracial marriage in the United States have changed over time. Marriages between people of different races are becoming more common - in 2000, 7.4% of all marriages were between spouses of different races, whereas in 2010, that figure rose to 9.5%.

Researchers at the U.S. Census bureau made a fascinating series of maps to analyze the geography of interracial marriages. (via Matthew Klein)

Non-Hispanic White/Hispanic marriages are the most common type of interracial marriage in the United States, accounting for over a third of all interracial marriages:

White/Black marriages are scattered throughout the country, and forty seven years after the Supreme Court struck down laws against them, they are still fairly uncommon:

White/American Indian and Alaska Native marriages are concentrated in areas with large American Indian and Alaska Native populations, like Oklahoma and Alaska:

As with marriages between Whites and American Indians, White/Asian marriages largely track Asian populations:

Marriages in which one spouse reported multiple races also tended to be in places with large American Indian or Asian populations:

Marriages in which both spouses reported multiple races are rare, but largely occur in similar places as marriages with one multi-racial spouse:

Marriages where one spouse is Hispanic and the other is neither Hispanic nor White tend to be more common in the Southwest, as was the case with Hispanic/White marriages:

The final map shows the counties with the highest proportion of each of the interracial marriage categories above. Note that Hawaii's counties fall in the top five for the White/Asian, Hispanic/Non-Hispanic, Non-White, and both multiple race categories: