Racial and Ethnic Diversity, Immigration, and Changing Interracial Marriage, 1980-2008

This paper uses newly-released data from 2008 American Community Survey (ACS), along with the similar microdata from the 1980 decennial census, to examine recent changes in interracial marriage. The 1980-2008 period brought rapid increases in interracial marriage between whites and African Americans, slower increases in observed marriages between whites and Hispanics, and an end to the long-term rise in marriages between whites and both Asian Americans and American Indians. Marriages between natives and the foreign-born, however, increased dramatically over 2000-2008, especially among U.S. born Asians and Hispanics. The empirical results also are consistent with the paradoxical conclusion that group boundaries are nevertheless breaking down.