Interestingly, 40 years ago, 16 of the 50 U.S. states had a ban on registering such marital unions (they were first introduced in 1600 in the British colonies located in North America). In June 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court declared such bans unconstitutional, which contributed to a rapid increase in the number of interracial marriages.
For comparison, in 1970, 65,000 black-white marriages were registered in the U.S. (Census Bureau data); at that time, families where husband and wife belonged to different races made up no more than 2% of the total number of families (Stanford University data). Statistics show that whites most often marry American Indians, the second most popular are people of Asian descent, and the third are blacks.
The increase in the number of such marriages prompted the Census Bureau to change the questionnaire that Americans filled out during the 2000 national census. Previously, U.S. residents had to indicate their race, and in 2000, for the first time, the answer option 'multiracial origin' was added. At that time, 2.4% of the U.S. population (6.8 million people) claimed to have mixed origin. 4.2% of young Americans (under 18) had a 'multiracial origin', the older generation – 1.9%. If in 1970 only one in every 100 children born in the U.S. was born to a mixed marriage, then in 2000 – 1 in 19. In some states (for example, California), that figure is even higher – 1 in 10.
The largest number of Americans of mixed origin in 2000 lived in the state of Hawaii (more than 24.5% of the state's population were people whose parents belonged to different races), the smallest – in Mississippi, West Virginia, Maine, Alabama, and South Carolina (less than 1%).
According to estimates by the National Center for Health Statistics, interracial families break up more often than those where both spouses belong to the same race. The divorce risk for a 'multiracial' family that has existed for 10 years is 41%, for a 'monoracial' couple – 31%.
Another interesting fact: in 1987, 35 U.S. states prohibited white families from adopting black orphans. This ban was only lifted in 1996, when a law was passed prohibiting such practice.
The most famous interracial families are those formed by celebrities. For example, director and actor Woody Allen is married to an Asian woman, actor Robert De Niro to an African American woman, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen to a black woman. In turn, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama, golfer Tiger Woods, actors Keanu Reeves and Halle Berry had 'multiracial' parents.